Ang pagka-pari

Una sa tanan, gikan sa Internet, ang artikulo ni Becky Horst, usa ka associate academic dean giulohan og “Job, career, vocation:  the difference is calling.”  Sa ato pa, maunsa man ang imong trabaho ug kon unsa man nga career ang imo karong gisubay, kun wala kiniy calling, magpabilin kining ordinaryo nga trabaho, career ug vocation.

Unsa man ning calling? Matud niya: “For Christians, the word ‘calling’ has biblical implications. We reflect on God specifically calling individuals in the Old and New Testaments to do specific things or to become something (or someone) new, and wonder how we will know what God calls us to do.”

Mao kini ang priesthood. Nanawagan kanila ang Ginoo. Sa ato pa, dili kini sama sa  ubang mga occupation o vocation, nga mahimo nga wala sila tawga sa Ginoo.  Ang pulong vocation, matud ni Horst gikan sa Latin nga pinulongan, nagkahulogan og “vocare,”sa English, voice – meaning to follow the voice of God or to do what we are told to do. Alang kanatong mga Catolico, matud  ni  Horst, nag-refer kini sa “ religious service in the priesthood or monastic life”

Padayon ni Horst: “There is a movement underway to redeem the original meaning of ‘vocation’ as work that calls us to connect our God-given gifts and passions with God’s activity in the world. A vocation is a calling that merges our mission in life with God’s mission on earth.”

So, klaro, nga ang vocation as a calling, adunay connection ang imong pagabuhaton sa kabubot-on sa Ginoo. Ug dugang niining tanan, ania kining gikan sa basahon The Imitation of Christ: “Stupendous mystery (sa ato pa, remarkable, astounding, extraordinary – ams) and a great dignity of priests, to whom is given that which is not conferred to Angels.

“For only priests, legitimately  ordained by the Church , have the power to celebrate and to consecrate the Body of Christ (kini nga gahum waa gani ihatag ngadto sa mga Angel).  The priest is truly the minister of God, who uses the word of God by the command and the institution of God; but God is there the principal Author and the invisible Agent , to Whom is subject all that He wills and Whom command everything obeys.

Sa ordination, gisultian ug gipahimatngonan ang pari sa Obispo: “Behold you are made a priest, and are consecrated to celebrate; have care, therefore, that in the proper time you faithfully and devoutly offer up the sacrifice of God and that you see yourself to be irreprehensible .

A priest should be adorned with all virtues and give the example of a good life to others.  A priest clad in his vestments holds the place of Christ  in order to pray and humbly supplicate God for himself and for all the people. “He wears before him and behind him the sign of the cross of the Lord so that he may continuously remember the Passion of Christ.

“When a priest celebrates, he honors God, he makes the Angels happy, he edifies the Church, he helps the living, he gives suffrage to the dead, and renders himself partaker of all good things.”

Mao kana, Brod, and priesthood, ang pagka-pari.