Rev Christo

Rev Robert Christo, who will be ordained to the priesthood this afternoon at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, speaks  to Celia Regis of the Archdiocesan Communications Commission:

Celia: Rev Christo, there was a lot of talk about the vibrancy of the liturgy when you were ordained as a deacon. Can we expect more of the same for your ordination to the priesthood?

Robert: Well, that is one of the challenges of the last ordination. I wanted to give my all, particularly for one reason. A lot of my foreign friends would find it difficult to be here at Christmas time and I knew beforehand that very likely my ordination (to the priesthood) would have been December 16, which is one week before Christmas.

I wanted to do my best for them to experience what the liturgy was, what creative liturgy was, and I wanted to uphold something that’s very powerful in my mind and my whole perspective on Church.

It’s a sacred and a fruitful alliance between art, your own art, where you have come from, and the Gospel. So I was trying to marry images and marry my culture, where I have come from, to give that energy back because I really believe that giving back, is giving back the way you are, what you have become.

I just wanted to bring my entire act of gratitude, all the energies of the tassa and the drums and my background back to God, and luckily it worked well. The fusion of culture worked well in liturgy. It’s just an exposure so that people would realise that the Church is alive.

Celia: Now, Robert Christo, you would have channelled that energy, insight, that global vision into almost any kind of end product that you could have chosen. What really led you to accept the sacrament of Holy Orders?

Robert: That’s my book; should be a best seller, I hope. It started a long time ago. I think I am gifted; it’s really pure grace. I am an unworthy servant and I come with a lot of different images.

I have a gift of seeing the end from the beginning, and where I grew up, my environment, my family, my school, my involvement in carnival, allowed me to explore my talents.

I believe the greatest gift is to become who you are, to know yourself, to be comfortable with who you are and how you are, and that is where the peace lies and that is where freedom is.

I learned that when I was nine and (again) when I  was seventeen, from Frs Andrew Allen, Lorcan Murray, John Theodore. So I said, “Lord, these are my gifts, I want to give back to you, I want to give back as an act of gratitude, and giving back is by exploring and giving all my talents back to Church, so that people could experience you.”

Celia: On the point of discerning your vocation and working steadfastly towards it, how did your family and friends respond?

Robert: My family, with great trepidation, just saw it but never understood it and the decision was kind of harsh in the beginning. So it took some time to “emotionalise” on that decision.

You would no longer be a money-earner in the family and you would have to pursue a missionary type of activity. So it’s a sense of loss and grief that you have to work out anyway.

I was very stubborn and adamant in the beginning. I knew that I had this call, this nudging, I had to raise up my white flag, I had to surrender, or else I would not be peaceful.

Celia:   What would you say to other young persons who are considering a vocation to the priesthood?

Robert: Your peace lies in the will of God. You have to decide what God wants of you. It is not necessarily what the world is telling you, what the TV is telling you, what the Internet is telling you.

A lot of people out there are very frustrated because they haven’t accomplished the will of God. Success is not only a pursuit to happiness, or prosperity, or career. It is the accomplishment of the will of God in your life.

Celia: With all of this energy, and things that you say you’ve seen, envisioned, what will be the tone of your ministry? What kinds of projects do you intend to bring to reality?

Robert: The tone, I think, is one of pure joy. I love to make people happy. The theology embedded in any liturgy, in any activity and Christianity is not about fake piety or humdrum, kind-of-boring activity. It is full of life, creativity in who you are as a Caribbean person; you can dance and act and speak.

You’ve got to bring that back to God. I think we have to fuse that into our liturgical culture to make people identify with their God, rather than a foreign being who is just a task-master waiting to punish you if you do wrong.

Celia: As you process up the aisle this evening and you come to that point where you prostrate yourself before the Archbishop, what thoughts do you think you will be taking there with you?

Robert: One of the greatest profound messages coming through this is servant-hood. I want to be a servant of the people of God and that is the only way that I know how it means to give back.

I am going to prostrate myself in obedience to God’s will, to be a co-worker with Him, to be in unceasing prayer and in building the people of God. I want to be a father to people, particularly the poor, the alienated, the unloved.

Celia: Thank you, Rev Christo. Congratulations and God’s richest blessings to you as you begin your priestly ministry.