The secret to keeping temptation and sin away

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IT’S to fall in love, of course. But the true love that should fill our mind and heart with desires and concern to reach out to the others, to help and understand them, to find excuses for their shortcomings, quick to offer forgiveness just as we too should be quick to ask for forgiveness if we are the ones who fail them.

Let’s remember that it’s when we just think only about ourselves, or worse, when our mind and heart are practically empty that we open ourselves to our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. It would just be a matter of time before the fall occurs. When we occupy ourselves with concern for the others, we would have no time to be bothered by whatever weaknesses we have or by whatever temptation can hound us.

Nowadays, sad to say, what we are observing in the lives of many people is that they are just pursuing their own interests or, worse, are simply guided by their moods and their bodily condition. They are putting themselves most vulnerable to their weaknesses and temptations.

We have a big challenge to face here: how to teach people, starting with the young ones, how to truly love. This is, of course, a very demanding challenge, but it is all worthwhile, to be sure. Any step of success in this regard will have some multiplier effect that should be sustained.

The daunting part of this challenge is that, given our wounded earthly condition, to learn to love will always involve effort and sacrifices. It will contradict the common idea that love is always sweet. That is why, to learn to love will always involve fighting against our own selves who precisely have the strong tendency to be trapped in our own world, unmindful of the world outside.

But the question may be asked: how can we learn to truly love? What is the source, the power, purpose and scope of love? The answer to this question is none other than God who is love himself. And this love has been shown us by Christ, the Son of God who became man precisely to give us “the way, the truth and the life,” given our wounded condition here on earth.

Christ showed us this love not only by teaching us the truth about things, by doing great and very helpful miracles. He showed this love by ultimately offering his life if only to conquer all our sins and convert the death into a way of our own salvation.

To truly love, we should be ready to follow Christ, especially in that part of making great sacrifices even to the point of offering our life to God and to everybody else. Can we do this? Is it ever possible and practicable for us to have this kind of love?

We obviously can if we, in spite of our weaknesses, persist to relate ourselves with Christ, by getting to know him more, by praying, cultivating the virtues, availing of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist where Christ offers himself to us as the Bread of Life.

In other words, we can only truly love if our spiritual life is well taken care of, keeping it as vibrant as possible. With Christ, we would not be afraid to make sacrifices. In fact, with Christ, we can manage to see the wisdom and beauty of the sacrifices, of the Cross. It’s when we manage to love the Cross that we are assured to have the love that Christ himself has.

It’s when we love the Cross that we can fulfill what Christ commanded us: to love one another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34)

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com