OF PRIESTHOOD, EXORCISM, AND MAUNDY THURSDAY

OF PRIESTHOOD, EXORCISM, AND MAUNDY THURSDAY

It’s Maundy Thursday. And this day, holy rites commemorates the last days the Lord had before going to His passion and is also a vigil with Him.

I just remembered an office which I really desire, and it may seem that it is related to this specific day of the Holy Week of the Lord’s passion. Hoping someday to become a priest of the Lord, I had this desire to become an exorcist. This Office of Exorcism may seem an adventurous feat to many if their knowledge of it is just a battle with demons on possessed persons as if it is like a fun sword-play fight between two young boys. But this office is totally different from that notion. Reading the books of an official exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila again and again, I was warned and alerted by the author in his books that doing exorcisms is a very tiring, draining, and even dangerous ministry, to the point that you’ll most probably get hurt and also your loved ones by unseen enemies.

I was very challenged by this exorcist to think about over and over again to consider the said office if I were to become a priest. His books led me to change myself dramatically – to be deserving of such an office and to follow suit if ever the Lord will grant me the grace to be part of this extraordinary office of love, compassion, mercy, and liberation. The exorcist’s style of speaking through his books inspired me to cling to the Blessed Virgin Mary so much and to look after my interior life healthily. His profound yet simple research, teachings and personal experience to this office is a valuable testimony as ever, that exorcisms are much more needed today (even badly needed) and still more in the years to come.

Speaking of fear that is always associated to horror, the only fear – yes, the only fear that I have in my heart is this – what if the demoniac reveal my embarrassing sins of the past? Imagining that still gives me a little fear. But that is the only worry that was left in me, the others were mostly conquered by prayers and maybe, not for me as of the moment, to experience.

This Maundy Thursday, in the washing of the apostle’s feet that is being played by priests and some men, reminds us that the ministry of the priesthood is to die to oneself in order to serve others. May I desire to really die to myself so that the Lord will be born in me. Lord, help me to die to myself and please die with me so that dying is a joy for You are with me, living in me, through Mary. Amen.

Mary H. Distributist