IT was quite a
stinging statement Pope Francis made before
a group of new bishops back in September. “The world is
tired of
charming liars, and I might say, of ‘trendy’ priests or
‘trendy’
bishops,” he said. “People can ‘smell’ it...when they see
narcissists,
manipulators, defenders of their own causes, and bandits
of vain
crusades.”
He instead
urged them to make their ministry an “icon of
mercy, the only force capable of permanently attracting
man’s heart.”
He said that “mercy should form and inform the pastoral
structures of
our Churches.”
Obviously, when
I read those words, I immediately felt the
need to examine myself if indeed I have become one of
those “charming
liars” and “trendy priests.” It can happen that even
without intending
it, one can fall through a certain conspiracy of
circumstances into
that notorious category. That has happened before. It can
happen now.
It cannot be
denied that if the Pope says there are such
priests and bishops, then we need to look at oneself
first and then to
look around to see what can be done with this unfortunate
phenomenon.
I suppose the Pope himself is doing is own
self-examination in this
regard, and is precisely offering some ideas of how to
avoid those
dangers.
Perhaps the
only mitigating consideration one can make out
of these hard words of the Pope is that this class of
charming liars
is not exclusive only to priests and bishops. If priests
and bishops
can be such charming liars and manipulators, you can just
imagine the
field of politicians, lawyers, doctors, journalists, etc.
But, of course,
when these charges are thrown to the
clerics, they acquire a heavier and more serious gravity
due to the
very delicate ministry they carry out. That is why I
think it is time
to examine what kind of leaven, of motivation, is driving
us in our
work.
Remember Christ
saying, “Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees,” (Mt 16,6) referring to
their teaching
and lifestyle. “They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear,
and lay them on
men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them
with their
finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men...they
love the
place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the
synagogues...” (Mt
23,4-6)
We should see
to it that we always rectify our intentions
in doing whatever work we do. We should always do
everything for the
glory of God and in the service of all men. Our attitude
should always
be to serve and not to be served.
This was the
attitude of Christ himself. He said once,
“The Son of man also came not to be served but to serve,
and give his
life as a ransom for many.” (Mk 10,45)
This is what
love is all about, love in its most distilled
form. It goes beyond merely wishing others well, or
giving something
and sharing things. This is love in action, in total
self-giving even
if nothing can be gained by doing so.
Besides, it is
a love done in total obedience and
availability to his loved ones, the Father and us. For
love is true
when done both at the instance of the loved ones and of
one’s personal
gratuitous initiative.
We have to do
everything to acquire, develop and enrich
this attitude in ourselves and among ourselves, inspiring
and
inculcating it in others as much as we can, for it is
what truly
proper of us all.
It’s not that
we cannot and should not care about
ourselves or pursue interests that are beneficial to us.
We can and,
in fact, should. But all that should be done as a
function of the love
of God, for what is truly good for us is when what we do,
either for
us or for others, is inspired by the love of God.
Otherwise, it would
be harmful to us.
It is God’s
love that gives us what is truly good to all
of us. Our own approximations of love that are not
inspired by God’s
love can only go so far, and most likely will end up
harming us more
than helping us.
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