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Everyone
knows that in life, one has to learn how to shift gears. We,
more or less, have what we consider as our normal life speed
and rhythm. But we also realize there are times we need to
go faster, and times to go slower.
A
variation to this is our need also to know when to get hot
and when to get cold, when to act and move and when to study
and reflect. As the Book of Ecclesiastes expresses it beautifully:
"All
things have their season, and in their times all things pass
under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die…"
(3,1-2)
I
just wish to reiterate and enlarge on what it says about "all
things pass under heaven."
To
my mind, what it implies is that we should to get in touch
with heaven, with God, that is, to pray always no matter what,
so as to get the proper sense of timing for the different
things that come our way and that we do.
This
practice, which should develop into a skill and a permanent
operative feature in life, is urgently needed these days as
we can't help but be dragged into the accelerating and dizzying
pace of development.
Even
our most indifferent, asocial bystander of our times is easily
sucked into this whoosh of developments. And often with disastrous
results, precisely because they don't know for the most part
what is happening. He just rides…for a fall.
We
need to know when to go fast and when to go slow, when to
get close and hot, and when to be distant to get a bigger
view. For this, we need to pray to be able to connect the
dots and get a better perspective.
With
prayer we can get immersed in things, and yet transcend them,
not imprisoned by them. When we pray, we can distinguish between
the absolute and the relative values of things.
Prayer
enhances, not restrains, our analyzing and synthesizing powers,
affording us greater depth and scope. It enables us to conform
our earthly affairs to our eternal destiny.
In
this regard, we have to be wary of tendencies, specially pronounced
in certain sectors, to badger us to act on instincts alone,
if not on passions and anger. Prudence, reason, faith, patience
and mercy take the back seat, if they get the chance at all.
When
hot issues erupt in public, usually emanating from the world
of politics and eagerly amplified in the media, we have to
be very cautious. Our experience should abundantly teach us
that outrage is hardly a reliable force to lead us to real
progress.
Radical
and lasting changes in our society don't come in an instant,
through things like "People Power", coups, exposes,
illegal changes of administration… Who are we kidding?
Let's
stop playing naïve.
Genuine
changes and transformations have to correspond to our true
nature as a human person and to our dignity as a child of
God. They cannot take place when that nature and dignity is
sidelined to give way to so-called ideological and social
imperatives of the moment.
When
name-calling, coercion to extract the truth some like to hear,
sweeping and reckless denunciations, out-of-the-legal tactics
and other savage barbarities are resorted to, we should be
alerted to be more discerning in prayer.
Remember
Pilate asking Christ what truth is? He had the truth right
before him, and that truth just kept quiet. When we don't
pray, we will miss the truth, or detach truth from charity.
We become prone to mob mentality.
Evil
forces and malicious designs have a clever way to look good,
legit and popular. We have to be sober to sift things well.
Let's pray for our politicians, media people and all of us,
so we avoid playing into the devil's hands.
The
road to development and progress is long, winding and narrow.
The gate to perdition is wide, easy and enticing. Remember
what our Lord said:
"Enter
by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy,
that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life…"
(Mt 7,13-14)
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Fr.
Roy Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise
(CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. You can email him at:Email: roycimagala@boholchronicle.com | 
