Counseling in Faith - Identity and Comfortableness with Feelings - Essay Example

Identity and Comfortableness with Feelings Many have found it difficult to recognize their pastoral identity. Pastoral identity is about relating professional moral responsibilities to the service of people. in order for one to realize his or her pastoral identity, it is important to indentify the values, feelings and personality and the relationship with other people. The first step is to identify one’s personal identity. Our personal identity is attained from receiving feedbacks other people. Self identity is attained by the ability of a person to be independent of thought and opinion. This is through considering self opinion to have more value than the value of other people’s opinion. Pastoral service entails self actualization as it is a profession that gives a person the responsibility to act as a moral object to the society (Niklas 29). This aspect portrays one of the major roles of pastoral care apart from providing service to other people. Pastoral care also entails instilling a moral responsibility to through acting as a role model to the society. Many pastors, catechists and priest take up the role of the mirror in the society. For many students the essence of identity is professionalism. However vocation is a concrete factor influencing self identity as it is inspired by the desire to offer services to the community during the pastoral service. Pastoral care can therefore be referred to as a social service as well as a calling that pictures the pastoral minister as a role model as well as a servant to the society. Ethics in Pastoral Ministry Pastoral ministry has a broad application in the church than the council. Initially, the term minister was only reflected to preachers in the protestant churches. Pastoral role had not been internalized and understood by many people in the society hence the term was used to focus on the ordinary meaning thus ignoring the deeper aspect of ministries. Currently, pastoral ministry has reflected on the bigger picture of pastoral identity which is service not only to the church but the entire community. The church acts as a symbol of pastoral service as being ordained only ushers people into the pastoral service but does not play the exact role in pastoral care. Catholic churches have strived to portray this notion through the roles that priests, clergymen and nuns play in the church. In the catholic community, the church is a symbol of the society. In this case, priests, clergymen and nuns act as servants of the societies in which they administer in church. Pastoral ethics are inspired by the moral character of a person. Priests, catechists and pastors have a moral obligation in a society as they are seen as model s of ethical values since their work entails the practice and teaching of good deeds in the society. However, ethical conduct does not come from the moral obligation but the virtues of a person. Virtues underscore the visions, roles and objectives of a pastoral minister. Pastoral minister are given the moral obligation of leading by example thus the moral values of a society are immensely contributed by the moral practices of a pastoral minister. There are many cases around the world relating to the morals and ethical conducts of church leaders. Many priests, catechists and pastors engage themselves in immoral behaviuors thus leading to the big question which is where or not to moral and ethical laws of conduct to religious leaders. The basic solution to this situation is to instill and enforce professional ethics to the religious leaders in order to limit them to the service of the society through the spreading of moral values. Professional ethics entails the use of professional duties to identify moral ethics. Priests, pastors and catechists have the duty of spreading the word of God to the people thus is expected to practice the content they preach to the society. This aspect makes religious leaders to be the reflection of moral character in a given society. When a person is ordained, he or she is given the moral obligation to instill moral values in the society with the use of professional duties. Pastoral students ought to be taught moral values in their quest. This involves the inclusion of a theological framework in their curriculum with the primary objective of reelecting on the moral responsibilities of pastoral ministries. Pastoral ministries require skills, knowledge and good moral character in order to serve the religious needs of the people. Without all these entities, a pastoral minister may not meet the objective as well as course of their profession (Gula 12). Pastoral services are linked with the act of doing ‘good’ (Matt 19:16). Apostle John Paul II articulates goodness to Godliness which is the essence of pastoral service. Moral responsibilities are not only social convictions of being a professional person but a vocational calling from God. This is the most one of the legitimate ways of authorizing morality. Professional ministry is not about the service of people but also the service of God. In this case there is a major difference between vocational practices and professional practices. Vocational practices entail a serious commitment of service to God, the society and the church. Moral responsibilities can be administered easily through vocational trainings as a person considers him or herself a servant of the community whose roles are delegated by God. This mentality creates moral responsibilities as well as commitment thus making it easy to carry out the duties of pastoral care. The Search of Nuclear Man A modern man is empowered by certain aspects that determine the intrinsic behavioral characteristics. Henri, in his article The Search of Nuclear Man provides an example of a twenty-six year old man, Peter who undergoes physical and personal environmental changes. The change in relation to his physical attributes he experiences a manifestation of life structure according to the vagueness of boundaries. The surrounding dictate what the structure of his life is without having any control over it. Certain known and unknown factors affect a ma thinking and perception to an extent of changing the ideas, ideology of thinking and feelings. Such changes determine other extrusive aspects that determine the intrusion of personal characteristics. In depicting the characteristics of a nuclear man, Henri, portrays Peter as a man lost in his naivety of faith in the possible solutions offered by technology. A nuclear experiences a predicament of knowing that certain powers that enable man to innovate and invent end up creating another aspect of life linked to potential carriers of self-destruction. The modernity of life in the 21st century coupled with the political strategies in many global nations pose a development of a nuclear age that is fueled by man for industrial complexities but ends up bringing danger to his human and physical environment (Henri 6). Ecological balance has been degraded and affected the impact of man’s milieu. Human and environmental sustainability has been affected by the adoption of certain aspects that deter the importance of meaning and purpose to the conventional things. Rather than overlooking on the beneficial aspects on the current or the development of a nuclear world, a pre-nuclear and nuclear man ought to overlook the possibilities of the destruction of the future. The paradox of a nuclear world re-ascertains the linkage of life and death in which a normal man gets caught up. Dealing with the exposure to nuclear dangers that lead to such situations, it is necessary to come up with a conjunction of modern and traditional insights. In response to such possibilities, a nuclear man develops optimistic knowledge and skills to counter the outlook of nuclear possibilities. However, to a nuclear man, the possibilities of using both modern and traditional insights are not possible due to the irrelevance of traditional institutions to technological advancements powered by nu clear energy. The abandonment of traditional aspects is also promoted by the radicalism of the existing frames that offer a platform of human reference. However this references does not apply to the difference of the old people and the youth, but referred to life style. Historical dislocation, fragmented ideologies, search for new immortality are certain aspects that define a nuclear man and his appropriate description, fit to adapt to the nuclear world. In light of the affiliation to supernatural powers such as those of God and Christianity, heaven and hell and the domination of Christ, a nuclear man rarely finds expression, and therefore, leads an almost atheist life instead of paganism. The constant belief to technological advancement leaves a nuclear man prone to exhilarating experiments through which he tries to free himself from the predicaments and the transcendence of the moral condition that surpass the normal human conditions. In addition, mystical and revolutionary ways depict the ways in which a nuclear man tries to exploits his natural limits. The introduction of Christian values in human beings by Jesus Christ was a means to ensure that human use their abilities and Christian values for the development of proper ideologies that lead to radical activism. The teachings of Christianity were a constitution of aspects that depict a mode in which man could derive experiential transcendence. Works Cited Gerald, Niklas R, The Making of a Pastoral Person, New York: Alba House, 1996. Print. Henri, Nouwen, The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society, New York: Random House, 1979. Print. Richard, Gula M, Ethics in Pastoral Ministry, New York: Paulist Press, 1996. Print. Read More