Reaching out

By: Fr. Roy Cimagala

IF we truly want to follow Christ, we should always feel the urge and the passion for reaching out to those who are lost, separated from him and his Church, those who are confused and in error, those in the peripheries in whatever sense “peripheries” can be understood, whether in terms of spirituality and morals or in social and economic terms, etc.

This, I suppose, is to have that universal attitude of Christ to save all men as evidenced by what St. Paul once said: that God our Savior “desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2,4)

That is why Christ himself, before he went up to heaven, told his apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mk 16,15) And if we preach that gospel integrally, we should not fail to realize that Christ gave special, solicitous attention to the lost, to the sinners, the weak and the sick, etc.

He, for sure, loved every one, but he gave special attention to the lost, the sinners, the weak, the sick. He was uncomfortable only with those who were self-righteous, rigid in their own old ideas and ways of what is good and bad, what is to be with God and what is to go against him. They seem unable to improve on what they already have defined.

This truth of our faith can be seen in the lessons we can learn from the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son. (cfr. Lk 15,3-32) And all over the gospel, we can always see Christ giving special attention to the sinners and less privileged. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance,” he very clearly said. (Lk 5,32)

We should try our best to adapt to this same attitude of Christ. Like him, we should be willing to make sacrifices just to reach out to those who are lost. We should not be afraid to get dirty, and more importantly, we should find new ways to be able to reach out to them.

That some people are lost can mean that the usual ways of dealing with souls and the status quo of the spiritualities around, do not quite work with them anymore. We have to find new ways, inspired always by the Holy Spirit, to deal more effectively with their predicament.

This is not to go against the old and traditional, or against what already has been defined by the Church’s magisterium. It is rather to find new ways and to innovate, but always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who never runs out of new things while retaining the old ones.

This can be seen as part of Christ’s teaching as when he, in that parable of the lost sheep, said that the shepherd left behind the 99 of his 100 sheep that were already secure, just to look after the lost one.

We can just imagine what imaginative, creative and innovative things the shepherd had to do, not to mention, the effort and sacrifices he had to endure, just find the lost sheep. Even in our own spiritual lives where there will always be something that is not working well, thus, we always need to find new, innovative ways to deal with it. We cannot remain with the status quo of our spiritual life.

Thus, in dealing with those who are far from God or from the Church, we have to find ways of how to effectively deal with them. Some give-and-take will have to be made without compromising what is essential. And what is essential is, in the end, the spirit of love that Christ showed us, a love that goes all the way to assuming the sins of men and offering his life on the cross.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com