SIMBANG GABI 2017
YEAR OF THE CLERGY AND
CONSECRATED PEOPLE
DECEMBER 22, 2017
Jesus, I trust in you!
Elizabeth called Mary blessed
because she believed that everything told to her by the Lord would be
fulfilled. Mary’s response was a song that the Holy Spirit inspired her to
sing. In this song, she acknowledged the greatness of the Lord who looked upon
her with great kindness. Elizabeth’s praise is the first of so many people who
would call her blessed simply because the Almighty has done great things for
her.
However, Mary’s song goes beyond
thanking God for favors she personally received from him. She recognized how
God is now moving in order to bring about the renewal of the entire created
world. She sings of God’s mercy inverting the established worldly order: the
proud being scattered in their conceit; the mighty being cast down from their
throne and the lowly being lifted up; the hungry being filled with good things
and the rich being sent away empty…This inversion of the world order is the
breaking in of the Kingdom of God in the world. Wherever the gospel is preached
to the poor, wherever the brokenhearted are healed, wherever the oppressed and
the prisoners are freed, the Kingdom of God is found. The Kingdom of God is the
gathering of people around Christ so that they may share in his Divine life. In
this gathering of believers, Christ’s law of charity, justice and mercy is
lived out.
The priest plays an important role
in establishing on earth the Kingdom of God. “Priests exercise the function of
Christ as Pastor and Head in proportion of their share in authority. In the
name of the bishop, they gather the family of God as a brotherhood endowed with
the spirit of unity and lead it in Christ through the Spirit to God the Father.
For the exercise of this ministry, a spiritual power is given them, a power
whose purpose is to build up.” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 6.) The work of the
priest is to gather and build up the family of God. He builds the kingdom of
Christ by treating everybody with great kindness and by acting towards people
according to the demands of Christian doctrine and life: “Be urgent in season
and out of season, convince (manghikayat), rebuke (magsaway), and exhort
(magpayo), be unfailing in patience and in teaching.” (2 Tim 4:2) His work is
to educate people to reach Christian maturity: “Christians must be trained so
as not to live only for themselves. Rather, according to the demands of the new
law of charity, every man as he has received grace, ought to minister it one to
another, and in this way all should carry out their duties in a Christian way
in the service of their fellow men.” (PO, 6.)
“Although priests owe service to
everybody the poor and the weaker ones have been committed to their care in a
special way. It was with these that the Lord himself associated, and the
preaching of the Gospel to them is given as a sign of his messianic mission.”
(PO, 6.) The Magnificat is fulfilled not through an armed struggle or a class
war. It is fulfilled in the exercise of charity, of mercy, and of justice. The
inversion of the world order takes place through conversion – the conversion of
the Church so that it may be a church for the poor. Pope Francis said: “I want
a Church which is poor and for the poor.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 198.) The priest
not only leads the community in works of charity for the poor. He must also
allow the poor to be evangelizers themselves.
“We need to let ourselves be evangelized by (the poor). The new
evangelization is an invitation to acknowledge the saving power at work in
their lives and to put them at the center of the Church’s pilgrim way. We are
called to find Christ in them, to lend our voices to their causes, but also to
be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them, and to embrace the
mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them.” (EG, 198.)
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
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