psalm 115: grabbing credits - 13th week thursday

Psalm 115 begins with the call, "Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name give glory."  It means that when God does wonderful things in our midst the credit should not be given to us but to God's holy name.  Many times we claim credit for so many things while working for example in the parish, kag sa tuod-tuod gid man there are priests among us who have done so much for the people and the parish and should rightly be given some, if not most, of the credit.  We may have built the church and the convent; we may have done a lot of pastoral work that have touched and converted a lot of people.  We may have done our part, we may have offered our whole selves to this or that particular project, we may have sacrificed ourselves, but in the end, everything we have, every good thing we do, comes from God.

As a priest, this is something that we should hold dear.  The temptation to build monuments for ourselves so that we can perpetuate our memories in the minds of the people are real temptations and many have succumbed to it.  We need to be humble like John the Baptist who said, Jesus must increase and I must decrease.

Even now as a seminarian, learn always to set aside the love for grabbing credits, the love of being recognized and shown appreciation, the love of being praised.  Last night I attended even just for a few minutes the despedida of our priests in the cathedral.  People where praising them left and right.  Some were even teary eyed.  Psalm 115 must be prayed during these times when they praise us - "Not to us Lord not to us, but to your name be the glory."  The devil will always do what he can to implant pride in our hearts even in an event like a despedida.