IT’S, of
course, good that we constantly highlight God’s
call for us to follow him, to be holy and perfect as he
is, since we
have been created in his image and likeness. It’s good
that we are
always reminded to love, to pray, to make sacrifices, to
frequent the
sacraments, to develop virtues, to wage a life-long
ascetical
struggle, etc.
But we should
never forget that in spite of our best
intentions and efforts, we somehow also fall short of
what is expected
of us and that in the end we need God’s mercy to enable
us to attain
the dignity God is giving us.
Yes, God is
indeed very demanding of us. He wants
everything from us. He wants us to love him with all our
heart and to
love our neighbor, including our enemies, as we love
ourselves and
even as Christ himself has loved us by offering his life
for us. But
he is also very compassionate with the weak and the
sinners. As shown
by Christ, God gives special attention to them.
“As surely as I
live,” God said in the Book of Ezekiel, “I
take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather
that they turn
from their ways and live.” (33,11) And as shown by
Christ, God does
not wait for man to turn back to him. He takes the
initiative to reach
out to us, sinners.
In all the
miracles that he performed, Christ was more
interested in forgiving the sins of those involved than
in healing
them of their infirmities and predicaments. His love and
compassion
went beyond the concern for the bodily health of those
characters. He
focused more on their spiritual recovery.
We should not
forget that while God’s grace and mercy need
to be merited, he also gives them to us gratuitously. In
spite of our
best efforts, we really cannot deserve them. We may ask
for them as we
ought to do, but God gives them to us gratuitously. We
have to be wary
of the danger of Pelagianism, the erroneous belief that
we do not need
divine grace to choose good or evil, and to attain
holiness.
We have to see
to it that in proclaiming the gospel to the
others, in our effort to present Christ to the others, we
should not
simply talk about the strictness of God’s demands and
expectations
from us, the high standard that he is setting for us.
This will scare
people more than attract them to Christ. We should always
include
God’s mercy in all our preaching and counselling.
This will
always require an intimate relationship with God
himself to be able to come out with the proper mixture of
God’s
demanding ways and his ever-ready mercy. Priests
especially need to
know when he is too strict and harsh and when he is too
lenient.
That’s why they need to be truly men of God, souls of
prayer and solid
formation.
It is, of
course, very helpful if priests, for example,
would examine themselves regularly as to whether they are
presenting
Christ fairly to the people or whether they are
highlighting one side
of Christ to the detriment of the other side or angles or
aspects in
Christ’s life and teachings. It would be good if we,
priests, can find
a way of assessing whether the people are making progress
in their
spiritual life or not.
Some
consultations may be advisable, and also a mechanism
for getting feedbacks from the people. It may happen that
what may be
needed is just a very simple thing like changing the tone
of the voice
to make it more welcoming and understanding, etc.
Yes, priests
should be a father, doctor, friend, lawyer to
everyone especially in the sacrament of confession. In
fact, as St.
Paul once said, we should be “all things to all men to
save some.” (1
Cor 9,22)
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