The Rock!

Lino Brocka worked in my office for two years, before he directed his first motion picture. And one day he was telling me about being in a church, listening to a sermon.

He said: "The priest was young, and good looking, highly intelligent, and with excellent diction. And he had obviously prepared that sermon very carefully. He was talking about the authority of the Holy Father, about Peter, the Rock. And he was giving the meaning of Rock in Hebrew, in Greek, in Latin. I was looking around, at the people in the church. The old women were saying their beads . . . I could not see one person in that church who had the remotest interest in that damn Rock!"

Lino spoke that way because he was a media man by temperament, and by disposition. And the media men concentrate on feeling! They by-pass the intellect. They by-pass the will. They go in for emotion, almost exclusively. The battle cry of media is: "I can feel it!" . . . "You can’t beat the feeling!" . . . And when you feel it — "Just do it!"

It is true that the Catholic Church concentrates on intellect and will, on thought. The priest tries to present what is true, what is good. And this, sometimes, is unbearable for our young people, who are accustomed to the excitement of Michael Jackson, and of Madonna. It is true that the Gospel is sometimes very quiet. It seems as unromantic as a cold fried egg. But the truth which the priest presents from the pulpit, are wise, with the wisdom of God. They are strong, solid, basic principles, on which you can live!

When I was ordained, on my ordination day, a nun gave me a stampita – a beautiful picture of the Virgin Mother, and her Child, asleep on her breast. On the back of the stampita was written: "I hope that you will always be as happy as you are today!"

Reading this, in my room in the seminary, I was thinking: "My God! I hope not!" Because at ordination time you are exhausted from the work of the long school year, still as tense as a drum from the pressure of the final examinations, and overcome by fear! Fear of being a priest! People coming to you, and putting their lives in your hands!

During the eight day retreat which immediately preceded the ordination, I woke in the night, about midnight — scared stiff! I was thinking of all my weaknesses, my faults, my failures, my sins. And it came to me as clear as a bell: "I can’t do this . . . I’m not up to it . . . I can not be ordained – a priest forever." I wondered: should I get up right then, and go to the room of the Rector and tell him that I could not be ordained, or should I wait until morning? I knew that the Rector, if I drugged him out of bed at midnight, would not be happy about this – so I decided to wait until morning.

In the morning I went to Mass, and Communion, and then – walking on the gravel path in the sunlight – I felt a little better. And, in our first meditation that day, the retreat master took that moment in the life of Christ when he said to Simon Bar Jona: "You are Peter, the Rock, and on this Rock I will build my Church."

He explained that the Rock was not the strength of Peter, the character of Peter – but the power of God, flowing through him! Peter was "a sinful man." He was impulsive. He sometimes bragged a little. He was so weak that he denied his God before a serving maid. But, with the grace of God filling his mind, and heart, and his whole being – there was nothing that he could not do!

This was the secret of all the saints. They never relied on themselves. They relied on the wisdom, and love, and power of God. Saint Ignatius Loyola had an axiom, which is always mis-quoted, because the ordinary citizen can not understand it. They quote him as saying: "Pray, as if everything depended on God. But work, as if everything depended on you." This is a good old worldly axiom, which everyone can understand: "Pray as hard as you can – but don’t expect God to do anything. Get out there and do it yourself!"

Loyola never said that. He said: "Pray, as if everything depended on you – knowing that you could never do it. Without God, you are finished. But then work, cheerfully, with complete confidence, knowing that God will take care of the outcome!"

That is why he was constantly doing things that looked impossible. He sent a few Jesuits into Germany, and they set up colleges all across the country. He sent one man to India – Francis Xavier – and he made an impact on the whole of Asia. He sent a handful of priests to Canada, to South America – and they transformed the whole continent. He knew that it was not the genius of his little Society. It was the grace of God, flowing through them.

The Gospel says: "The Truth shall set you free!" What does it free us from? Fear! Fear of failure. Fear of being ridiculed. Fear of trying something which you can not do. The saints believed God when He said: "With Me, there is nothing you can not do . . . ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you . . . I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you remain in Me, and I remain in you, my life will flow through you, and you will live!"

This is a beautiful truth for all of us! So many husbands and wives are wondering: "How can I keep my marriage together? I see marriages breaking up all around me – right, left, and center. How can I made my marriage survive? With prayer, you can do it. That is what Patrick Peyton was saying all his life: "The family that prays together, stays together!"

Many young people are afraid to be married. They think: "How could I make marriage work? . . . My Mommy and Daddy are split . . . My Tito and Tita are split . . . My oldest sister is split! . . . How could I do it, if they can’t?" So they do not marry. They just live in. But if God touches a family, the family survives. They love each other. Because the love that flows through them is the love of God – the love of God for His children. The family is strong, with the strength of God.

That is the Rock – the power of God, the wisdom of God, the life and love of God, flowing through you. And it will always be there. Our Lord said so. He said. "Behold I am with you always, even till the end of the world."