When man becomes the worst beast on earth

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THIS happens when we allow ourselves not to be guided by faith. No matter how intelligent and smart we are, if we are not guided by our Christian faith, it would just be a matter of time before we become the worst beast on earth, inflicting all kinds of evils far worse than what other animals can cause.

We are reminded of this scary fact of life by that gospel episode where Herod started to get disturbed by what he heard about Christ. (cfr. Lk 9,7-9) “He was greatly perplexed because some were saying, ‘John has been raised from the dead’; others were saying, ‘Elijah has appeared’; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen.’”

We, of course, know how this drama would unfold. It led to the worst evil that can be committed—the killing of the very son of God who became man to save us! The animals can only do so much harm on us. But we, when we are not guided by faith, can do a lot worse things—genocide, all kinds of evil conspiracies, etc.—until we ourselves reach that point of rejecting and practically killing God in our life.

We need to remember that man, as designed by God our Creator, is made a rational animal, and as such, is made to make a choice of whether to enter into the supernatural life of God or to remain natural.

We are first an animal before we are rational. If our rationality is not guided and animated by our faith, then no matter how intelligent and smart we may be, we simply remain as animals. Sooner or later, our animality would take over, and we can become the worst animals since we can make use of our rationality to follow the urges of our animality.

The duty for us to take our Christian faith seriously is no joke. We really have to see to it that we are always consistent to our Christian faith, not only from day to day, but also from moment to moment, so we can achieve the real dignity God wants to give us—that is, to be his image and likeness, to be sharers of his very own life and nature.

This duty, of course, requires no mean effort and struggle. We need to make adjustments in the way we understand things. We need to overcome the understandable awkwardness and disbelief that we are meant to be sharers of the very life and nature of God.

But if we would just be humble enough and persistent in our efforts, the effects of faith and God’s grace can be felt by us. And if we try our best to be receptive and responsive to them, for sure we will see the happiest reality that indeed we are God’s children, members of his family, intimately sharing in God’s life and nature.

We also need to understand that through Christ, we have been given all the means we need to achieve what God wants us to be. Christ, being “the way, the truth and the life,” shows us how to deal with all possible situations in our life—the good and the bad—so we can manage to be with God.

We truly need to be Christ-like, to be “alter Christus,” if not, “ipse Christus.” In short, we need to be Christ, the pattern of our humanity and savior of our damaged humanity. Without him, the only possible thing for us is to be an animal. We may be intelligent and smart, but just an animal, and the worst of all animals.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com