What is Christian Ministry (Third Proposal)?

Christian Ministry as Empowering and Suffering

When Christ speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd, he does not mean no one could become a shepherd like Him. In fact, that is what God lamented before. He was distressed to see his people not taken cared of by the appointed shepherds – their leaders (rf. Ez. 34: 1-10). And so, God promised that He himself would become the Good Shepherd for his flock as fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Jn. 10).

I think, the measure of the minister’s good shepherding is when the sheep become the shepherds in return. Nouwen’ description on the Christian leaders is passively taken: ability and willingness to be led . Willingness to be led by whom? The active sense is: the sheep leading the shepherd. Probably, Nouwen’s passive description may not catch your attention. But actually, what Nouwen mean is repulsive. What on earth do you mean ‘sheep leading the shepherd’? It is a disgusting insight! Well, that insight is not originally mine. It is just a rephrasing of this author’s words.

If what you understood of ‘sheep leading the shepherd’ is something a sacrifice of power, it is indeed. For the context of ‘sheep leading the shepherd’ is taken from Jesus’ prophey on the martyrdom of Peter (Jn. 21: 18). Christian ministry entails sacrifice. And the minister does this because of love. Christian minister, if he is in the context of community, must listen to his people. He must learn how to minister the people in a way that the people will not depend on him the whole of their lives. If and if they cannot but depend on you for everything, and you do not do anything to remedy, you are not a good minister. For you do not empower them; you overpower them.

For a minister, in my conviction, should not exert power over people when doing ministry, even if he needs to and even if power is at his disposal. Why? It is because, to minister is to suffer within.

We have this paradigm in ministry that as a leader, we have this amount of power to let people obey and do what we deem is good for them. And so we justify by saying that I use this power for good. Nouwen even adds that this justification is the basis for crusades, Inquisition and slavery (p.59). But I go with the author by saying that even for good reason, one must not use his power of domination in doing ministry.

Indeed, this is a very temptation, because while we say that doing ministry is power free, there is so much power in the ministry. It is a great temptation because, you cannot use what you have. And if it is great temptation, to go against this temptation is to suffer greatly. In fact, after Jesus was tempted to power, he was assisted by angels. That could have drained Jesus’ energy in resisting power over ministry.

As in our case, in ministering to people, we always want to be in control. If not, we feel insignificant and useless. And if things do not come according to our expectation, we resort to short cuts; we resort to power. That is very different with Jesus, who ‘emptied himself taking the form of the slave..(Phil. 2: 7)”. Why? Because we perceive that, as ministers, everything depends on us. We thought that the last card is with us. And if we throw the last card, it must be successful. Or else, everything in us crumbles.

But, ministry is precisely to work with persons and not with functions. God was made man in Jesus, and he suffers a lot by doing so. Ministry means persons not functions. The last card is not with us; it is with God. And so, if everything we do in ministry seems meaningless and fruitless, we have to suffer. We have to continue serving, not changing our identity into a king coming to save what seem to be ineffective without using power. And it is a suffering within. Suffering lies in realizing that actually we are just mere servants. What we are doing has no power if God is not with us. And when everything for the Christian ministry is loss, then it is in that moment that everything is gain. It is good to consider how Peter instructed the Christian ministers of his time:

So I exhort the presbyters among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed. Tend the flock of God in your midst, [overseeing] not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory (1 Pet. 5: 1-4).

The one and only best consolation for all those Christian ministers is that after all, everything we do in the name of Jesus is not irrelevant. God finds it the most relevant.

On Family Life and Homosexuality

Homosexuals Live Difficult Lives…Nonetheless, they have a unique Vocation!

Topic on homosexuality is important in family life issues. Before one sees a homosexual person in the open, he / she is there existing within the context of the family. As our common impression of homosexuals suggests, we often regard them as strange individuals as someone to be dreaded from or make fun of. They are as if a virus that we must eliminate or an object of laugher or rejection.

But come to think of it, homosexual people live a very difficult and highly demoralizing life. And if he or she is Catholic, it is like adding insult to injury. Why? To be able to live a morally upright lives, a homosexual may force himself / herself marrying a person of opposite sex (in which he / she is not sexually attracted to) or become celibate in his/her whole lifetime. Straight men and women, as sexual persons could have a valid outlet of their sexual urges – they marry that person whom they felt attracted to, sexual attractions included. And it is moral. But in the case of homosexuals, they are only attracted to the person of the same sex, which in Catholic (or Christian) standard, is immoral. So, what option is left for them, but to become celibate. And if it is just the only option, we may not consider it as truly an option, but an imposition.

Indeed, homosexual persons need to be helped and assisted. They have the right to be treated as ordinary human persons, and not as objects of derision. There is a great challenge that poses in the life of a homosexual person.

Thus, this would bring me to next reflection – that to be a homosexual person is a real vocation. I believe that there were homosexual saints, there would be homosexuals to be proclaimed saints, and until now many homosexuals are struggling to be saints.

And if it is a vocation, one has to be open about it, not hiding one’s true identity inside the closet. He/she is called by God to witness a holy life – that after all his/her struggles to be pure and single-hearted, God would heap a great reward to his/her who remains faithful. People who are terminally ill of cancer or any dreadful disease would at one point complain to God, why of all people, he/she has to suffer in this way. Well, suffering in sickness is a special vocation. Homosexual people may also experience that same bitterness in their situations. We really do not know why it is like that. There are more mysteries in the world than comprehensible truths.

In this, I made distinctions. God calls him/her to witness his sexuality, not his/her homosexuality (which is connected to practicing his/her homosexual acts to the same sex). It is inspiring to see a known homosexual person practicing a very chaste and celibate life. They could become a model for people to temper their sexual libido and become pure in the eyes of God. That after all, to be a homosexual person, God does not condemn him/her, but it is just that He has given him/her a great calling so that His glory will shine in his/her life. And with that great calling comes a great responsibility. But with that great responsibility, comes a great reward.