Are We Serious?
Back in the parish. I begin my last two weeks of pastoral here before I begin my new and final term in the seminary. If there was anything that was common this day it was the question of one's vocation and its immediate implication - do we know what we are getting ourselves into? Are we clear what the nature and essence of priesthood is all about? Are we serious with our calling?...

Over lunch, my Spiritual Director voiced his concern about how some seminarians and, more so, priests are taking too much for granted with regards to the life style they are living. Singapore being an affluent country, we are never in want of anything. All can be made ready and 'enjoyed' on a platter (and with a silver spoon, if need be). We may have become too complacent and forgot our true calling to live out of life in simplicity and in humility. We get too ruffled easily when the going gets tough and we want out, but at the expense of those whom we are suppose to be serving.

I see his point and the implications his question is highlighting. Lest any of us chuck this aside as table gossip, I believe that we need to relook at ourselves and seriously consider the very nature of our intention to becoming priests. It is the serving part that usually trips us up. We say we want to serve God and his Kingdom. However, we want to have nothing to do with such-and-such a priest or bishop because they don't follow our opinions, etc. While I'm trying to make some sense in all this, I can't help but feel uneasy about how the clergy in the archdiocese are sometimes not showing the needed wisdom and role-model for the flock to follow together.

Perhaps, a crisis of a serious proportion is needed to wake us all up from our slumber. Who knows, it may just be around the corner...