We Always Need to Purify Our Intentions

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

GIVEN our wounded human condition insofar as our spiritual and moral life is concerned, we really need to make the conscious effort to purify our intentions in everything that we do. We cannot deny that we are prone to give glory to ourselves instead of to God. And we are capable of doing this in a most hidden and deceptive way.

Christ was clear in his teaching about this aspect of our life. “Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you shall not have a reward of your Father who is in heaven.

“Therefore when thou dost an alms deed, sound not a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honoured by men. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward,” he said. (Mt 6,1-2)

And Christ lived what he taught. He was insistent on not being known as some kind of wonder-worker or superhero every time he performed a miracle. He had a kind of obsession to pass unnoticed.

This behaviour somehow contrasted with his open desire to be known and considered by as many people as possible as the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind.

On one hand, he would always tell the beneficiaries of his miracles not to broadcast what he did. Rather he would instruct them to simply go to the priest and report what happened.

When, out of extreme gratitude, these beneficiaries offered to join him in his journeys, he would tell them to go back home instead. When the hungry people, who were fed to satiety with just a few loaves and fish, wanted to make him king, Christ quickly withdrew to a mountain.

Even after his resurrection, when he was supposed to be in a glorious state, those to whom he showed himself did not recognize him at first. He appeared like anybody else. He obviously did not like to impress and overwhelm people just for the sake of impressing and overwhelming them.

But on the other hand, he would also insist, especially to the unbelieving leading Jews at that time, that he was the Son of God. He would, in fact, cite to them the many miracles he did to show to them that he was not merely human. He was and is God.

We need to follow the example of Christ. We have to realize then that we have to take utmost care of our intention, making it as explicit as possible, and honing it to get engaged with its proper and ultimate object who is God.

We should try our best to shun being simply casual or cavalier about this responsibility. We can easily play around with it, since intentions are almost invariably hidden from public knowledge. We are urged to be most sincere in directing our intentions properly.

We can easily fall into hypocrisy and deception, doing what can appear good externally but is not internally, since we could refuse giving glory to God, which is the proper intention to have, and instead feed and stir our vanity, pride, greed, lust, etc.

We have to be most careful in handling our intentions. They play a strategic role in our life, for how and where we direct them would determine whether we want to be with God and simply with our own selves.

Our intentions express who and where in the end we want to be. Do we choose God, or do we simply choose ourselves, or the world in general? It’s actually a choice between good and evil.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com