How do we gain credibility?

IT’S a question every priest, consecrated person and

anyone with some special vocation and mission in life should ask

himself frequently. If politicians, salesmen and advertisers

continually examine themselves against this standard, how much more

those of us who are entrusted with a divine mission to serve the

People of God in their spiritual needs!

  

            In this Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons, let us

pray that the Pope, bishops, priests and those with some special

divine vocation and mission be always credible in their preaching and,

more importantly, in their lifestyle.

  

            I imagine that to be truly credible, we have to be vitally

identified with Christ so that what was said of him can also be said

of us. Let’s remember that when he entered a synagogue in Capernaum

and began to preach, the people were astonished because he preached

with authority unlike the scribes. (cfr. Mt 7,29) He always attracted

big crowds.

  

            We priests, religious and all those with special vocations

should aim at acquiring the credibility of Christ. This will obviously

require that we learn to assume the very mind and heart of Christ.

This would presume, aside from being sacramentally conformed to Christ

as head of the Church and receiving a special vocation, that we pray

always, thoroughly study the doctrine of our faith, wage constant

struggle and renewal, etc.

  

            The idea is that we live out what Christ first told the

apostles—that those who hear the apostles, actually would hear Christ

and the one who sent Christ. (cfr  Lk 10,16) There should be a stable

consistency between who we are and for whom we work.

  

            Everyday, we have to see to it that we grow in our

identification with Christ to such an extent that we can confidently

say that we are only thinking of God and of the others, that we are

only talking about God and that everything else that is earthly and

temporal is always related to God. That should be orbit of our

thoughts, words and deeds.

  

            Let us hope that we can arrive at that point when we can

feel very much at home with the things of God and the spiritual needs

of the people, and when we can talk with ease and with conviction

about God and the people.

  

            Let us hope that, like Christ, we can offer the proper

truths of our faith relevant to a particular issue or concern. And

that we can convey these truths with charity, knowing how to adapt

them properly to the concrete circumstances of the people, times and

place.

  

            Let us hope that people can see in us Christ himself. Our

lifestyle should be such that people get inspired to love Christ and

everybody else more and more when they see and listen to us.

  

            This is not an easy thing to do, of course. In fact, it

can seem to be impossible. But with God’s grace and our humble and

constant effort, we can hack it. Christ has given us everything so

that his presence and redemptive work can still continue with us and

through us.

  

            We just have to train ourselves to abidingly identify

ourselves with Christ and with the people. For this, we have to submit

to an appropriate plan that would help us to revolve our thoughts,

words and deeds around Christ and the needs of the people.

  

            And so we have to find time for quiet and intimate

meditations and reflections, ever strengthening and sharpening our

awareness of God’s presence and his will and ways.