How to Be Both Idealistic and Realistic

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THESE should be the abiding traits we ought to have in this life. Given the fact that we are just having a pilgrimage toward our eternal destination in this life, we should see to it that we don’t lose sight of the idealism meant for us as well as the realism that properly considers the realities on the ground that we have to contend with on our way to our final destination.

And the way to combine these traits is simply to be like Christ or to be with Christ. Christ presents to us the highest ideal meant for us as well as “the way, the truth and the life” so we can successfully traverse this valley of tears and trials that we have in this world.

Idealism and realism need not be in contrast with each other, as many people tend to consider them. They ought to be united, since our life in this world, as has been said so many times, is like a journey toward our eternal destination.

It’s important that as much as possible we sharpen our idealistic attitude toward life, aiming at no less than what God wants us to be, i.e., for us to be like him, sharers of his life and very nature. We should nourish this idealism constantly, ridding it of false values and goals that many times are presented to us by some ideologies, cultures, etc., and overcoming whatever disbelief we have about it.

This idealism presented to us by Christ should be the dream of our dreams which we should pursue without pause as much as possible. If we pursue it with Christ, we would see that our dreams will, in fact, fall short, since Christ gives us much more than what we can expect to reach or achieve.

We have to be wary of our tendency not to anchor our idealism on Christ. That’s when we can tend to build some kind of ivory tower, enclosing ourselves in our own ideas, theories and doctrines that, while useful to a certain extent, will always need to be adapted properly to the objective realities on the ground.

That’s when we become armchair players in the drama of life, not realizing that ideas, theories and doctrines are no cold, frozen things, but are meant to be dynamic, subject always to some development, deepening, and evolution.

In our hot pursuit for the ultimate goal of our life, we should also be realistic. In this, we just have to follow what Christ once said: “Be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” (Mt 10,16)

It’s indeed an overwhelming combination! But hard and even impossible as it may seem, we just have to try our best to achieve such condition, obviously with God’s grace, because as Christ himself warned us, in this world we would be like sheep in the midst of wolves. We just have to be clever without compromising our human and Christian integrity.

Is it possible? Is it achievable? We can always ask these questions, but in the end, we just have to reconcile ourselves with what Christ is telling us, since he himself will do it for us and with us. All we have to do is try our best to be like him who precisely epitomizes this most intriguing blend of shrewdness and simplicity.

Definitely this is a combination that will be very challenging for us to develop. But we can always try, like taking one step at a time in pursuing this goal. For this, we may have to spend some time studying on how to develop it, coming out with some plans and resolutions along the way.

            Email: roycimagala@gmail.com