Am sure most of you will only read the papers, watch television, listen to the radio, or go out of your houses shortly before lunch or lunchtime today after the Christmas Eve salo-salo with your families last night.

But how many of you extended a hand to share the food that you have on the table with our less fortunate brothers and sisters out there?

The spirit of Christmas is sharing our love, time, talent and treasure not only with our loved ones, friends and acquaintance but also with our other brothers and sisters in the community, in our work, and our respective churches.

A typical man who is generally drawn to holiness has a heart for serving others. Serving others is not limited to bishops and priests alone or the religious sisters and brothers or to those who hold public offices in the government but is a responsibility for all people possible. Sad to say, the lay people look up to those in positions whether in the Church or the government as fathers to their people and are expected to be superhuman. Judged if they are not.

Perhaps we could look into the life of a priest to have an idea of how it is to be "another Christ or a man for others".

Over the years I've heard terrible stories of parish priests having to cancel vacations at the last minute because of sudden deaths in their parish.

Countless priests must put in long hours, missing dinner because of wedding (Canonical) interviews, hospital calls and counseling sessions. The average priest gets Monday off yet is expected to forgo his only day off if someone needs to see him or a parish council decides to have a meeting that evening. They demand their priest to be available whenever they need him, regardless of the time of day.

One priest told me about having performed a baptism of a child for a family that rarely came to church, only to have them walk out immediately following the rites and ran off to celebrate at a restaurant without even bothering to invite him to join them at the restaurant.

Most clergies are expected by their parishioners to be happy with what they have.

Being on call 24/7, priests often have to forgo planned meals, outings, and family affairs because of the demands of the Catholic faithful. Most priests have such a strong desire to be in service, they simply can't say no.