Daily nurturing our love

By: Fr. Roy Cimagala

GIVEN our human condition, marked as it is with many ups and downs, we need to see to it that our love continues to burn regardless of the changing circumstances. We have to nurture it such that at the end of the day we can really say that all our time has been spent in love. Love should be the original and ultimate motive of our day, since love takes care of everything. All other motives only play supporting roles.

Where there is love, we will always have joy and peace, eagerness and drive to do things, even to the point of making sacrifices for others, giving ourselves to them in all generosity and gratuitousness. We would even be willing to bear and assume the burdens of the others.

Where there is love, boredom can hardly enter into our lives. We may be tired physically, emotionally, mentally, but deep within us there would still be that burning, raging desire to give ourselves to others without counting the cost. Our weaknesses and difficulties would not be a reason to complain. And when we feel them, we would be happy to consider them as living proof of the intensity of our love.

Where there is love, temptations would find it hard to find their way to us. Love is a natural repellant to temptations, sin and all forms of evil. And that’s because love by its very nature is always hot, and like a hot soup where no flies would ever dare to get close to it, love drives away temptations.

Of course, we have to understand that the love we are talking about here is the real love that comes from God, and is lived always with him. It cannot be just any kind of love that is generated merely by our own feelings and estimation of things. It is the love that Christ talked about when he said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 13,34)

We need to see to it that we have this real love by always taking care of our intimate relation with God. We need to talk to him always, relating everything to him, asking for enlightenment, motivation, and any help we need. We should always be drawn to him in an increasing way as the day goes on.

This definitely would need that we be simple and humble so that the faith, hope and charity that God shares with us get activated, and we get to see things in a spiritual and supernatural way, and not just in a natural way that will always be marked by our limitations and weaknesses, not to mention, temptations, sin and all forms of evil.

We have to be wary of the constant danger of spiritual lukewarmness when we get contented with what we think is already passable insofar as our relationship with God is concerned. This danger puts us at the mercy of our physical, emotional, intellectual condition, etc., that cannot fully cope with the demands of the spiritual and supernatural reality of our life.

Every so often during the day, we have to check whether what is truly guiding us as we go through the different events of the day are the principles of faith, hope and charity, and not just the state of our human and natural conditions. We have to develop the skill of detecting whether we are being spiritual and supernatural in our outlook or just being human and natural.

We have to reaffirm our conviction that it is the spiritual and supernatural aspect of our life that gives the proper direction to our human and natural conditions. It is what would keep us going despite difficulties, trials, failures, and the like that we can encounter during the day.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com