Truly socially involved

These past few weeks, I met a number of fellow priests with different assignments in various dioceses. Our chats unavoidably touch on our ministry, always an interesting topic.

I get the impression many of us are bitten by the social bug, that is, a growing concern with what is happening in our socio-political world that sadly continues to be wracked by poverty, injustice, corruption, and their cohorts.

I was moved to hear many earnest expressions of sympathy and compassion to the disadvantaged and victims, which in the end are all of us, including the offenders and exploiters, since their misdeeds harm them first before they do others.

There were opinions about how to address the crisis. One proposed to live and work with the poor. Another suggested to organize livelihood projects for the poor, complete with micro-financing and cooperatives.

Of course, there were those who preferred some street action and rallies. They were talking about a widening network of different groups to help stir the people to action.

Still others talked about catechizing or "conscientizing" people regarding responsible citizenship, encouraging them to more actively participate in social and political affairs of their respective places.

As responsible citizens, they said, people can join bidding committees in town, cities, provinces, to deter corruption. At least no one mentioned about priests running for public office yet. I consider that a good sign.

Brilliant ideas, all! I was just waiting to hear about anything that would give effective, reliable impulse to all these initiatives. Did they expect that their own sense of justice and fairness alone would be enough to carry all these ideas through?

I remembered the example of St. Therese of the Child Jesus who, without stepping out of her convent, later became the patroness of the mission simply by dint of her life of prayer and wholehearted dedication to her routine daily work.

I remembered the holy Mother Teresa of Calcutta whose luminous example of selfless commitment to attend to the poorest of the poor left the world fascinated and enchanted. She just prayed and worked quietly.

All the saints are like that. Their lives had great social impact not so much because of many hyped-up public activities. Rather it was because of their prayer that gave them the unwavering impulse to transform themselves first, then the other people and things around them.

It cannot be otherwise. Unless all these social initiatives begin, end and is sustained in prayer and a generous dose of sacrifices, we really cannot expect them to last long and to have the desirable effects on everyone.

We have to see to it that all our social actions should follow God's logic and use God's means. They have to stay away from being dominated merely by worldly prudence or wisdom, a constant danger to contend with.

 This is what is proper to us. Even in our social activities, we have to be completely imbued with God's love and truth, since we are all his children. We cannot allow ourselves to be tricked by clever earthly social gimmicks whose good results often come with ugly companions like rancor, division, hatred, etc.

We should not underestimate the power of prayer and sacrifices that can be done anytime and everywhere. We should not ignore the tremendous help we can derive from the doctrine about the "communion of saints," always helpful in our social action.

When we always pray and are generous with sacrifices, somehow we become more sensitive to the real needs of others, needs that are not only material but more importantly moral and spiritual.

For priests especially, we can more reliably and penetratingly read the pulse of society by spending time in the confessional and giving spiritual direction.

We also would know what to do, given our own respective circumstances and possibilities. We would have a good sense of priority, effectively guiding us amid so many challenges and difficulties. We get guided by spiritual prudence. Without prayer and sacrifice, we are prone to the tricks of vanity and pride, self-righteousness, bigotry, reckless partisanship, and other forms of uncharitable behavior.

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