Welcome 2010! “It’s another new year! They say that this is the starting time of changing horizons and of building fresh ideas, of shifting to good attitudes and saying goodbyes to our old bad ways. But this time, I want to emphasize our gaze to our priests, to understand them in the two paradigms they are in ( between the demands of divine vocation and the limitations of their human conditions) and knowing them better as human persons and as God’s servants. One time that I passed by in our seminary library, I happened to browse a magazine telling a story about some conditions of the priests nowadays. I was struck to a blog comment written in it and widely spread to the net telling “A Priest is Always Wrong”. Being curious about it, I searched it through the “Google” and alas I found it!“If he begins his mass on time, his watch is advanced; If he begins a minute later, he keeps people waiting. If he preaches too long, he makes people get bored; If his homily is too short, he is unprepared. If he owns a car, he is luxurious; If he does not own one, he does not go with the times. If he goes out to visit families, he is always out: If he does not, he has no time for them. If he asks for donations, he is a moneymaker; If he does not do it, he is too proud and lazy. If he takes time in the confessional, he is too slow; If he makes it too fast, he has no time for his penitents. If he renovates the church, he throws away money; If he does not do it, he allows everything to rot away. If he is with the youth, he forgets the old. If he is seen with women, he is a playboy; If he goes with men, he is not normal; If he is young, he has no experience; If he is old, he should retire. As long as he lives, there are always people who are better than him;
BUT IF THE PRIEST DIES....THERE IS NOBODY TO TAKE HIS PLACE!” (http://www.madharasan.blogspot.com/2008/12/priest-is-always-wrong-because.html)
Perhaps upon reading this blog article, you may find it cliché but in a true sense it captures the realities and challenges that confront our priest today. Are you one of those who are commenting such litany of negative things to a priest?
It is often a challenge to all of us to comprehend realities especially if it is under the state of inconsistencies particularly in matters about priesthood. The Year of Priest as it was started last June 2009 and will end up this June 2010 will be a time for us to set new horizons in seeing and dealing with our priests. We may considered it as a hallowed inspiration that the year is aptly heralded by the image of a cleric who is, by world’s measures, so inadequate that he could very well personify what could be called substandard, insufficient and unworthy (BF. 333).
They are not perfect beings incapable of mistakes and limitations but they are like us who are in need of support, prayers and understanding. As Pope Benedict mentioned in one of his homilies addressed to the priests “the ascent toward the shepherd's ministry is the Cross. This is the true way to rise; this is the true door. It is not the desire to become "someone" for oneself, but rather to exist for others, for Christ, and thus through him and with him to be there for the people he seeks, whom he wants to lead on the path of life.
Dear friends, let us pray ever anew for this intention, for the sanctification of our beloved priests so that through them, the image of Christ will grow within us and through their works and ministries will make us united in Christ and become more ever deeper.
BY : Allen Iñigo, SSS
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