SUMMONED TO PREACH

I go to the school, to my office, in my Dominican habit. As students see me, they would approach me and make a "mano po" to me asking my blessing. The distance between my office and the entrance gate is just a couple of meters. However, it will take me some time to arrive in my office as students would swarm on me. Their eagerness to approach a priest is evident as they would run towards me when they see a person in white. The scenario would be different when sometimes I would go to the office in my civilian clothes. They would barely recognize me as a priest and pass by me. In less than a minute, I am already in my office. Children nowadays, indeed, are hungry for the presence of God, which they may see in men of the cloth. Even without opening one’s mouth, one can proclaim the presence of God amid His people, through one's way of life. 

With an ardent desire to hear the word of God, the Israelites prompted the prophet Ezra to bring out the book of the Law and read it before them (Neh 8:1-4A, 5-6, 7B-12). As Ezra read the Law, the people listened attentively. They were even moved to tears. They were touch by the Word of God uttered before them. In their suffering, they were consoled by the Word of God proclaimed before them by the prophet. Indeed, the precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart. As the law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul; the decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple (cf. Ps 19:8-11). The Israelites were available to experience the power of God's words through the readiness of God's ministers (Ezra and Nehemiah) to attend to the needs of God's people. 

In the Gospel (Lk 10:1-12), Jesus sent His disciples two by two, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God through the peace, healing, and reconciliation they bring to the people to whom they will administer. They were sent in pairs so that even without opening their mouths, their treatment with one another, their way of life would become their first preaching. Today, the harvest remains to be abundant but the laborers are still few. The great challenge for the few laborers is how they can make their proclamation more effective and affective; one that touches the lives of the persons they meet. The life we live speaks more eloquently than the words we utter. In our action, and even in the clothes we wear, God is made more visible and present to others. Jesus bid his disciples to carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals; that people may see His disciples' reliance on Divine Providence. That though they may be like sheep sent among wolves, they would remain dependent on their one true Shepherd who would never forsake them. The life we live is our greatest testimony (witnessing; preaching) to the vocation God called us to embrace.  

In our baptism, we are all made prophets by God; summoned to preach the truth of the Gospel we receive to the people we meet in our life. The challenge to us who are sent to proclaim the Good News is to make the proclamation desirable to others, as the Word of God, and God Himself has millions of competitors over the attention of people. Will people be moved in tears as we proclaim the Word of God? Will they be drawn to God; to God's presence, even just through the way we dress? 

HOLINESS THROUGH WHOLENESS IN PREACHING

Once there was an Indian mother who was disturbed that her son had been eating too much sugar. She knew it would cause illness to her son if he continues such a bad habit. She tried to persuade him to stop eating too much sugar but to no avail. And so she decided to bring her son to Gandhi to seek advice. Upon hearing the mother's predicament, Gandhi asked them to come back after two weeks. And so she obeyed the guru. Two weeks later, they returned to Gandhi. The leader told the boy to stop eating too much sugar for it was not good for his health and the boy nodded in agreement. The mother wondered why would the leader take two weeks for him to give her son such simple advice.  And so she asked: Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here to see you? Gandhi replied, “Two weeks ago I was still eating too much sugar myself.”

Integrity is an important aspect of preaching. It is teaching not by words alone but accompanied by deeds. And the preacher becomes more credible as he himself lives by the standards he preaches. Integrity, simply put, is the quality of being honest. It is the state of being whole and undivided as it comes from the Latin word: integritatem (integritas) meaning soundness, wholeness, or completeness. A preacher with integrity proclaims the Word of God sincerely if his preaching resonates from the richness of his very own life: his words and actions are one.

In the gospel (Lk 11:42-46), Jesus condemned the Pharisees and the teachers of the law: “Woe to you...” For these men preach righteousness but fail to live by the standards they impose upon the shoulders of their people. They overlooked the essentials of living a holy and humble life, and imparting mercy. These were the very subjects of their teachings. Their words differ from their life. They did not preach with the integrity of heart, and consequently suffered the consequences of the contradictions in their life. 

St. Paul warns us in his letter to the Romans (Rm. 2:1-11) that we will be judged by the same standard we preach to and judge other people: “You, O man, are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. For by the standard by which you judge another you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the very same things. We know that the judgment of God on those who do such things is true. Do you suppose, then, you who judge those who engage in such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?”

