Three tips to be an awesome Priest

Three Tips to be an Awesome Priest

“If you really want to be an awesome priest, I suggest you 3 things:

Be secure with your identity,

Build genuine Human Relationships and Dialogue and

Stand up for things you feel are not right (diplomacy does not help).” Marina D’Costa  

        The above quoted words make me think and reflect about my life as a consecrated religious. One day as Api Marina D’Costa and I were chatting, she gave me 3 tips “to be an awesome priest.” Even after many days these points keep lingering in my mind, so I decide to share with Fr. Anthony, a good friend of mine. The sharing lasts for two hours. Here I would like to put down the fruit of the dialogue on the three suggestions to be a good priest.

Be secure with your identity:  

 Father Anthony asked me: ‘What is your identity?’ I replied, ‘son of God.’ Again he asked, ‘who gave you birth?’ My Parents, I answered. He said to me, “if you love your parents, brothers and sisters, you are deeply human. And your first identity is to be truly human. He adds, grace is built on nature.” I agree whatever he said because only good human person can also be a good religious. In the context of religious life, prayer is important, without which one can be lost in the work and later questions one’s own identity. Jesus himself sets a good example: “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). In another passage we find: “He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with Him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message” (Mark 3:14). “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Indeed, a monk who does not pray is sure to undergo identity crisis.

Build genuine Human Relationships and Dialogue:  

Jesus’ final commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). He also mentions: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Jesus clearly calls for genuine love relationship; to love as He loves. A person who is sure of his identity will be able to build good human relationships. Daily personal prayer will purify one’s soul and heart to love God and people more and more. Building genuine human relationship is not a safe state, one may fail many times but the humility to strive towards it should be kept alive.  

Stand up for things you feel are not right (diplomacy does not help):

 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer 1:4). One of the tasks of a prophet is to speak up for the truth. However, one should keep in mind that every person has good side and bad side, so one has to be very polite and prudent in pointing out the mistakes and wrongs. However, if one seeks for cheap popularity and fails to tell the right thing then the purpose of being a religious is defeated.

  These threefold values are not achieved once and for all. They are to be consciously strived for. They are interconnected and the success in the 1st step will lead to the growth in the second and the third steps respectively. Similarly, identity crisis will lead to the downfall in human relationships and inner principles.

At the end of the day, what counts is love. How much one loves? St. Paul beautifully explains the meaning of love: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I hand over my body so that I boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (I Corinthians 13:1-7).

Don Bosco says, “Learn to make yourself loved.” Love is so important in human relationship. How does one acquire this energy to love? It is received from the time spent before the Lord. It is the love that comes from within; the overflowing love of God. The three principles can be summed up in one word: “Christ’s Love.” 

Everthing for Christ’s love.