WE NEED TO PRAY FOR OUR CLERGY.

We Need To Pray For Our Clergy

Last couple of months we have heard a lot about our priests, it is indeed very sad that innocent kids were subjected to such horrific experiences, there is absolutely no doubt that the guilty should be punished. It is sad that ministers of the Church who had sworn to celibacy and promised to work for the welfare of society have fallen prey to lust. Innocence of our children should not be exploited, or taken for granted, the guilty should be punished, but just because of some heinous deeds of some of our priests, the whole clergy should not be maligned. If the works of the clergy are weighed, even the blind would know that the good, the clergy has done far far outweighs the evil that has sprouted, we mostly tend to forget all the good when an act of evil is done, that does not mean I condone the evil, I do condemn it too, but at the same time, we should realize that the priests too are humans and have temptations and often fall.

Lets talk about ourselves, how good are we ? If we go deep into our conscience, where do we place ourselves as righteous persons ? Can we sincerely say that we have not sinned today, and each day that passes by ? How fundamental, or how symbolic, is our angst towards sin and sinner ? We are humans and by nature we are sinners, so, when we ourselves are sinners, who are we to condemn our priests ? Who are we to judge our priests ?

We have seen the sacrifices our priests make, they leave their homes and their loved ones to serve us, the hardships they undergo, some of them have died to save us, just a fortnight ago, one young priest Fr. Thomas lost his life in saving three children, so did the late Fr. Savio who lost his life in saving the school students from drowning, but do we eulogise the whole fraternity for the self-sacrifices and heroism of a few ? No, so why should the whole priestly fraternity be dragged into the muck because of a few ?

As weak humans we do fall to temptations, the Holy Bible tells us how the anointed King David fell prey to lust, Jesus, Lord and Master, Himself was tested and tempted in the garden of Gethsemane just before His crucifixion, when He said, if possible Father take this cup away from me, the life of St. Augustine was full of lust before he turned his evil life around. We as humans are frail and easily succumb to sin. It is not just enough to condemn our priests, our prime objective as Catholics should be to pray for our priests and our nuns, to be true to themselves and to their vocation, it is said that the life of St. Augustine changed only because of the fervent prayers of his pious mother. In this time of turmoil, The Holy Church, our priests and our nuns are in need of our prayers, so let’s put aside our hypocritic presumptions and pray for our Mother Church, our priests, our nuns and the aggrieved children. May they all be healed.

Prayer is a divine tool that can change this world, so is forgiveness a divine medicine, forgive and you are bound to have a healing within you, we all pray for our own needs but do we really pray for others ? Christianity is all about giving rather than taking, prayer does not cost money, so give it freely and in abundance. Who knows, our prayers may indeed change this world for the better !

Freddy Agnelo Fernandes
Dubai - UAE.