‘Lord, show us the way…’

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS should be the request that we should constantly make as we pursue the real goal of our life, which is our own sanctification and our duty to do apostolate. God in Christ has offered us “the way, the truth and the life” so we can manage to be on the right path despite the heavy drama that we can encounter in our earthly life.

We should always go to God in all our efforts to grow into the fulfillment and perfection of our humanity. We should never rely on our own human powers alone, though we have to also make full use of them, but always under the animation of God’s grace.

That gospel episode where Christ practically begged the leading Jews of his time to believe him rather than their own ideas (cfr. Jn 5,31-47) clearly tells us we should refer everything in our life to Christ.

Even the basic things of our life—like how to study and work well, how to live the virtues of humility, temperance, order, etc.—just should not be a matter of personal concern alone. God in Christ through the Holy Spirit should be at the beginning, end and the middle of them all.

This is how we can make all our temporal and earthly affairs acquire the eternal and redemptive value that we should all aspire. Thus, we have to learn the habit of asking Christ, “Lord, show us the way…” In fact, we should try to make that habit like instinct because such attitude is truly proper to us.

When we just rely on our own powers, there is no way but for us to simply end in some disaster sooner or later. When we get blinded by our own pride, we would even willingly head to such disaster not knowing that such is the case.

We cannot deny that given the basic truth of our faith that we are God’s image and likeness, sharers of his supernatural life and divine nature, we are faced with an impossible challenge. It would only be with him that we can manage to make the impossible possible and practicable.

We would not know how to pray if we would just rely on our human talents alone. Much less would we be able to resist the many strong temptations around, especially in the area of purity, if we are not with God.

Obviously, we have to fight against the usual natural, not to mention the infranatural, awkwardness involved in this effort to refer everything to God. We really need to activate our faith, hope and charity that first of all are gifts given to us by God. That is how we can counter that awkwardness.

Let’s hope that we can make it as some kind of system in our life to instinctively refer everything to God, asking him to concretely show us the way of how to deal with a particular issue in our life. We have to acknowledge that we are actually helpless when we are just by ourselves.

For this, we really should rev up our intellect and will, the primary faculties we have, so that they can actively engage us with God as we go through the different events and situations in life. They are the faculties that would spark and keep our faith, hope and charity alive and kicking. They are the ones that are supposed to direct the other faculties and powers we have so they can act at God’s promptings.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com