“BEFORE I formed you In the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” Such were the words of God to Jeremiah whom he called to be a prophet to Israel.
This calling was not going to be easy. Jeremiah would have to gird his loins, as in roll up his sleeves, to fulfill this hard work that demanded great courage to face stubborn, unresponsive, belligerent, and hateful people.
Those of us who have been called to be priests and ministers of God’s Word, who have laboriously fulfilled our responsibilities to bring God’s reign into this world, can testify to this experience of hardship. As we have plowed the mission fields, we have encountered rejection, apathy, lack of support, and unwillingness among people to participate in the mission of imbuing the world with love, justice, and peace.
It is even more difficult now to fulfill this task in this age of secularism when faith and religion do not matter anymore to many people. It is much harder now when the law, the media and the society have criticized and condemned the Catholic hierarchy for its irresponsibility and uncharitable handling of the past priests’ sexual abuse cases. Where would we draw our strength? How do we keep our faith and zeal for the ministry? How do we recover from our mistakes? How can we continue to convince people of our authentic motives of love for vocation? How can we inspire our young people to follow our path?
We’ll have to keep hearing the words of God to Jeremiah, “Be not crushed…for I am with you to deliver you.” We’ll have to keep remembering St. Paul’s fine descriptions of love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
We’ll have to appreciate the long line of history of Catholic bishops, priests, deacons, ministers, nuns, brothers and lay catechists who sacrificed their lives for their faith to proclaim the Good News to the world, like two of the newest canonized saints, Pedro Calungsod and Kateri Tekakwitha. We’ ll have to dig into the files of benevolence, care, and compassion that the Catholic Church has done for the poor, the weak, and the downtrodden through education, heath care, social and political reforms. Indeed, we’ll have to see the whole picture of how our Catholic faith has enriched the world, including the disciplines of medicine, music, arts, and literature.
For sure, many people who are successful in their professions because of the outstanding education they received from Catholic schools, colleges or universities feel indebted to their Catholic upbringing, not to mention the good moral values that they have inherited and are now passing on to their children and grandchildren.
We’ll never feel discouraged then; we’ll keep believing and sowing the seeds of the Gospel. We’ll keep working, living, and relating in hope, in faith, and in love that never fails!
* * *
Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
