Beware of legalism, formalism and political correctness

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE have to be wary of this common tendency of ours. We are always prone to show externally what we actually are not internally. We easily fall into some kind of political or social correctness without the proper spirit animating it.

We easily fall into forms of legalism and formalism. Often, we just want to see things around out of idle curiosity and be seen and appreciated by others out of vanity. We fail to connect the material to the spirit, the little things with the big, essential things, etc.

All these were somehow bewailed by Christ. “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. These you should have done, without overlooking the others. Woe to you Pharisees! You love the seat of honor in synagogues and greetings in marketplaces. Woe to you! You are like unseen graves over which people unknowingly walk.” (Lk 11,42-44)

We should always be on guard against all these forms of inconsistency, always rectifying our intentions and also regularly editing our life, much like what writers do with their work before they are submitted for publication. That way, we can monitor how things are going and can have the chance to make appropriate corrections, improvements, revisions, etc.

In anything that we do, let’s see to it that our intentions are pure. That is to say, that we have to be motivated always by love for God and neighbor. And by love, we mean that we follow God’s commandments as clearly articulated by Christ himself: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (Jn 14,15)

And the epitome of this obedience to God’s commandments is Christ himself, who said: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.” (Jn 6,38) The secret therefore of love, which is obeying God’s will, is to have the mind and heart of Christ. That is to say, to be ‘another Christ’ which we can always attain because Christ himself has given us all the means.

We should be most careful nowadays because it is now easy to stray from God’s commandments and feel convinced that we are still ok. With our man-made laws that are supposed to reflect the spirit of God’s will and ways but often fail, at least partially if not completely, it is now easy for us to hide and justify such anomalies as greed, pride, vanity, envy, corruption, etc.

We have to learn how to do a lot of good while passing unnoticed. Also, while it’s true that we have to take care of the little things in our life, we should not forget that we are not meant to get detained there. We should always relate the little ordinary things in our life to the big and ultimate purpose of our life.

Christ himself somehow referred to this point when he said, “Whoever is faithful with very little will also be faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” (Lk 16,10)

With those words, Christ somehow was relating and connecting the little with the big things in life. That is what we should always do. We should avoid getting entangled and lost in the little things and forgetting the big and more important things in our life.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com