The power of a living testimony

LITTLE MISSIONARY At the sight of a Badjao kid without slippers outside of the Cathedral after the Fiesta Mass in honor of San Isidro Labrador, on his own Anders gave his own slippers to the kid—the moment he had been waiting for so long. Anders is one of the kids of Sammy & Lindsey Romero—American members of the Family Missions Company serving in the Diocese of Malaybalay City (Bukidnon, Philippines).

[BANDILYO Editorial 27July-02Aug 2014]

NOTHING beats the power of an action that embodies what a person wants to convey to others.

A group of former seminarians recalled what can be considered as one of their most embarrassing moments. They were chatting inside the refectory, and continued chatting even when they could visibly see a considerable amount of water spilled on the floor. However, none of them took the initiative to get a mop to clean it up or someone else could step on it and slip.

Upon seeing the spilled water, their Spanish superior, without any ado or grumbling, quietly went to the wash area, took a mop and wiped the water before their eyes.

They were dumbfounded. And awkwardly continued chatting pretending they did not see what their superior did.

That simple but powerful gesture made a big impression on them that it was so etched in their minds and hearts. They’ve just witnessed a simple action illustrating what leadership by example truly means.

Wouldn’t it have been easier—and expected, at the very least—for their superior to call their attention and tell them to do the mopping themselves?

And yet, he did not do that.

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi no. 41, Pope Paul VI said, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

In today’s world, what guarantees a listening is the credential of being a witness, someone who walks his talk.

And how much more for somebody who works in the vineyard of the Lord—lay, religious, and priests alike?

Once a theology professor advised his students in class to preach only what they actually do. Now, that’s difficult. As priests, they could easily run out of this to say!

So, then, how can they not run out of things to preach about? If they do not run out of efforts and the desire to live out the Gospel values.

In preaching to the diocesan clergy of the Diocese of Malaybalay during their annual retreat in Tagaytay City, with regards to giving homilies, Bishop Mylo Hubert C. Vergara, D.D. of the Diocese of Pasig exhorted them to let their homilies based on the Word of God first strike and touch their hearts. Then, there is a good chance that their homilies could touch also the hearts of his parishioners.

Personal engagement with the Word of God, wisdom from experiential knowledge, lived out faith—all these are preconditions for an authentic, and not too-good-to-be-true, evangelization.

Lay and ordained ministers in the Catholic Church ought to seriously consider becoming—or at least, trying to become—serious about the indispensable task of evangelization in the truest sense of the word.

     After all, the stakes are high—the salvation of souls including those of the Church ministers themselves.