"Nemo Dat Quod Non Habet"

I am humbled and at the same time grateful to God for the gift of priesthood. Last June 26, I celebrated my 11th year anniversary as priest and I honestly admit that it is only by God’s grace and mercy that I reached this point in my priesthood. I also thank nameless and countless people who pray for me and love me despite of my imperfections, mistakes, and sinfulness. 

In my priestly life, I always remind myself of this phrase: “Nemo  dat  quod  non  habet”  It  is  a  Latin  statement  which translates: “You cannot give what you do not have.” These words remind me of the author, Janet Ruffing. She said; “Unless  we experience  the  light  of  God’s  loving  touch,  we  remain  too frightened to enter into the fullness of life God offers.” This is very true in my own spiritual life! This theme truly runs at the center of my priestly ministry. The simple truth is that, it is impossible for an individual to bring God’s light and love if that individual does not know God, or simply decides to live in hate or chose to live a life without God.

 I would like to invite everyone to reflect and ask ourselves these questions: How can we guide somebody if we do not allow ourselves to be guided by someone? How could we completely love  another  person  if  we  have  not  yet  learned  how  to  love ourselves the right way? How could we truly value anyone around us if we haven’t truly valued ourselves? How can we trust others if we struggle to trust ourselves? How can we offer forgiveness, if we haven’t tried forgiving ourselves?

In our spiritual practices it seems difficult to think of our own selves first, because if we do, we can actually feel uncomfortable and somehow we come to believe it is selfish and selfserving. However, I believe  that  the  proper  care  for  oneself  in  the  aspects  of  physical,  emotional,  mental,  social, psychological and spiritual is of primary importance. I am not asking you to be selfcentered; I am simply asking you to take care of yourselves.

Jesus commanded us: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. This implies that there is nothing wrong or sinful in loving yourself. Love yourself so that you can love your neighbor in the right way. I believe that the principle of giving to oneself first is one of the important benchmarks in finding inner peace and creating successful relationships. “You can’t give what you do not have,” does not only apply to things. It also applies to love, trust, value, honor, belief and forgiveness. I believe that selfcare and the nurturing  of  self  is  the  groundwork  of  living  true  to  our  vocation,  our universal call to holiness.

If we learn to love ourselves in the right way, we can develop the ability  to  give  so  much  more  of  ourselves  to  others.  Learning  to  give ourselves the gift of love, acceptance, value, honor, trust and forgiveness makes it so much easier to give to those people we care about, without any hesitation and without any feeling of helplessness.