The Worst Evil and the Greatest Good

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WONDERING what these are? Well, the worst evil is when man dared to crucify Christ. Nothing can be worse than that, insofar as we are concerned. Imagine, killing the Son of God himself! And yet such evil also caused the greatest good: man’s salvation due to Christ’s bearing all our sins and conquering them through his passion, death and resurrection.

We should bear this truth of our faith always in mind as we go through the drama of our earthly life where we cannot avoid getting involved in evil. We should never forget that God’s love for us is more powerful than whatever evil we commit.

What we have to do is simply to go back to him after every fall, which is what would actually make him happy, as dramatized in the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. Besides, we are told that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (Jn 3,17)

We obviously should do our best to avoid evil, but given our wounded condition here on earth, we should just make it a fact of life that we fall into it one way or another, sooner or later. That’s because not only do we have to contend with our wounded flesh, we also have to deal with the devil who, as St. Peter said, is like a “roaring lion who prowls around, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Pt 5,8)

So, let’s not make this fact of life a big issue. We should just be prepared for it, developing the proper understanding of this fact of life, and the appropriate attitude and practices to deal with it properly. Christ assures us of victory as long as we follow him, who gives us “the way, the truth and the life.”

In this regard, we should just have to sharpen our zeal for holiness as well as our effort to be well protected from our own weaknesses and the many temptations around. For this, we have to use the means which are actually all provided for. We have to learn to pray, to offer sacrifices, to avail of the sacraments, to submit to some program of ongoing formation, spiritual direction and accompaniment, etc.

We have to learn the art of vigilance and sobriety, knowing that first of all we have to deal with our most treacherous body which, if not animated by the spirit of God, would simply go along the ways of the animal in us.

We should always be guarded by the antics of our animal flesh. We need to understand that our body is organically linked to our spiritual and the supernatural character of our life. While distinct, it cannot be separated from our integral human nature and condition, from our beginning and end, and from the plan and purpose God our Father and Creator has for us.

Given that dignity of our human body, we have to make sure that our piety and our devotion to God and everything related to him has to involve both the body and soul. It has to involve our whole person. It just cannot be purely spiritual or purely material. It just cannot be only a matter of knowing the doctrine, quite cerebral in approach, without some external manifestations, or of practicing all sorts of devotional exercises, without knowing the doctrine of faith.

If piety has to be authentic and consistent in all circumstances, then it has to be lived both in our spiritual soul whose main faculties are our intellect and will, and in our material body whose link to our soul, the principle of life, are the emotions and passions, the memory and the imagination, our temperament and psychological state, etc.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com