There is difficulty in preaching by our actions. We know what is good. And so we teach it, though having difficulty to live by it ourselves. The struggle is real in living by the words we preach. But we have to, for by doing so, it can make as whole. That wholeness achieved through preaching can give us holiness. Preaching indeed can be our way to holiness!

HERMENEUTICS OF PREACHING

Preaching is a combination of a gift and discipline. It is a gift, first and foremost, for its origin can be traced from God Himself. It is freely given by the Lord to whoever is tasked to proclaim the message of God to His people. It is a grace that never been asked but simply and unworthily given. It is an inclination; a tendency towards which a person called to assume the responsibility of bring God’s Good News finds himself into. But just like a seed that has to be sowed and nurtured by the elements, preaching too has to be hone, thus it is a discipline. Preaching as a discipline is to acknowledge and receive the gift of preaching from God. It begins by assuming the tasks given and the faith in the One who gave it. That would only be the beginning; acknowledgement; owning it; embracing it; being it (I am my preaching). By discipline, the preacher has to know himself, the talents that accompany the gift of preaching and the limitations too. By the discerning that things, experiences the person (given the gift of preaching) possess, he would be able to use them to realize and fulfill the task and end of preaching the Good News. He would be able to bend the branches of his life that had grown wildly to all directions towards one direction; towards the glory of God. He would be able to trim the leaves that are of no use in nurturing and growing the message of God in his very own life. He would be able to identify the nourishment he has to take to sustain him in the long and rigorous life of preaching. Preaching, indeed is a gift from God, however, it is given to man a creature enveloped with various tendency that may be fatal in the development of the gift of preaching. Thus discipline of the recipient is needed to develop the gift of preaching; that he who received this gift may truly nourish all who approach him, with the Word of God; that he may become the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

The vocation to preach is the seminal beginning of a life of preaching. Thus, the vocation to preach takes us to a long view of preaching. Vocation comes from the Latin word Vocare, meaning to call. In the context of the word vocation, it means being called. In this discourse of call, there are four parties involved; the one calling, the one being called, the purpose for which one is called for, and lastly the reply by the one called to the one calling him. The vocation to preach comes from God. No man can say he himself assumed this vocation by himself, from the very beginning. It is something given. Though one may ask for it, the grace that pushed him to ask for it comes from God still and the decision to grant such request comes from God too. The vocation to preach has its origin from God, and one would realize He too is the end of such calling. In the discourse of vocation God is the Caller; God empowers the one called to response; and God is the end for which one is called to. This calling serves as the sure foundation of a life of preaching for it can assure as that the person assuming the life of preaching stands on a sure and sound ground from where he preaches the Good News to the People of God. This calling is the well from which the preacher can draw the Water of life that would sustain his preaching ministry. Though sometimes this well may seem to run dry, the sure companionship of God, the one who called the preacher, is an enough comfort for a preacher who thirst and persevere to fulfill the very task of bringing God to His people.

The Church from the beginning of her existence; during the public ministry of Jesus, to the day of her inauguration; during the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles gathered together in the upper room, is truly blessed. It is in her midst that the mystery of incarnation unfolded and is fulfilled. It is in the midst of the people called and gathered by Christ that the Good News of our salvation had been proclaimed. It is primarily in the midst of this gathered people of God, that the Holy Spirit continues to breath in and inspire towards the realization of the Kingdom and will of the Father (on earth as it is in heaven). Indeed, the Church received and continues to receive a tremendous Good News and blessings. It is a blessed Church. The blessings and graces the Church have received from the Father through the Son and Holy Spirit is so enormous that the Church can contain such. The Church burst out with joy and exuberance. She preaches, proclaims the Good News she have received, realizing that whatever she have received are not meant for herself alone. Indeed, all that she had received finds their fulfillment and realization only when shared, imparted to others especially to the poor (for whom Christ came). The Church assumes the task of preaching the Good News, for truly, this is the natural reaction of one who had received a Good News. Just like Mary, the Church sings to the whole humanity: My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Furthermore, the task of preaching assumed by the Church assures the realization of the message She have received; that is the message of love of God to everyone.

The vocation to preach entails the proclamation of God to people (of goodwill); to everyone. How would a preacher talks about God if not the way one experienced God in his life. God is experience in this world through those moments when one feels love or in need of love. Clearly God is sensed, whenever love is and love seemed to be absent, after all our God is Love. It is in loving or seeking to love, even to be loved, that one is able to communicate the message of God which is Himself; Love.