Stay humble and simple despite…

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Amid the complexities of our life today, we have to learn to stay humble and simple because that is the basic way to precisely handle these complexities well. When we are humble and simple we would know how to blend openness, tolerance and versatility on the one hand, and to stick to the truth in charity on the other hand.

Remember Christ telling his disciples: “Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Mt 10,16)

We can interpret these words as Christ telling us that we can only be shrewd and clever like snakes, capable of being open, tolerant and versatile to any kind of worldly complicated situations today when we remain humble and simple like doves. A humility and a simplicity that would not lead us to be shrewd and clever like serpents would not be true humility and simplicity. They would simply be the fake ones.

It is genuine humility and simplicity that would enable us to face the complexities of our life because these are the virtues that liken and identify us with Christ. And with Christ, we can manage to tackle anything.

Remember that we are told that with God nothing is impossible. In other words, only with these virtues can we be “capax Dei,” capable of being like God, sharing his power and wisdom. With God, we can handle anything.

Perhaps that is the reason why Christ said: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Mt 11,29-30)

Of course, this is a mysterious and intriguing kind of reasoning that Christ is telling us. And that is simply because he is telling us something that is mainly spiritual and supernatural in character. He is not giving us an indication that is meant to tackle purely natural situations and predicaments.

We have to realize that our life does not only have material, temporal and natural dimensions. It has an eminently spiritual and supernatural character for which the spiritual and supernatural means are more important and necessary than the natural ones.

We just have to activate our faith to be able to put ourselves in the proper condition to face the challenges of our life. And that faith tells us to be humble and simple always even as we wade through the complexities of today’s life.

Humility and simplicity are the virtues that would make us acknowledge that we are nothing without God. They sort of open our soul for the grace of God to enter. And it is this grace that transforms us, irrespective of our human impotencies, mistakes and errors, into becoming children of God.

And with God’s grace in our soul because of our humility and simplicity, we can manage to receive the gifts of faith, hope and charity. We can believe natural truths that not only are difficult to discover but also to understand. Even more, it is humility and simplicity that would enable us to believe supernatural truths where there is no way for us to fully understand them, much less, explain them in a human way.

It is humility and simplicity that would enable us to be like Christ, to be ‘alter Christus,’ who is the pattern of our humanity and the redeemer of our damaged humanity. It is when we are humble and simple that we can manage to bear and to suffer all things, and to love even our enemies, offering forgiveness to our offenders, just like what Christ did and continues to do.

It would be a disaster to us if we respond to the complex challenges of our times with our own version of convoluted self-justifications. This happens when we start thinking, judging, reasoning and concluding without God or, worse, when we think God’s clear commandments are already obsolete, irrelevant, a drag to our interests, etc.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com