Purity of intentions

I'M really sorry for making this kind of reminder. I know it sounds like a mini-lecture. No one likes it, me included. But the world has reasons why such reminders should be given, at least from time to time.

With all the proliferation of sounds, data, images and events we have to deal with everyday, we can truly get overwhelmed and left confused and perplexed. This is a dangerous situation, since it can invite passivity on our part.

This, to me, is the reason why some experts have warned us, for example, about the mindless and frequent use of TV and other gadgets. They seem to leave us sedated and desensitized to necessary critical reasoning.

Our thinking, reflecting and discerning capacity is undermined, while our senses and passions get over-stimulated. We tend to lose our sense of direction.

This is when we become most prone to the impulses and urges of our instincts and our hormones, making us more material-bound rather than oriented to reason and faith.

This is when our behavior gets reduced to reacting simply to sensible and often external stimuli while the world of reason, of logic, and especially of faith and other spiritual realities is ignored.

A situation like this can easily be taken advantage of by unscrupulous individuals, that is, those with twisted and warped intentions. And I think that's what we are seeing now these days.

We normally say that some people are exploiting the impressionable young or the "masa" or the "bakya" crowd, to refer to this phenomenon. But there are now many other forms and ways in which this exploitation is taking place these days.

Even the so-called educated classes are not exempt from this exploitation. Sad to say, they may even be the ones who take the lead in this exploitation because of certain advantages they enjoy over others.

That's why we have to strongly remind ourselves to fight to keep our intentions pure and clean, and our consciences properly formed and grounded on authentic values, principles, and criteria. We cannot take this task for granted.

Otherwise, there is no other way but to get lost, and to create a culture, a society precisely marked by a real mess, if not trouble and all the other unwelcome companions that go with it.

This battle for the purity of intentions is very crucial. This is because intentions are the seeds and roots of our actions. They are what give shape and direction to one's life.

St. Paul said as much: "If the first handful of dough is holy, so also is the lump of dough. And if the root is holy, so also are the branches." (Rom 11,16)

But what do we see? Many people are playing around with their intentions, rather than doing everything for God and for the common good, in compliance to St. Paul's dictum, "Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do all for the glory of God" (1Cor 10,31).

These abuses are rampant especially in the world of politics and business. Of course, these abuses can only mirror the extent of twisted intentions at the level of the person and the individual.

Surely, the world of intentions is a difficult one. In the first place, it is something hidden, something so intimate to us. How easy indeed to take advantage of an objectively good act, but attaching to it a questionable intention!

The classic example is almsgiving. In itself, it is a very good act. But when done for vanity rather than for charity, it then becomes an evil act.

Things like this are happening in abundance these days. Many people do not realize that by deceiving others, they first deceive themselves. In a way, one's intentions define the kind of person one is. There is no escaping from it.

We may manage to deceive others, but we can never manage to deny that we are not deceiving ourselves by having an evil or at least a questionable intention.

This is precisely what makes a sin. It is when one knowingly and intentionally does something contrary to the law of God, to the common good, to his own conscience.

For purity of intentions to take place, one first of all needs to pray, needs to be really close to God. He needs to constantly develop virtues to facilitate good and proper intentions.

He also needs to have his conscience properly formed. Lastly, he needs to rectify his intentions frequently everyday, for endless are the chances for the initial good intention to get corrupted along the way.

E-mail roycimagala@hotmail.com