The duty to transform the world

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT gospel parable about the sower and the seed (cfr. Mt 13,1-9) somehow reminds us that we have to be the good ground that would readily receive the seed of God and make it grow to its fullness. Only then can we aspire to transform the world the way God wants it transformed in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Let’s remember that only in Christ is the mystery of God’s will for us known. Only in Christ would we be able to “recapitulate all things, those of heaven and those of earth.” (Eph 1,9-10). That is to say, that only in Christ would all things be gathered together in unity under God, things that have been scattered and divided because of our sins.

We need to return to God. And we have to bring the whole of the world to God also because everything comes from God and belongs to God. In Christ, we have been given the way and the means so that God may be “all in all things.” (1 Cor 15,28) That is why God took on human flesh in Christ. By becoming one of us, Christ has transformed the world from within.

Since we are patterned after Christ, we should feel the duty to collaborate with him in his work of transforming the world. We need to realize that the world ought to be prepared for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

How will we do it? By becoming more and more intimately identified with Christ, living out his very essence and mission which is driven only by love. It is only with this love that we can manage to transform the world.

Let us see to it that we more and more grow in that love shown and shared with us by Christ. Like Christ, we should love everyone, including our enemies. It is his love that would enable us to want and to work for the good of others, irrespective of how they are to us. It is his love that would keep us always interested in the welfare, both the material and spiritual, of the others.

Obviously, if we have this kind of love, we would do everything for God and for the others whatever it may cost. And we would do it gratuitously, without expecting any reward. Of course, we all know that God cannot be outdone in generosity. The more generous we are in our love, all the more generous would God love us in return.

To be effective in this mission of transforming the world, we have to make ourselves credible witnesses and collaborators of Christ. In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need to thoroughly master the doctrine of our faith as revealed to us in full by Christ. We have to learn the dynamic art of how to win true and deep friendship and confidence of the others.

We should try our best that we can earn what Christ once told his disciples—that “whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Lk 10,16)

This, of course, will require of us constant struggle and recourse to all the means that Christ, and now the Church, has made available. May we always feel the urge to follow Christ as closely as possible so that with him and in him, we can truly transform the world, bringing the world back to God, its creator.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com