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| Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas |
The Church has been hurt a lot because of some
priests’ arrogance and lifestyle that contrasts with their calling as ministers
of Christ, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan said on Holy
Thursday during a Chrism Mass celebrated at St. John Evangelist Cathedral.
As
ordained ministers, Villegas said, priests act in the person of Christ when
they preside the sacraments and offer the Holy Mass.
“[But] what kind of priests who act in the
person of Christ the head must we be? Are we really signs of Christ the head
for his body the Church?” Villegas asked.
As
signs of Christ the head, priests must mirror in their lives the love and care
Jesus has for his body, the Church.
Explaining the analogy of the spiritual
headship to that of a physical head, the prelate pointed out that whether “bald
or hairy, grey or black, all heads need a body,” and “a head that has no body
is dead”, in the same way “a body that has no head is dead.”
“In
other words, the first duty of a good head is to remember that it is only part
of a body; that cut off from the body, the head loses life. The head cannot go
right while the body goes the other way,” the archbishop further explained.
He
said ears and eyes have been put in the same level on the head to show that “the
duty of the head is to watch with love and care.”
According
to him, the strength of a good leader lies in his capacity to listen with
respect and obedience to those under his care.
And
this explains why the lips have been put below the eyes and ears, “because
talking is the least of all our duties,” he said.
Villegas
told his priests to preach through actions more than words since “the most
important role of headship is watching with care and listening with love.”
When
a priest has lost the capacity to listen patiently and lovingly to his flock,
he is like a head without a body, the prelate said.
“If
we have lost the capacity to watch lovingly and listen tenderly, to keep quiet
respectfully, to stop senseless murmurings trying to sound funny, and to resist
useless chatter, we have in fact beheaded the body,” said Villegas.
He
urged the clergy to think with their hearts as “it is only love can save people
from sin” and “only with the heart that we can see rightly.”
“See
the sinner in the confessional not with the mind of canon law but with the
mercy of the heart of Jesus. See the beggar at the church door not with the
eyes of first impression but with love and first intuition,” he stressed.
He
urged the priests to avoid the temptation of egoism by deepening their prayer
life and frequenting the sacrament of confession.
Recalling
the rite of ordination, Villegas said “the laying of hands over our heads
continues to this day.”
He
said “the good priest must always remember that his head is under the hands of
the Church, under the hands of the Lord. The head must learn how to kneel. The
head must know how to bow.”
He
told them “humility is the only crown that the head must wear” as it is “the
crown of all virtues.”
In
the same way, Villegas observed, the bishop wears his miter not a crown but as
the “roof of God’s power” and “we are all under it” not as bosses but servants.
“When
you renew your priestly promises, promise also to be humble signs of Christ the
head—always one with the body, always one with the heart, always under the
power of the Lord,” the prelate said. “The sign cannot be the head itself. We
must decrease so that Christ the head may increase.” (CBCPNews)
