By Fr. Roy Cimagala

THAT’S how priests, and others in similar position, should be. They, we—me included—have to be tough and strong because aside from bearing our own personal burdens, from contending with our own personal demons, we also have to bear the burdens of the others. It is no joke to serve like the receptacle of the problems of the others and to find ways to help them.

Since we priests usually hear confessions and give counseling and spiritual direction to others, we cannot help but be affected somehow by what we hear. And the problems of some people can be so heavy and heart-wrenching that we end up exhausted, practically emptied of any strength and energy.

The worse part is what to say as advice and how to say it. It indeed is a big challenge to be able to present the mercy and love of God when the people’s problems seem to have no human solution or when their miseries and weaknesses seem to be persistent and insurmountable despite their efforts.

In these cases, the challenge is how to present God’s love in such a way that his love and mercy is seen as soothing, acceptable and meaningful. The challenge is how to present God’s love such that even if pain and suffering are unavoidable, people can see that God’s love takes care of everything. They would realize that what they cannot solve, God will always solve it for them in his own mysterious ways.

There is no doubt that a lot of spiritual and supernatural means are needed here. We have to pray that the people’s faith gets stirred and enlivened, that their hope gets reaffirmed and strengthened, that their love for God gets enkindled.

Aside from prayer, a lot of sacrifices are also needed. Prayer and sacrifices vitally unite and identify us with Christ who is the one to give us all the strength and light we need. Let’s remember what St. Paul said in this regard: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13)

Yes, it’s only with Christ and in him that we priests can truly be tough and strong as we should be as we carry out our ministry of helping people in their spiritual and moral life that can be filled with all sorts of problems and challenges.

Our toughness should be the toughness of Christ who was and continues to be willing to bear all the problems of men, and goes all the way to offer his life for the salvation of men.

With Christ and in him, our toughness would also know how to be tender and gentle, how to be understanding, compassionate and empathetic, as described in this passage from the gospel of St. Matthew: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not extinguish, till he leads justice to victory.” (12,20)

While our toughness will always be a fruit, first of all, of God’s grace, it will also depend on our proper attitude, skills and virtues. What we have to do first is to rein in but not suppress our emotions and passions, subjecting them to the tenets of our faith rather than just the impulses of our hormones.

We have to learn how not to overdramatize the pain and suffering involved in bearing the burdens of the others. This is important because this will help us to think more objectively, and therefore enabling us to make better judgments and assessments of things.

What can also be helpful is the consideration that when we exert the effort—sometimes the heroic effort—to bear the burdens of the others with Christ, we are actually already helping them greatly.

It is the truth about the communion of saints that assures us that whatever we suffer for the others will always redound to their own good.

***

Assuming Christ’s identity. There’s no doubt about it. We are meant to assume the identity of Christ, because he is the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity. We can only be as we ought to be when we assume Christ’s identity. That is to say, when Christ and us become one.

A fantasy? A gratuitous exaggeration? Would we not fall into some grave presumption here or some psychological disorder? Such reactions, of course, are understandable. As they say, we are only human (sapagkat kami’y tao lamang), and so we can never aspire to be like Christ, much less, to be Christ himself.

But Christ himself said so in so many words. “He who hears you hears me,” he said, “and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who reject me rejects him who sent me.” (Lk 10,16) Though spoken directly to his apostles, such words can also be addressed to all of us.

More than that, his ardent prayer before he entered into his passion and death was that we be one with him and he is one with his Father. “…that all of them may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you. May they also be in us… that they may be one as we are one, I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity…” (Jn 17,21.23)

That is why St. Paul went to the extent of saying he had the mind of Christ. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?” he asked. “But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2,16)

And what is to have the mind of Christ? St. Paul offers some ideas. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,” he said. “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2,5-8)

To be like Christ, to have his mind, to assume Christ’s identity, to be “another Christ” as some theologians have described what the ideal is for us is to be humble, to be obedient, to love everyone, including the enemies, to be willing to suffer for all, to preach the truth, to have the attitude of wanting to serve and not to be served, etc.

To be sure, for us to be “another Christ’ is not our initiative. It is God’s initiative for which he has given us all the means for it to take place. He has given us his word and his sacraments. He has given us the Church and the many instrumentalities it possesses.

In the end, he has given us Christ himself, the living Christ who offers his life for us, in the Holy Eucharist. Christ makes himself so available to us that we can have him for the taking.

We really have no reason why we cannot assume Christ’s identity. Of course, we have to do our part. We have to want and to love him. Before that, we have to know him more and more, perhaps through regular reading and meditation of his life and teaching as contained in the gospels. Not only should we be familiar with his words and deeds, but should also make those words and deeds as our own.

This will require a certain plan of life that will always bring us to Christ whatever the situation and circumstance of our life. But it would not be wrong if very often during the day we remind ourselves, “I am another Christ. I have to see things, understand them and react to them, as Christ would!” We have to overcome the initial awkwardness to enter into the ultimate reality meant for us.

E-mail: roycimagala@gmail.com