Never say enough in doing good

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS is what we can draw from that gospel episode where Christ, after healing the mother-in-law of Peter, attracted a big crowd who were also asking for some healing. (cfr. Mk 1,29-39) While he did some healing, he did not forget to retire to a certain place to pray and later to go to other places to continue with his mission of evangelizing and redeeming.

We should never say enough. If we truly love God and everybody else, with a love that is nothing less than a participation of the love God has for all of us and as commanded by Christ to us, then we will never say enough in our self-giving.

Even if such attitude would already seem to be going beyond common sense, our reason and other human and worldly standards that we usually use to measure our love, we would still go on giving ourselves, never saying enough. We would just give and give, even if we seem to consume ourselves till death.

This is, of course, an overwhelming prospect, but that is what true love is. It is some kind of madness that knows no limits. It is given without measure, without cost, without any calculation.

And even if such total self-giving is not reciprocated, it would still go on loving. It is purely gratuitous. Even more, even if it is not only unreciprocated but is also violently resisted and rejected, it would still go on loving.

It’s indeed laudable that in whatever we do, we try to give it our best shot. We should just remember that our best will never be enough insofar as pleasing God and everybody else is concerned. Our best can always be made better.

This should not surprise us, much less, cause us to worry. But we should acknowledge it so that we avoid getting self-satisfied with what we have done and then fall into self-complacency. That’s when we stop growing and improving as a human person and as a child of God.

We have to remember that we are meant for the infinite, for the spiritual and the supernatural. That’s a goal that we can never fully reach in our life here on earth. But we are meant to keep on trying.

What can keep us going in this regard is certainly not our own effort alone, much less our desire and ambition for fame, power or wealth. It’s not pride or some form of obsessions. These have a short prescription period. A ceiling is always set above them. In time, we will realize that everything we have done was just “vanity of vanities.”

It is God’s grace that does the trick. It’s when we correspond sincerely to God’s love for us that we get a self-perpetuating energy to do our best in any given moment. It’s when we can manage to do the impossible.

It’s a correspondence that definitely requires a lot of humility because we all have the inclination to be proud of our accomplishments that would kill any desire to do better. It’s also a correspondence that is always respectful of our human condition, given our strengths and weaknesses, our assets and limitations.

It is devoid of what is called as bitter zeal. In fact, there is a certain sweetness to it in spite of the amount of effort and sacrifices involved. A sense of joy and peace will always be felt. It also knows how to pass unnoticed, avoiding attracting unnecessary attention from others.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com