by Nicole Melhado
Canção Nova (New Song) News with Vatican Radio (translation by the CN news team.)
Photo: File
The priest is not an administrator, but a man chosen by God to imitate Christ, “Someone who knows like Him to be humble, to love humanity, to be sensitive towards the poor, to sustain the Church with courage where she is threatened.” Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday morning March 10, in his meeting with the priests of the Diocese of Rome.
For the Pope, the priest, before all “is not a boss of faith” and cannot be part-time priest, but instead is priest with all his soul and heart. “This being with Christ and being ambassador of Christ, is to be for others a mission that penetrates our being,” stressed the Pope.
This service is called to humility that, according to the Holy Father, is not an exhibition of false modesty, but love for the will of God that just by the humility of service can be announced in his integrity, without conditions or preferences, and without creating the idea that Christianity is a huge package of things to learn.”
The priest should run the race in the world, without losing his initial vigor. Benedict XVI alerted the priests that they should not lose the zeal, the joy of being called by the Lord, allowing their spiritual youth to be renewed.
“Only God can make us priests, only God can choose his priests and if we are chosen, we are chosen by Him. Here, clearly appears the sacramental character of the priest, that is not a professional that should be done because someone should administrate all these things. It is an election made by the Holy Spirit,” declared Pope Benedict XVI.
The Pope also stressed that for them they must be attentive to the spiritual life, stressing that praying and meditating on the Word of God is not lost time for the care of souls, but it is the condition in order that they may be able to be really in contact with the God and thus speak of Him to others.
“The truth is much stronger than the lie, Love is stronger than hate, God is stronger than all opposing forces. And with this joy, with this certain interior, we can remain we remain on the road in the consolatinos of God and not the persecutions of the world,” concluded the Holy Father.