Making Christ relevant to our times

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THANKS be to God, we can still be considered as a strongly Christian country. Especially in this Lenten season we can see churches filled with people praying and doing all kinds of penitential practices. Yes, there are also those who take advantage of the Lenten break to go to the beaches, but on the whole the strong faith and piety of the people cannot be denied.

Just the same, we should always feel the need to further strengthen our faith in Christ. Now that we are facing rapid and confusing developments, complicated challenges that can test our Christian consistency, we cannot afford to keep our faith in Christ stay at its current state. It has to grow, deepen and broaden.

Strengthening our faith in Christ can mean many things. But one clear way we can do that, considering the current conditions of our world, is for us to dedicate time to study, reflection and reading. This, of course, will be a challenge, as time is scarce. But we can always find time if we are truly interested in strengthening our faith. It’s a matter of setting priorities.

Let’s just see to it that our study, reflection and reading about the current developments are motivated by our love for Christ which actually is equivalent to our love for others, whoever and however they may be. We have to convince ourselves that it is only with Christ that we can be truly updated with the new developments, and able to handle them properly.

Obviously, we have to know what to study, reflect on and read, since there are many materials around and not all of them are good or relevant. So much has been published and not everything is valuable and useful. It is important to know how to choose and to consult others about what is worth reading.

Pope St. John Paul II once said in this regard: “In my reading and in my studies, I always tried to achieve a harmony between faith, reason, and the heart. These are not separate areas, but are profoundly interconnected, each giving life to the other.” (JP II, Rise, Let us be on our way.)

Pope Francis also offered this idea about the importance of literature which he considers as “essential for believers who sincerely seek to enter into dialogue with the culture of their times, or simply with the lives and experiences of other people.”

Strengthening our faith in Christ such that it can effectively tackle the challenges of the times definitely would require us to continue reading and studying. The habit of reading has many advantages.

Among them, it helps us to express ourselves better and acquire the “gift of tongues.” It helps us acquire a wider vocabulary and develop broader intellectual abilities. It stimulates our imagination and creativity. It also improves our ability to concentrate, reducing the levels of cognitive decline and calming stress and anxiety.

By strengthening our faith in Christ in this way, we can effectively animate with the Christian spirit the many sectors in our society, like politics, business and entertainment, that are showing signs of going to the dogs. We can truly sanctify the world and direct it to its proper goal.

We have to help one another in this important need of ours to make our faith in Christ relevant to the current conditions of our world.

            Email: roycimagala@gmail.com