The Eternal Value of Our Actions

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE have to be more keenly aware of this truth of our faith. Our actions can and should have eternal value. And this can happen when everything we do is done with God and for God. It’s when we do things with love for God and in his presence that even our most ordinary activities, like doing some household chores, can have an immense eternal value.

In other words, it’s when what we do is not just to achieve some temporal goals, like efficiency and effectiveness, profitability, practicality, popularity, etc. While all these latter goals have their legitimate value, they would just be useless if they are not oriented toward the real and ultimate goal which we all are supposed to pursue.

By doing things in God’s presence and out of love for God, we would be entering the spiritual and supernatural world of God that is also meant for us. We would already have a foretaste of the Kingdom of God here on earth.

We have to realize that our time here on earth is actually a time of transit toward eternity, from where we came and to where we are heading. That’s because we are creatures of God who is in eternity. We came from him, and since we have been made in his image and likeness, we are meant to be with him in all eternity.

We need to be keenly aware of this dual dimension of our life. We should not be too immersed in the here and now as to forget that time is meant for eternity, and we have a role to play in their connection.

We live both in time and eternity for now, and later, in a definitive state, in eternity with God or separated from him forever, since time would be completely taken up by eternity the moment time runs its course through our death or through the world’s end.

To the extent that we manage to be with God and go along his will and ways, we would be relating our time here on earth to the eternity meant for us. We therefore should avoid being carried away and swallowed by the technicalities of our earthly life, no matter important they are. They should serve only as means and occasion to be with God in love.

It does not mean that we should not take our worldly and temporal affairs seriously. On the contrary, we have to put all our mind and heart into them since the way we handle them determines the kind of eternal destiny that we will have. They are no joking matter at all. We are asked to be fruitful and productive in this life, but with the proper motive and intention.

For this, we have to continually check if our spiritual and supernatural bearing is still functioning. When driven by faith, hope and charity, we can manage to convert our worldly and temporal affairs as occasions and means to love and serve God and others.

This may require a certain discipline that we have to learn as early as possible and to polish it frequently, given our condition that is vulnerable to the allurements of the world and of the flesh.

We have to remember that time is short. (cfr. 1 Cor 7,29) We cannot afford to waste time which is a most precious resource we have in fulfilling the ultimate goal of our life.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com