Three Characteristics of a Servant

During an episcopal ordination in Rome this morning, Pope Benedict XVI outlined three characteristics of a servant of God:

The first characteristic that the Lord requires from his servant is fidelity. He was given a great good, which does not belong to him. The Church is not our Church, but His Church, the Church of God. The servant must account for his management of the good that has been entrusted to him. We must not bind men to us, we must not seek power, prestige, esteem for ourselves. We must lead people to Jesus Christ and thus towards the living God. With this, we introduce them to truth and the freedom that comes from the truth. Loyalty is altruism, and thus it is liberating for the minister himself and for those entrusted to him. We know how things in civil society and, not infrequently, even in the church suffer from the fact that many of those, who have been given responsibility, work for themselves and not for the community". "In Greek, the word for "loyalty" coincides with the one that indicates "faith". The fidelity of the servant of Jesus Christ consists precisely in the fact that he does not try to adapt the faith to the fashions of the time. Christ alone has words of eternal life, and these words must lead the people [. . .]

H/T: Whispers