The need to deepen our faith and piety
By Fr. Roy Cimagala Chaplain
Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE)
Talamban, Cebu City
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
IF we want to avoid falling into complacency and familiarity in our relation with God, we need to continually deepen our faith and piety. We are reminded of this need in that gospel episode where the townmates of Christ failed to recognize him properly. (cfr. Mt 13,54-58)
“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Jude,” they said in disbelief, “and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence therefore hath he all these things?”
To fall into complacency and familiarity in our relation with God is a very common danger to us, and is at bottom a result of letting simply our senses, feelings and our other ways of purely human estimation to guide us rather than our faith that is lived in piety.
It’s understandable that with the flow of time, we fall into some familiarity, lukewarmness, routine, complacency in our commitments. We should not make a big fuss over it. We are quite aware that “familiarity breeds contempt,” a phenomenon that should not be surprising given our wounded nature. Obviously, we have to do something about it.
We know that we always have the tendency to get used to things and to fall into routine. We start building our own world that would depend only on our very limited and fragile powers. Our worldview would have us as the very center of the universe. Everything would be regarded exclusively in relation to us.
Little by little, we would be isolating ourselves from others, and especially from God. What would worsen things is the false sensation that we can be on our own, that we can afford not to be related to others because of the new technologies that can intoxicate us into thinking that we are very powerful.
We have to be more aware of this danger of complacency and familiarity and install the necessary defenses against it. More than that, we have to aggressively cultivate the art of always being amazed at God and at all his works. That should be the proper state for us to be in.
We have to understand, though, that this abiding state of amazement that we should try to develop is not a matter simply of sensations. Of course, it would be good if we can always feel amazed and in awe. But given the limitations of our bodily organism, we cannot expect that to happen all the time.
The ideal abiding state of amazement is more a matter of conviction, of something spiritual, moral and supernatural. It should be the result of grace that is corresponded to generously and heroically by us.
It is a state of amazement that sooner or later, of course, will have some external manifestations like an aura of serenity and confidence even in the midst of great trials and suffering. It will most likely show itself in the lilt in one’s voice, optimism in his reactions to events, a smile, a warm word of praise and encouragement to others, etc.
Yes, we have to learn to grapple with our tendency to fall into complacency and familiarity by deepening our faith and piety. A good and healthy attitude to develop is to just begin and begin again in our relation with God, putting more love and affection in our piety.
We have to learn how to renew ourselves, or how to have another conversion since conversion is going to be a lifelong necessity for us.