We are meant to give and share

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S the lesson we can get when Christ said that “no one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel or sets it under a bed; rather, he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light.” (Lk 8,16)

And he continued by saying that “there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light,” practically warning us that there is really no point keeping secrets because in the end everything will be known.

We should be as transparent as possible. The only exception is when, given our limited and wounded human condition, we need to practice some discretion since certain matters are subject to confidentiality for one legitimate reason or another.

And then Christ rounded up the whole thing by saying that “to anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” This obviously is a very clear indication that we really need to give and share what God has given and shared with us.

We need to understand that our life, whether considered in its purely natural aspect or in its supernaturally oriented spiritual dimension, that is, particularly our Christian life, is by definition a shared life. It’s a shared life with God and with everybody and everything else.

I think we need to be reminded of this fundamental truth about ourselves, since there are now many tricky factors around us that tend to undermine this important character of our life. They make us think our life is just our own.

In fact, I would say that we need to develop the skills not only to protect and keep this property of our life, but also to continually reinforce and enhance it. That’s because our life is always a dynamic affair, with new challenges and changing circumstances.

We cannot remain naïve and think that our life more or less would just automatically be a shared life. Some people say so, because they claim we cannot avoid sharing our life with others.

To a certain extent, that assertion is true. But neither can we be blind to the fact that we and the world in general have ways, often subtle and deceptive, that effectively negate this shared characteristic of our life.

But why is our life a shared life? Firstly, because that’s how we are made, how we have been hard-wired. That we have intelligence and will, that we have feelings, memory, imagination, etc., can only show we are meant to be with others, we are meant to go out of our own world. They are not there just for our own private enjoyment.

But more importantly, especially for those with Christian faith, it’s because God created us that way. We are the image and likeness of God, elevated through grace to be nothing less than children of his.

And since God is love, is self-giving, we therefore cannot be other than that—that is, we are meant to love also and to give ourselves to others. Thus, God’s commandments to us always exhort us to love, first Him, and then everybody else.

We actually are sharers of God’s divine life. Of course, with the misuse of our freedom, we can lose that most sublime privilege. But there is no doubt, through faith, that we are meant to share in God’s life.

And we should give our all in sharing what we have with God first, and then with everybody else as a consequence!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com