God has called shepherds---the
priests to take care His flock here on earth. The zeal for pastoral work is
very important in the ministry of a priest in order to guide God’s flock.
Especially in the call for New
Evangelization, the priests are challenged “to go out to the ends of the earth and proclaim the message of God”.
The zeal for pastoral work cannot come instantly. It has to be developed. It
must turn into a habit…a virtue. Apostolate is a form of instilling the zeal
for pastoral work to the seminarians---‘the priests-in-the-making’. If a
seminarian cannot dedicate or commit himself to pastoral formation, then how
much more can he dedicate or commit himself to pastoral works when he becomes a
priest? As they say, “so a seminarian, so a priest!”
Archbishop
Socarates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan said in his pastoral letter, “Sadly brother priests, we have become
pastors of the status quo. We have slid down to just “maintaining” the church,
keeping the schedule, continuing the “order” of the day. This cannot continue.
We cannot be swivel chair pastors. We must get out to the barangays and public
schools, visit the charity wards of hospitals, teach catechism again, visit
homes again-make a “mess” in society. The problem is not priest shortage but
zeal shortage.” Indeed, his observation is right. With the present
situation of the faithful, the church needs a pastor who has the zeal to save
souls. The current issues such as loss of faith, degrading morality,
environmental problems and the like cannot just be solved in the pulpit. A
pastor has to go out and deal with those problems together with the faithful.
The new pastoral program of the Central Seminary can be a great help to breed
priests who have the zeal to respond to the challenges of the present time.
This is a call that every seminarian is invited to respond.
It
is quite unfortunate that the demands of the new pastoral program in the UST
Central Seminary seem to be unfavourable for some seminarians. Negative
feedbacks, complaints and signs of resistance circulate around. Conflict of
schedules and additional burden are the main concerns and reasons being brought
up. It cannot be denied that some seminarians are indeed struggling to adapt
the upgraded pastoral program of the seminary.
In
my case, I don’t find any problem with this new pastoral program. In fact, I am
very happy for this development of our pastoral formation. Since I heard about
it, I was already eager to start my apostolate and look forward for the next
schedule. My apostolate is to be emerged in the BEC program of the Santissimo
Rosario Parish. I am tasked to share my reflections regarding the gospel for
the Sunday and to join the people in their prayers. Hence, as the weekend
approaches, I already find myself researching and preparing the input of my
sharing. Even if some would laugh or criticize my enthusiasm for apostolate, I
don’t feel irritated or dismayed but rather I am more challenged to inspire
them to develop their passion for apostolate.
I
had my first apostolate before I enter the college seminary. With that
experience, from then on, doing apostolate has a special place in my heart. In
the remote areas where I stayed together with my fellow seminarians, I observed
the feeling of the people whom we visited. No matter how we looked like, they
surely felt the presence of God through our presence. They were very grateful
to us and this can be proven by the degree of their hospitality. We are treated
like kings. They served us foods which they themselves cannot afford to eat. It
is a great honor and privilege for them to have us as their visitors, to get
acquainted and form friendship with us. This is the first reason why I began to
love this kind of apostolate. By our mere presence, they felt that God is in
their midst and they feel very blessed. This experience may create a great
impact in their life as they will realize that after all and no matter how troublesome
their situation is, God still loves and cares for them. Their faith in God may
be reawaken and their hope be rekindled. This will further remind and inspire
them to live out their faith.
My
love for apostolate gradually heightened as I experienced more
apostolates. Back when I was in the
First Year Theology during our apostolate at Malasa, the sharing of my
classmate Jomar Solano reinforced my perspective of doing apostolate. He said (not in exact words), our apostolate is
not merely bringing the presence of God to the people but also for us
seminarians to encounter the presence of God in their midst. Indeed, God is not only present among us
seminarians but He is present in every one even with the poorest among the
poor. This is actually a big challenge for us because we hardly recognized
Christ among the marginalized, the suffering and the oppressed. Do we want to
hear Jesus say this to us: “I was hungry,
but you gave me no food; I was thirsty but you gave me no water; I was naked
but you gave me no clothes; I was imprisoned but you did not visit me”?
Furthermore,
aside from the privileges and opportunities to develop myself to serve the
church and His people through this apostolate, what is exceptional in doing
apostolate is my experience of God through the people. This is quite different
from the God that I encounter inside the walls of the seminary and the
classroom. It is a sort of a more realistic experience of God. The mercy and
compassion of God is revealed to me through their stories and experiences. Their
faith experience too is remarkable especially those who experience storms of
trials yet remained steadfast in their faith and continued to hope and trust
for Divine providence. For some of them, their faith may be just simple, but
deep in their hearts that faith is authentic. It may be true that they feel
grateful and blessed because of my presence, but I say I am more truly grateful
and blessed because of that faith experience. As a matter of fact, I feel
revitalized and reenergized after I came from apostolate. I become more
inspired to deepen my faith and more encouraged to be faithful to my calling.
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