Christ gives us the best deal

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

“JESUS said to them, ‘I tell you that anyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and for the gospel, will receive much more in this present age. He will receive a hundred times more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and persecutions as well; and in the age to come, he will receive eternal life.’” (Mk 10,29-30)

This is how Christ is proposing to us the best deal that we can ever have, one that gives us not only temporal benefits but also the one that truly matters, our eternal joy and fulfillment. Yes, there will be sufferings and persecutions as Christ himself warned us, but we know that he will also take care of that. “In the world,” he said, “you will have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16,33)

We should learn how to give our all to Christ, so Christ can fully take possession of us, which is the ideal condition for our life. We have to allow Christ to fully be in us, since we are meant to be “another Christ,” sharers of the divine life and nature of God himself.

This is the example of Christ himself, who in the words of St. Paul said that “in our relationships with one another, we ought to have the same mindset as Christ: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness…” (Phil 2,5-7)

We certainly have to make some drastic adjustments in our understanding of what true love is, the very essence of God which is meant also for us, since God wants us to be his image and likeness. It will always involve self-giving, a certain losing in order to win, a certain giving up to gain something more important.

Christ taught about this kind of love in those parables that compared the Kingdom of God with the treasure hidden in the field, or with the merchant looking for fine pearls. (cfr. Mt 13,44-45) A certain giving up is always involved when we have to find what is best for us. And we should not be contented with what is good enough in the context of the good being the enemy of the best.

Christ wants us to lose in human terms so that we can win in the end in divine terms which is what really matters. This is made clear, for example, when Christ articulated the beatitudes that would somehow put us in the losing end in order to have the victory of being truly blessed. (cfr. Mt 5,3-12)

This is reiterated when he talked about the willingness to lose an eye, an arm, a foot, if these would cause us to sin. Better to lose them and enter heaven rather than to have them and get to hell. (cfr. Mt 5,29-31)

In another instance Christ clearly told us that for us to be his disciples, we should be willing to ‘hate’ our father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own life. We should be willing to carry our cross. (cfr. Lk 14,26-27)

To be able to live by this divine logic, we of course would need first of all the grace of God. We have to ask for it with humility. And then we need to do our part, exerting the due effort to acquire the appropriate attitude and corresponding virtues. We should have the attitude of willingly giving up everything else just to be with God.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com