So, who needs priests anyway? It seems to me that priests are a dying breed. I don’t have the stats but it would seem that many seminaries and convents in Europe and in the USA are closing down due to lack of vocations. Many churches in the USA, Canada, Australia, etc. have now been taken over by priests coming from the Third World, the Philippines, India or Africa. And it’s not necessarily because these visiting missionaries do a better job either. On the contrary, the priesthood happens to be one of those professions which requires excellent language proficiency skills. Hence, it would take almost superhuman effort for these foreign priests just to get by or to be understood in English. But then of course you might say they are in the “miracle” business. In that sense, their “exotic” English might just prove to be the element needed in a business that thrives on “mystery” or “mysticism.” Can you ever imagine a preacher who has to grope for words in the middle of his sermon? Jesus was never lacking for words. Any small-town fire-and-brimstone preacher from the so-called Bible belt in the southern part of the USA can easily whip up a storm of a sermon with his eloquence that would put Katrina to shame. Indeed, just like lawyers, priests can only exercise their profession mostly with the (clever) use of words or delicately-crafted phrases that appeal to the heart. Unlike doctors or engineers or accountants who only have to say “aaah,” wield a slide rule, or choose between debit or credit, priests and lawyers it seems have a lot of explaining to do to be believed. Speaking of which, I believe that preaching is part and parcel of a priest’s work. A physician heals, a lawyer argues, a carpenter builds, a priest preaches. After all, it was one of the last instructions of Jesus Christ: “Go…make disciples (i.e., proselytize, preach)… baptize…” Mt. 28:19. Is it any wonder then that one of the oldest religious societies (15th century) was the Dominican Order, otherwise known as the Order of Preachers (Ordo Praedicatorum)? In obedience to their divine mandate, it was they who first preached the Gospel in this country and, for good or ill, made Christians of us all. There was a time when becoming a priest must have been every other boy’s secret dream. In our town of Sta. Rita, Pampanga, for instance, there was a time when virtually every prominent family had a brother or close relative who either became a priest or at least went to the seminary and tried to become one. In my time alone, the Ricaforts sent no less than four or five cousins to the seminary. The Gosiocos had a Jesuit. My first cousin “Koyang Ditong” was an ordained deacon. He has two sisters who became Benedictine nuns. Our cousin, “Cong Paking” (or “Among,” as priests are called in Pampanga), recently retired as parish priest of Angeles City. He also had 2 sisters who became nuns. My late mother’s uncle was bishop of San Fernando, Pampanga. I could go on and on. I’m sure everyone has his/her own story about religious vocations in the family. While I was in the seminary, I had a classmate, Fil Leones, who hails from some remote town in Abra, an SVD stronghold, who himself became an SVD priest. He was later joined by no less than 3 other brothers, two of whom I believe were likewise ordained. How does one try to explain this phenomenon? Isn’t there anything else for a young boy to think about in that God-forsaken province than dedicating himself to serving the Hidden God? Nowadays, however, I don’t know of any cousin or friend who has a close relative in the seminary anymore. They have all gone to enroll in computer engineering, medicine, nursing, caregiving or becoming seafarers. Most families I know now have relatives in the Middle East, in Dubai, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia; in all major cities of the world, London, Rome, Hongkong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, etc., not as missionary priests and religious but for something a bit more mundane and invariably expressed in a foreign currency. Evidently, many of our young people have never heard of the ancient if significant philosophical admonition “facere sequitur esse;” literally, “to do follows to be.” Tell me what you do and I’ll tell you who you are. It cannot be helped. You are what you do. Let’s face it: a doctor smells of medicine; an undertaker almost always looks like Good Friday; a mechanic must be closely related to Mama Mary, full of grease; and a banker sees nothing but $$$ signs (“mukhang pera”). Nowadays, people look at a priest or hear of a relative/friend becoming a priest and ask, “sigurado ka bang bakla siya?” A young man was asked why he entered the seminary. He replied: “Kasi ayaw nila akong tanggaping magmadre.” Is it simply a case of “weder-weder” or signs of the times? Time was when the priest was virtually the focal point of the town, at least the church was. Go into any old town in the Philippines, its civic center or town plaza is practically the church courtyard. As kids riding with our parents in our family car on that long trip from Baguio to Sta. Rita, Pamp. to attend our town fiesta, and passing through all those towns along