A Letter to Leaders of Tomorrow

This series is meant for all who are destined to play a leadership role in the Church of tomorrow. You, the young Catholic, are one of them.

You may be a parish priest many years from now. You may become a bishop; or you may be a teacher, a parent, a catechist, a youth leader or something else in the future.

There are many leadership roles in the Church, and God is definitely calling you to play a role — whether big or small, it does not matter. What matters is whether you are prepared to respond to God’s call. If you are, then this series is for you.

You are most probably a baptised Christian already. If you are a Catholic you have probably had your First Holy Communion; you may be a confirmed Christian; you may already be playing some leadership role in your local parish. So you already know a lot about what it means to be a Catholic or a Christian of another denomination.

But I can assure you that the road to what God is calling you to do here on earth is still a very long one; and while you and I both know the basics or even the fundamentals of the Christian faith, let us for a moment assume there was something that we missed in our religious education or Bible study lessons, and so let us start again from the beginning and listen very carefully to the voice of God calling us.

We begin by looking for him in the natural creation that we have for so long taken for granted. Just look at the vegetation around you—the trees, the beautiful flowers, the maize crop or wheat in the field, the green grass that feeds cattle and other domestic animals.

In winter everything grows brown and dry with trees shedding their leaves; but in spring everything springs into life. The trees grow new leaves; the flowers bloom and you can see bees moving from flower to flower enjoying the nectar or whatever it is that they suck from these plants.

Look at the animals, both domestic and wild, enjoying the green grass or the leaves of shrubs or whatever it is that animals enjoy on the plain, the meadow or the bush! They are contented with the food they have been provided with.

Or, look at those birds! Chirping and whistling and jumping from branch to branch or flying from tree to tree. By the way, what did Jesus say? “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mt 6:26).

If the natural phenomena around us do not suffice to give us a sense of wonder, let us cast our eyes to the skies. Look at the sun, the moon and the stars. No wonder the psalmist cried out in wonder: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

And to all this add the vast oceans and the mountains and the hills and waterfalls and other features too numerous to count!

The question is, what does all this mean to us? What do all these wonders and phenomena point to? They can only point to the glory of an all-powerful God — Creator of all things, visible and invisible.

We should see his presence in his creation. When we sing at Mass in the sanctus, “Heaven and earth are full of your glory”, it is this wonderful creation that we are referring to.

Through his creation alone, God is calling you and me to discern him, to see his presence in the world and in the universe, even before he speaks to us through the Scriptures; for without God nothing would exist.

Consequently, if we are to be exemplary Christian leaders, one of the first steps we should take is to deepen our faith by seeing God all around us—seeing God in all things.

We will then be in a position to help others to see and believe in God.