The Lord Needs Us

𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐓. 𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐂𝐨𝐥 𝟏:𝟏𝟓-𝟐𝟎

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟏𝟎𝟎:𝟏-𝟓 “𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐋𝐊 𝟓:𝟑𝟑-𝟑𝟗

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒔.” (𝒗.38) 

         This gospel passage should be close to the heart of those who are in the renewal because this is what they normally experience in relation to what St. Paul said when he wrote to the Christians in Corinth: 𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒔.” (𝒗.38)           

         Clearly St. Paul was talking about not just a paradigm shift but the total transformation of man who has accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. And this was the same with those who experienced a personal encounter with the Lord at the time of their baptism in the Holy Spirit.

         Change, they say is the only thing that is constant in this world and every day we see change happening before our eyes. We see fortunes change overnight as in the case of the woman who built up a personal fortune but who is now incarcerated because of the PDAF scam more than 10 years ago. We are also witness to the political star of two senators who are strong contenders for the presidency in 2016 who have lost their glitter after they were dragged into the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

         And today, we hear and read reports about private contractors who have amassed enormous wealth from billions of pesos worth of government projects that were found to be non-existent if not substandard. To make matters worst all these malfeasance were committed with the connivance of corrupt government officials from the top echelons of the bureaucracy to the government engineers.

         Those involved in this scam are grown men and women and they are aware of the choices before them. They can either change to becoming better than what they were before or change to something that would compromise their Christian faith. The news reports of their involvement in the scam show the kind of choices they made.

         The resistance to change was what created the great divide between Jesus and the Pharisees and it was not actually about Jesus being right or wrong but it was because the ideas of Jesus did not sit well with the Pharisees and the other religious leaders at the time because these were new and would require them to change many of their practices which benefited them personally.

         And Jesus saw through this deception, and he sidestepped this resistance of the Pharisees by addressing his preaching to the people who acknowledged their sinfulness and turned back to God. This was what the Pharisees did not want to happen because they would lose their only lifeline to make a living.

         In some way, there is a Pharisee in some of us as we give more importance and priority to programs and projects rather than that which is more important – to bring others to Jesus and make disciples of all men (𝐌𝐭 𝟐𝟖:𝟏𝟖). This is the great commission, and this was the parting words of Jesus before He ascended to heaven.

         In Redemptoris Missio, Saint John Paul II stresses that: " 𝑬𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒛𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒅𝒚𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒎 -- 𝒂 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕, 𝒊𝒏 𝑱𝒆𝒔𝒖𝒔 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒗𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒏, 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒅'𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒚." This new program to which all of us are called to bring Christ to others, according to Sain John Paul II, "𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦
𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘳."          

         There was a time not long ago when I participated in what was supposed to be a dialogue to find ways to revive what used to be a vibrant Christian community. The main problem, however, was that some of the leaders of this group were in denial mode and instead of discussing how it can retain its members while attracting new ones by proclaiming the Gospel of Christ with new ardor, new methods and new expressions (John Paul II, Discourse to the XIX Assembly of CELAM, Port-au-Prince, 9 March 1983, n. 3), the discussion centered on changing their organizational structure principally the process by which their leaders are selected. The declining spirituality of its members, which was the primary cause of its problems was placed in the backburner and was not even discussed.

         Not that projects and programs are not good. They are also good. But these should not supplant the need for spiritual growth and evangelization per se as the primary function of disciples who want to follow Christ and the development of a sound spiritual environment in a church/ community and evangelization doesn’t begin with programs and projects but with prayer. Neither does it begin by changing the process by how its leaders are selected or emerged.

         His Excellency Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens one time said: “𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘸𝘢𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵. 𝘈 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥.”        

         What Cardinal Suenens is actually saying is that we who are in the charismatic renewal movement have a treasure, but which we must share that treasure to and with others. In so doing, we are to be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit which is the Grace of the renewal movement.

         The new wine (𝐆𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐭) that has been poured out upon us when we were baptized in the Spirit cannot be poured into our old self. We all must be renewed as we are baptized in the Spirit for us to receive the new wine that will be poured out to us.

         As renewed Christians, we must not be anxious of going on an adventure especially when we come to think that it is the Spirit of God who is leading us and this is what the Pharisees could not accept. They have become so rigid that new ideas are rejected outright and they sacrificed the joy of knowing God in a more personal way.

         This is what we as Christians should avoid because Christianity brings a never-ending process of change with new approaches, new traditions, new methodologies. Thus, the methods and expressions that we use in our parish churches, community, ministries and apostolates should not be so structured that we leave no room for the Holy Spirit to move and lead us into finding new things or ideas that would raise our level of spirituality.

         Churches and communities at times have plateaued or have become stagnant, remaining on an “as-is, where-is” condition and could no longer draw new members. Even if it does, the attrition rate is so high that members leave the moment they go in and the culprit is the tendency of leaders to hang on to their old and outmoded principles.

         The 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 (𝐈𝐂𝐂𝐑𝐒) has always held the view that the Grace of the renewal is to move out and has espoused the idea that charismatics are supposed to be a people on the move. As such, we must be careful that we don’t become as rigid as the Pharisees that would prevent us from learning new lessons in spirituality from the Gospel of Christ.

         This gospel passage tells us that we must become pliant so we can always upgrade ourselves to accept the new wine that comes from the new message of Christ for us. This new evangelization should not unnerve our church and or our community as what the Pharisees did when Jesus preached old doctrines to the people of his time that sounded like new.

         As we are transformed by the new wine poured out into us, it is incumbent upon us all that we participate in bringing others – our family, neighbor, relatives, friends, co-workers and the ordinary man on the street that we meet – to a personal and profound meeting with Jesus Christ our Savior. This means that as we need the Lord to continually bless and empower us by his love and grace, our Lord in turn needs us to bring the Gospel to the whole world. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 – 𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵. 5, 2025)