Fiat is a Latin word which is translated as “let it done” in English. It was used several times in the Bible. It was used in the first book of the bible, the book of Genesis, when God created the world and He commanded, “Fiat Lux!”, let there be light! It was used by Mary during the Annunciation when she told the Angel Gabriel, “fiat voluntas tua!” (let your will be done to me!) I was just inspired to make this the title of my article because this was also the motto of the late Bishop Jose C. Sorra, D.D., when he was made Bishop of the Diocese of Virac in 1974.
In all honesty, I really did not have the opportunity to ask the late Mamo Ping Sorra why he chose that motto that would guide him in his pastoral work in the diocese. Maybe it was because he started from the very beginning and so he just let God be the one to guide him as to the journey of the diocese. He was chosen to be the leader of the diocese and so, let it be done according to Your will!
Fiat is, first of all, a submission to the will of God. I cannot do my own plans and ambitions if I am to be the shepherd, but rather I am surrendering to whatever it is that you have in mind. Doing your will may have its own share of triumphs and successes, but I cannot claim them to be mine because it was your design and I just did what you wanted me to do. To God be the glory after everything that I have done! This is my life of obedience to the will of the Master.
Second, it is a renunciation of one’s self in total surrender to God. To accept the will of God means forgetting about my very self. That acceptance of the will of God must make me less and less of who or what I am and strive hard to make the presence of Christ be seen in me. We may call this the life of holiness.
I believe, that if we really have to utter before God our own FIAT, we must all be ready to accept that we are sinners who are all in need of His grace and forgiveness. We must be ready to get really naked in front of Him, uncovering before His eyes all our pretentiousness and lies, and our life of make believe and deceit. No redemption can ever happen to a man who knows nothing about acceptance of his own sinfulness and repentance for all his sins and misdeeds.
Our “fiat” to the Lord is also our life of prayer. We need the guidance and inspiration of God especially in these modern times when a lot of sicknesses, problems, and even calamities seem to have joined their forces to destroy the dignity of the human race. Some of these are products of our own mistakes and self-centeredness, but still, after realizing all these, what we need and what we lack in our lives is prayer. We really need to acknowledge that we are nothing if without God in our lives.
We cannot rely on our own talents and abilities because even if we have bountiful of these beautiful things, still, they cannot do us any good without God. And so, we need to pray so that we can put to good use all those talents, skills and abilities which God gave us. Putting them into good use is nothing else but to share them to other people who are in need of our help. With these, our “fiat” means our sharing in God’s plan of salvation. Our “fiat” is our proclamation that God is still here at work in our midst because of simple people like you and me and like everyone else who are prepared to share God’s goodness and love to everyone in this world.
Let us therefore, pray that sooner or later, we may finally utter our own FIAT to our Lord…