In the world but not worldly

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IN that gospel parable describing the Kingdom of Heaven as a treasure buried in a field and as a merchant searching for fine pearls for which the main characters would be willing to sell everything they had just to get that treasure and those fine pearls (cfr. Mt 13,44-46), we are clearly reminded that we should know what our real purpose in the world is.

We should know how to be in the world, without being worldly, trapped and imprisoned in worldly things, and failing to look, find and love God and everybody else. And the secret is to follow Christ who shows us how to be in the world without being worldly.

Christ who is the very essence of wealth and human dignity lived a very simple life: he had nowhere to be born or die, nowhere to lay his head, came to our world with nothing and left it also with nothing. In his public life, he sent his apostles to preach without extra luggage.

We need to understand that poverty and a certain detachment from earthly things are required for our hearts to be properly filled with the spirit of God and to enable us to fulfill our mission in the world and to pursue the real purpose of our life.

We have to be most wary of the danger of worldliness which is becoming practically irresistible these days. Yes, it’s true that we have to love the world since that is where God has placed us to test us if what he wants us to be is also what we ourselves would like to be. We should love the world the way God loves it, but we should not be held captive by it.

The secret, of course, is to see to it that our mind and heart are always with God. We should not allow ourselves to be fully taken by the charms and deceiving allurements of the world. We have to be completely detached from it, which does not mean that we should hate it. On the contrary, we have to be immersed in it as much as possible and yet love it but in the way God loves it.

Anything in the world that would separate us from God should be avoided or rejected. Let us learn the lessons we can draw from the story of Ananias and Sapphira who tried to cheat the apostles, (cfr. Acts 5,1-10) and that of the rich young man (cfr. Mt 19,16-22)

We have to learn how to live our life in a simple way, with enough means for us to survive and to work effectively. It should be the kind of simplicity and poverty that does not attract undue attention, and that knows how to blend earthly things with our divine mission here on earth. It should be of the kind that would enable us to truly love God and others, effectively attending to the material needs of the latter.

Let’s remember that our way to God and to heaven is through this world. It cannot be any other way. To think that we can know, love and serve God by separating ourselves from the world is to fall into a false spirituality.

Everyday we have to make a plan and strategy of how to effectively handle this tricky condition of ours. We should give our all in developing the potentials of the world in all its aspects, and at the same time purifying the world continually of the effects of our sins.

This is how we can love the world without being worldly!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com