Straining a gnat while swallowing a camel

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS was how Christ described the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees of his time. (cfr. Mt 23,23-26) This was a lamentation of Christ that can still be applicable nowadays.

And that’s simply because we cannot deny that there is a great majority of people today all over the world who are getting trapped in the details while ignoring the whole picture, or stuck in their earthly and temporal concerns while being unmindful of their eternal goal.

Many are lost in the technicalities of the things they are handling and do not realize that these technicalities are meant to bring them to the ultimate goal of their life. In the end, many are falling into the dynamics of self-indulgence without referring the things they handle to God.

We need to be aware of this constant danger that is made stronger and more vicious because of today’s more powerful technologies, sciences and ideologies that can so easily and irresistibly swallow us in their purely human and natural dynamics as to desensitize us from our true and ultimate goal that requires us to transcend the natural level to enter into the supernatural life of God as we are meant to share.

Yes, this worldly entrapment is actually a clear and present danger. But the intriguing part is that hardly anyone is aware of it. Many of us allow ourselves to be caught in the widening sticky web of the modern technologies which, while offering us a lot of conveniences, also hook us, with their clickbaits, into the dynamic of self-indulgence, with love for God and the others practically thrown out of the window.

We should train ourselves to have as our abiding and strongest passion, as our most precious treasure, the need and urge to be intimate with Christ. We actually cannot afford to be without Christ. The only thing to expect in that condition is to get into some form of disaster!

This will, of course, require of us a lot of effort, a tremendous dose of faith, hope and charity, to contend with our usual feeling of doubt and awkwardness with respect to this need of ours. But, to be sure, it would all be worthwhile! We just have to humble ourselves and remind ourselves to always pray, to always do things with Christ and for Christ. We should not take this most basic need of ours for granted.

We need to declare an unrelenting war against our self-indulgence which has become a very formidable problem we all have. Yes, this has always been a problem to us, but these days it is much more so.

Let’s make God the beginning and end of everything that we do. He should always be in our mind and heart, in our thoughts, intentions and desires, in our feelings and passions. He should always be in our deeds. And because of him and through him, the others should also always be in our mind and heart.

Without God and without the others, let’s be convinced that we are actually lost, even if we feel that we are conquering the world and are having a nice time. Let’s do everything that God and the others become the fixed reference points of our life. They are meant to lead us to our true maturity, our fulfillment and perfection, our joy.

We have to learn how to adapt to the new things without getting lost and confused about what is truly essential that will always be the same.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com