An Opportunity of God’s Grace.
My Dear Archbishops and Bishops,
Monsignor and Priests, Sisters and Deacon, Ladies and Gentlemen,
They were nice days, spent together. There is that psalm which you all know: “How nice it is to be together Brothers and Sisters. It is like oil flowing on the beard of Aaron, carrying with it a soothing effect.” Having one mind and one heart we put our heads together to forge the new prongs for the Catholic Church of to-morrow. We have already begun to live the Church of to-morrow as soon as the meeting was over.
It was a joy to hear the names of Peter and Paul, as approved leaders of our Movement.
This is how genuine we are in our aims of setting up a Prelature which gives honor and glory to the out-standing Apostles “St. Peter and Paul Catholic Prelature.” We learn the following from St. Peter:
“Your minds, then must be sober and ready for action, put all your hope in the grace brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Do not allow yourselves to be shaped by the passions of your old ignorance, but as obedient children, be yourselves holy in all your activity, after the model of the holy one who calls us, since Scripture says:“Be holy, for I am holy.”(St. Peter 1:13-16) Such writing of St. Peter was taken as literally applying to us, who had been made to believe that we were holy, because we were celibate. But it is the more meaningful and demanding on us to-day married priests. Because this holiness is now to be fully shared in our families. As we married, the priestly holiness, touched the outer members of the mystical body, the community we serve.
Then St. Paul, in the letter to the Philippians has the following for us: “Have the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and being one in soul and mind. Do not do anything from selfish ambition, or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble towards each other, never thinking you are better than others. And look out for each others interests, not just for your own.”(Phil. 2:2b-4).
Even if we were only to live on these two scripture quotations from the patrons of our Prelature, we would have enough for our meditations for many days. How freely we shared the discussions. How we valued each one’s contribution. How we felt the importance of each one of us. Let these not be just memories which will come and go away, and easily to be forgotten. Each one’ presence had a value, that is how we made a mystical body, coming from different countries, with different cultural apparatus, but finding ourselves aiming at the same welfare for ourselves and for the whole Church of Jesus Christ. “Ubi caritas est, Deus ibi est,” where there is love, God is there.“Certainly God was among us.”
Encouraging those who have already a service to offer to the community, let them educate their community on what we are: “Roman Catholic married Priests.” We have to assure them that we never lost our priesthood, we have only publicly reassumed our pastoral work.
Aware of the enormous task of a priest to-day, we would like to involve as much as we can the faithful, and invite those who feel they too can fully dedicate themselves to serve the community. We must never hide that striving for holiness is for each one of us in our status and environment.
We all have to be holy, God does not expect it to be less than that.
Holiness is the nature of God’s children, which we are. It is not something to boast of, it is both a duty and obligation.
If we don’t strive at holiness, we are denying the nature of the one who dwells in us, the Holy Spirit. We are ashaming God, whom we call “Our Father.” We are not the imitators of Jesus Christ, whose name we bear, that we are Christians. In all sincerity and honesty by our Christian Vocation, which we have accepted with joy, we ought to live accordingly, by being what we are called to be: “Be holy because I am holy.”
We shall renew the Church, if we shall truly be “The salt of the earth, the light to the world, and the yeast in the world.” It is time to be it.
To come back to the original nature of our Catholic Church, to become the true disciples of Jesus Christ. We are priests, known in other words: “Alter Christus” another Christ.
May God bless you all.
Yours Sincerely,
Arch. E. Milingo.
categories:news, convention, theology
