By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Happy New Year, everyone!

As we open another year, let us first of all be thankful for everything that took place in the last year, regardless of what color they came, and look forward to this new year with great desire to do a lot of good things.

We certainly have to continue with our usual routine which had been helpful in filling our day with meaningful and fruitful work, but let us not be unmindful of the new challenges that certainly would also present themselves to us.

Let’s remember that the world is constantly evolving, and even if there are different times and conditions and things would just be the same in the end, there will always be new things that we need to deal with properly.

For us to discern these new things, we need to be most attentive to what God is prompting us in our prayer. He is always showing us the way for us to go. We should be quick to capture these promptings and act on them, coming up with plans and strategies that would involve new initiatives even as we retain the usual routine we have.

To take the initiative can only mean that we are following God’s primal command, the one given to our first parents: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) It is a command that has not become obsolete nor superseded. It remains effective, reaffirmed in the commandments given later.

To take the initiative can only mean that we should be discovering something new, conquering and covering new territories. It need not mean something new in a quantitative sense. It can mean something new in the qualitative sense. “Non multa sed multum,” goes a Latin expression that highlights that point. “Not many things, but much.”

So, it is possible that this duty of taking the initiative can be carried out even if we are doing the same things every day. We may be producing the same quantity of things every day, but there should be growth in the quality of the things produced, of the way we do things, and of the way we are.

In the end, taking the initiative should redound to our becoming more and more a child of God. There should be growth of love, in any and all of its manifestations, because love is the essence of God, and it is what makes us more and more like God as we should.

We have to be wary of our tendency to be contented at a certain level of human accomplishment. We have to do more to be more like God. That’s because love is not just sweet words, sweet feelings, but rather concrete deeds. And the character of true love involves being open to unlimited self-giving. It is given without measure.

Every day, we have to take initiatives. Otherwise, our spiritual growth gets stalled, stunted or stagnant. And later on, our soul becomes a breeding ground for everything that is the opposite of love.

We have to take initiatives in developing our spiritual and apostolic life. We can never say enough — that we are already okay. There will always be new challenges. That is due to our weakened and erratic human condition. God will always be asking for more even as he gives us more graces. He will always be asking us to look for new frontiers in our effort of personal sanctification and apostolate./WDJ