Internalizing, Incarnating, Spiritualizing, Divinizing

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THESE, I believe, are the processes we have to undergo to pursue our lifelong duty of transforming ourselves into “another Christ,” having his spirit, his mind and heart, such that even in the level of our body, that spirit of Christ is lived and can be observed externally.

We need to internalize first of all the teachings and example of Christ which, of course, would require faith and the effort to make his teachings and example as our own.

It does not only involve the duty to know, study and understand his teachings and example, but also to turn them into practice. Our thoughts, intentions, words and deeds should be those of Christ, and not just our own.

Such internalizing should lead to incarnating these teachings and example of Christ. In other words, the spirit of Christ should so animate our bodily dimension such that even our instincts, senses, emotions, passions, etc. are guided mainly by Christ’s teachings and example, and not just by hormones and other biological and worldly factors.

Of course, that process of incarnating Christ’s teachings and example would involve spiritualizing our bodily dimension which means that we have to train our bodily faculties to go beyond, not suppress, their natural ways.

And by so doing, we enter the supernatural level of the life and nature of God who calls us to be one with him. On God’s part, he provides us always with the grace we need to achieve that goal. It just now depends on how receptive and reactive we are to this gift.

All these processes will definitely proceed in our human way, which is that of being gradual, requiring all-out effort, and always involving struggle since we have to contend with our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. But we should never forget that it is God who takes the initiative to guide us.

In studying and understanding Christ’s teachings, we have to learn how to deal with the many paradoxes and mysteries they contain. For example, how should we understand and live the beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…Blessed are those who mourn…Blessed are those who are persecuted…”

Or how should we understand these paradoxical teachings of Christ—that whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, whoever loses his life shall save it; that if any one wants to be first, he shall be last of all; that whoever wishes to become great shall be slave of all, etc.?

This lifelong task before us is definitely tremendous. But we just have to acknowledge the basic truth that it is God who directs our life to his. Ours is simply to correspond to his abiding guidance. We obviously have to overcome first our initial human awkwardness in the face of our supernatural goal, and then slowly but persistently develop the appropriate mindset, attitudes, virtues, etc.

It’s a process of always conquering new frontiers and defending our fronts from the enemies of God and of our soul. We have to do our part to reciprocate God’s providence over us.

We need to develop a theological mind, thinking always in terms of our faith, and not just with our reason and senses. We have to aim at nothing less than being contemplatives, able to see God in everything and everything through the eyes of God.

I’m afraid we are still light years away from this ideal. But if we put our mind together, we can achieve what is really meant for us. We just have to be aware of what is involved and consistent in putting into action what we know and realize about our life, thanks to our faith and regardless of the difficulties and mistakes.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com