IT must have been 10 years ago. A young university student approached me and confided to me that he had some intimations he was meant for the priesthood.
We talked a lot after that, spending hours just to sort things out. His parents wanted him to finish his college course first and, if possible, to work for a while. He was losing interest in his studies. And there was also that delicate affair of the heart that needed to be resolved.
Of course, these were very tricky matters. I had to act in the most prudent way I could to help him. For one, I had to make sure his wanting to enter the seminary was not a cover for his possible intellectual deficiency that could have led him to have a loss of interest in his college studies.
And many other factors had to be considered and weighed. But entering into his mind and heart, I gradually saw the elements of a priestly vocation as I managed to eliminate possible false reasons for him to want to be a priest. And so we devised a plan.
To make a long story short, he is now a priest, just newly ordained and conspicuously glowing with the joy of having his dream fulfilled, his calling answered properly. His supreme joy also became mine, and I thanked God profusely for this gift.
But I told him, his life has just begun. Or a new chapter has just been opened in which he has to write many beautiful things of love and fidelity, of heroic generosity and total self-giving even up to death, making himself a true holocaust of self-offering.
The twinkle in his eyes when he heard what I told him clearly said he was game to it, of course, with God’s grace and his efforts. Well, the fellow had already gone through some years of training and all sorts of experiences, making him confident he could hack it.
In a way, in spite of his young age, he is already a veteran in the ways of spiritual development and moral combat. He just needs to continue struggling, always to be on guard, but doing this very discreetly and naturally.
But I still felt I have to be there for him, which is actually not a special thing to do since all of us should be there for everybody else. This is the law of our life. We are meant for one another. We have to help one another in any way we can.
This time, I reminded him about the indispensable importance of prayer, of personal contact with God that has to be daily, even abiding all throughout the day, and that has to be constantly worked out, so that that prayer becomes effective, not just formalistic.
I told him that the life of priests certainly has a specific focus and purpose, but it is also open to anything. It’s in keeping one’s proper bearings in the midst of all the possibilities in life that constitutes a tough challenge to any priest. And what can guide him is when he prays.
Everyone of us should manage to pray whatever our circumstances may be. Prayer is to our soul what eating is to our body. It keeps us alive and healthy, since we would be contact with God, the food of our soul. In fact, the quality of our life boils down to the quality of our prayer.
To this new, young priest, I confided personal experiences regarding the tests and trials to be expected and the effort needed to be able to pray properly. There will be many temptations, reasons and excuses to delay and even miss prayer. These should be tackled frontally and decisively.
I even went to the extent of telling him that the first test of whether one is living sincerity and building an authentic Christian life, let alone, life as priest, is when he is sincere about his prayer. It’s the cornerstone of one’s spiritual life.
Without prayer, everything will just come out as a sham, a charade, a most pitiable one since the priesthood can be used to deceive a lot of people and can seriously corrupt the personal life a priest.
Everyone has to pray in such a way that we can echo St. Paul’s cry: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” We cannot exaggerate how important it is to really pray properly.
Everyone has to spare no effort to make his prayer real prayer.
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