By Fr. Roy Cimagala

“For the one whom God sent speaks the Words of God.” (John 3:34) With these words of Christ, we are made to understand that Christ is the Word of God who would lead us to eternal life. The immediate conclusion that we can derive from these words is that we should have full trust in God’s providence.

In a sense, while we try our best to make our own life and to shape it according to our freedom, we need to understand that our life can only be properly lived and can be led to its proper end when conformed to God’s will and ways.

We need to understand that the ultimate reason we have freedom is for us to freely follow God’s will, for that would constitute the true essence of love which is the essence of God, and which is also meant for us since we have been created in God’s image and likeness. While we have that popular saying, “Like father, like son,” we can also say, “Like God, like man.”

It is for this reason that we should really believe in Christ, since he is “the way, the truth and the life, no one goes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) That is also why he also said, as if begging us as well as reassuring us, “You believe in God, believe also in me.” (John 14:1)

We cannot deny that all our life, we would always be hounded by our weaknesses, challenges, difficulties, trials, temptations and, of course, our sins, but as long as we go to Christ, things would just be made right. Only in this way can we aspire to be faithful and live in confidence, peace and joy despite whatever.

We should just strengthen our faith in God through Christ in the Spirit, especially because it is unavoidable that we would encounter in our life forms of hatred, persecution, misunderstanding, and so, we would have to wage continuing struggle.

Christ already warned us about this. “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also,” he said. (John 15:20) In another instance he also said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

So we need to enliven our faith, always renewing it since we all know that our profession of faith and trust in God, no matter how fervently said, can only go so far. We need to continually renew our faith in order to trust God’s will and ways when we encounter seemingly unbearable predicaments.

Remember that episode of the apostles in a boat that was about to sink because of the big waves. (cfr. Matthew 8:23-27) Christ reproached them for their lack of faith. And in that parable of the wheat and the weeds, (cfr. Matthew 13, 24-30) Christ was clearly telling them and us that we should just go on doing a lot of good even if we are disturbed by many evils, because in the end Christ would make the proper judgment.

He assures us that with him we will never work in vain and everything would just work out for the good. (cfr. Isaiah 65:23; Romans 8:28) He assures us that as St. Teresa of Avila once said, he can write straight with crooked lines.

The whole idea is that we should just keep a strong faith and trust in God’s will and ways./WDJ