Focused and passionate

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S how we should try to be. Away with being aimless and sluggish. Right from beginning of the day and all throughout the day, we should try to know where we are going, keenly aware of the ultimate purpose of our life, and pursuing it with great passion and energy, not getting distracted or lost in the many technicalities along the way.

We are reminded of this ideal in that gospel episode where some Pharisees told Christ to go away since Herod wanted to kill him. (cfr. Lk 13,31-35) His response was quick and sharp. “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I accomplish my purpose.’” (Lk 13,32)

We should try our best that right from the beginning of the day we should be clear about what the real purpose of our life is, knowing how to plan out our day so that we would know how to organize and rally the different parts, objectives, concerns, etc. of our life to the ultimate goal of our life, which is none other than our sanctification and the responsibility of doing apostolate that always goes with it.

We have to have recourse to certain practices that would sustain such focus and passion. Obviously, we have to make several pit stops along the way to recover and refresh our proper bearing and outlook.

At any given moment, we should feel the urge to pursue our ultimate goal, quick to correct whatever would distract us from that focus. This does not mean that we end up always tense and rigid. On the contrary, if we have the right understanding of what our ultimate goal is, we also would know how to be natural in our actuations and to exude an attractive air around us.

We should know how to relate the things of this world to our ultimate heavenly and eternal goal. We should know how to avoid getting stranded, stuck or entangled with the things of this world, with all the technicalities of our earthly affairs, with all kinds of distractions that the world is now full of.

Everything in our earthly life, whether good or bad in human terms, can and should be related to God. Everything can be an occasion, a path and a means to know, love and serve God and others. Let’s remember that God created and designed the whole world in such a way that everything can and should lead us to him.

Relating everything to God is an art and skill that we need to learn and master. And for that ideal to become real, effective and operative, we certainly have to develop our spiritual life that would involve many things.

For one, we have to learn how to pray. Of course, we have to be convinced first of all of the indispensability and practicability of prayer in our life. We have to know, for example, why we have to pray, what the purposes and kinds of prayer are, etc.

We have to develop the discipline and habit of praying. The problem we have now is that many people do not know how to pray, or that they don’t even care to pray. Thus, they put themselves at the mercy of mere feelings and the erratic forces of the world.

Then we have to deepen our knowledge of the doctrine of our faith so we can be more familiar and hopefully become more able to carry out God’s will. Let’s remember that God revealed himself completely to us through Christ, and that revelation is not only historical but also existential.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com