the way, we knew we were getting close to the next town whenever we spotted the church belfry or steeple in that town. It was practically the only imposing structure or landmark in every town. Now, people do their thing at an SM Mall – “we’ve got it all for you.” And, that includes Sunday church services. Everything of any consequence used to happen or was held in church. If the rebels were coming, everybody would run to the church. There is no town fiesta without a religious procession, preceded by nine days of prayers/novena to the church’s patron saint. Every important family event had to have a priest invited to officiate, grace or bless the occasion. Aside from being served first and only the best food and drinks, the priest would usually go home with loads of goodies and some cash. Nowadays, people invite their councilor or congressman instead and mainly for some donation or to borrow his tarpaulin tent and plastic chairs. To make matters worse, many of our priests are leaving the priesthood, ostensibly because they cannot seem to find any more meaning in their life or chosen vocation, or they feel they have only one life to live and they desperately want to live it to the full. More often, however, there is this young pretty thing with a sanctifying name like Faith, Hope, Rosario or even Grace, who has suddenly given flesh to their otherwise abstract metaphysical ideal or meaningless or sterile existence. There is also a great tendency for many priests these days to leave their vestments in the sacristy and to engage in affairs, let me re-phrase that, to get involved in careers, which used to be exclusively the domain of laymen. Now, for instance, they also want to become psychologists, psychiatrists, agriculturists, lawyers, faith healers, engineers, TV personalities or even politicians. Many blame Vatican II for this noticeable shift in career preference. What makes it even more confusing is that some laymen these days want to take over the role traditionally performed by priests. So, where or how does a priest fit in the general scheme of things these days? In this age of specialization, when scientists, professionals and even businessmen will specialize and concentrate on minute little things like a particular bacteria, a dreaded or unknown disease, or a particular area of the brain, trade in some specialized spare parts for new-fangled gizmos, the general practitioner has become fossilized. Who needs a priest who wants to be all things to all men? On the other hand, one needs only to peruse the morning paper to realize that our world seems to be spinning out of control in the wrong direction. Millions are dying from famine and internecine wars, senseless killings, murders, rapes, grand theft, plunder and large-scale scams and frauds, greed and rape of the environment. More than ever, I believe the world needs priests, more priests, better priests. Let’s face it – man was born without any operating manual. We really do not know –at least we’re not so sure about - the meaning of life, why we exist, and especially where are going. We know so much already, in fact too much about almost everything else. If we don’t there’s always Google. Lord knows it’s not so much more knowledge we need. Man is weak by nature. It takes more than right conscience to produce good behavior. That’s the role of religion – to remind us, to inspire us, to motivate us to be good and to do good; to be able to do the right thing, the ethical, moral or proper thing, even when no one is looking. That’s where a priest comes in. We need him to speak to our heart, to appeal to our soul and to inspire us to aspire for something that’s supposed to be even better, greater than this life. We need priests constantly to remind us, to convince us, to demonstrate to us in some heroic manner and degree, by their very lives and lifestyle: “Hindi po dito nagtatapos ang ating mundo.” In brief, as I have tried to remind Fr. Jerry O time and time again, I will always need a spiritual guide, leader or counselor, just as I will need a doctor or lawyer; someone I can look up to for inspiration in this difficult battle with the forces of evil and the snares of Satan. It’s true that laymen can and do try to lend each other some moral support, counsel and guidance for us to be able to see the light. However, left to our own devices, we laymen are constantly in danger of losing our way, forgetting our true destiny, or otherwise getting attracted to or hoodwinked by other forms of lights, more engaging lights, twinkling lights, “yung patay-sindi.” I am weak. I am a great sinner. I need a priest who like Moses will help me and guide me until I reach the Promise Land. I need a priest, a spiritual hero, the wind beneath my spiritual wings, constantly to inspire me by word and action that he lives for and by one principle and one principle alone, by the message of his Master who once told Pontius Pilate: “Regnum meum non est de hoc mundo.” My kingdom is not of this world. Jn. 18:36. That’s what I need a priest for, and badly. – James L.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:34:05 +0000
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