When we just go through the motions

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE have to be wary of this tendency of ours. We should not just follow rules and practices blindly and would just go through the motions for the sake of mere compliance. As much as possible, we should know the reason and motive behind our actions and mean them as sincerely as possible.

We are reminded of this danger in that gospel episode where Christ lamented over certain practices of the Jews of his time that showed they were just doing them more for the sake of appearance rather than out of a sincere heart. (cfr. Mk 7)

“This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” he said and continued to say, “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” (Mk 7,6-7)

To be guarded against this tendency, we need to pause from time to time, and check whether our actuations truly come from the heart, and our intentions are pure. In fact, as much as possible we should make our intention actual, and not just habitual or virtual.

This is to protect us from falling into routine that deadens our intentions and leads us to do things just mechanically. As much as possible we should not allow our routinary tasks to muffle our enthusiasm and love for God and others.

The challenge is how to keep ourselves burning with love in spite of our routinary tasks. In fact, if we are clever enough like the serpent that Christ talked about, (cfr. Mt 10,16) we can even make use of these routinary tasks as a way to nourish our love for God and others.

For this, we have to see to it that we are always activating our faith, hope and charity by making frequent acts of faith, hope and charity in spite of the lack of gusto for them. Much like everything else in our life, there are things that we should just do even if do not feel like doing them simply because they are necessary to us. These frequent acts of faith, hope and charity can do a lot of wonder and can fan into a flame our waning enthusiasm and love for God and others.

These theological virtues, these God-given gifts are the ones that enable us to live our life in a way that is full of love, the love that comes from God himself. It’s a love that always renews itself, not allowing itself to get accustomed, much less, bored by what we do every day.

As the Catechism would put it, these theological virtues “bestow on one the capacity to live in a relationship with the Trinity. They are the foundation and the energizing force of the Christian’s moral activity and they give life to the human virtues.” (CCC 384)

Also, when we do things with the zeal of love for God and for others, we would effectively protect ourselves from the attacks of our own weaknesses and the many temptations around.

We need to see to it that every move we make is always done with actual love, a love that should be a channeling of the very love of God as shown to us by Christ. It is a love that knows how to handle any situation in our life, whether good or bad in human terms. It is a supernatural love, not just human love.

It is this love, more than anything else, that truly matters in our relation with God and with others.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com