God first, everything else follows

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

AS we enter the Lenten Season, let us remind ourselves of the need to have the proper priorities in our life. Nowadays, with so many things we have to deal with, it’s important that we are clear regarding this duty. Truth to tell, this need to have the proper priorities has become an urgent need. We cannot and should not take it for granted.

God should be first, last and always in our life. Everything else should just be an occasion, a means, an instrument and reason to fulfill that need of ours. Let’s consider these words from the Book of Deuteronomy which is from the first reading of the Mass of Thursday after Ash Wednesday:

“Love the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways, and keep his commandments and ceremonies and judgments, and you may live, and he may multiply you, and bless you in the land, which you shall go in to possess.” (30,16)

And it continues to tell us what would happen if we fail in fulfilling this duty: “But if your heart be turned away, so that you will not hear, and being deceived with error you adore strange god, and serve them: I foretell this day you shall perish…” (30,17)

Let’s never forget that we are meant to be always with God. Our life, given the way we have been created, cannot but be a sharing in God’s life and nature. To stay away from him would be a fundamental anomaly that would have bad consequences for everything else in our life.

We should therefore give priority to our spiritual needs of prayer, recourse to the sacraments, development of virtues, the habit of having presence of God always, doing everything with God and for God, etc.

We need be most guarded in pursuing this duty, since we cannot deny that these days there are just so many things that would easily grab our attention, taking it away from God and trapping it in the whirl of sheer self-indulgence. We can even offer a lot of justifications for this self-indulgence, offering reasons like practicality, profitability, the pursuit for greater knowledge, wealth, fame, etc.

Let’s remember that gospel episode about the sisters, Martha and Mary. (cfr. Lk 10,38-42) Martha was also doing a lot of household chores related to hospitality. But when she complained to Christ about her sister, Mary, who apparently was doing nothing other than sitting before Christ, listening to him, Martha was roundly corrected.

“Martha, Martha,” Christ said, “you are worried and upset about many things. But few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. (Lk 10,41-42)

Let’s see to it that every time we wake up in the morning, the first thing we have to do is to greet our Lord, offer the day with all our concerns to him, and resolve to keep ourselves in his presence all the time.

We need to avail of a certain plan of life consisting of certain practices and norms of piety that would effectively help us to be with God all day. We can mention a few of these practices, like some period of mental prayer, spiritual reading, Holy Mass, the Holy Rosary, praying of the Angelus at noon time. Besides, we should have a number of pit stops during the day to recover and strengthen our presence of God, sense of divine filiation, etc.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com