Since 2003, in the United States, the last Sunday of October
has been designated Priesthood Sunday, an opportunity for us to reflect upon
the role of the ordained priesthood in the life of the Church.
Pope St. John Paul II, when he was Pope, used to write a
letter every year on Holy Thursday to all the priests of the Church. In the very first of his letters, way back in
1979, he wrote of the thing that unites all priests—a love for Christ and a
love for the Church. Each priest can
trace his vocation back to a love for Jesus Christ and the loving desire to
serve the Church.
Since I entered seminary back in 2001, I’ve met hundreds and
hundreds of priests. Seminary professors, hospital chaplains, prison chaplains,
military chaplains, old grandfatherly pastors, serious and focused parish
administrators, energetic young parochial vicars. Wise spiritual directors,
gifted preachers, compassionate healers, courageous missionaries, priests with
profound love for the poor. Priests who were gourmet cooks, world travelers,
sports enthusiasts, brewers, bakers, gamers, writers, jokesters, weight
lifters, joggers, swimmers, artists, risk takers, and philosophers. Sloppy
priests, socially awkward priests, jolly priests, eccentric priests, exhausted
priests, and priests counting the days until their retirement.
And I have to concur with Pope St. John Paul. Nearly every
priest I’ve met possessed a deep love for Jesus Christ and a love for the
Church. And when priests are together, there is an unspoken acknowledgement of
that shared love, that is really quite beautiful.
I remember one Wednesday evening, playing cards with a group
of priests, and one of them saying, “why don’t more men want this? Priesthood
is such a gift.” And one of the brothers said, “they do, they just don’t know
it.” A fraternity bound by love for Christ and his Church.
Love. All priests are to be animated by love because all
Christians are to be animated by love. In the Gospel this weekend we hear that
Love is the greatest commandment. Love for God and love for neighbor aren’t
just ideals, but commandments.
The most joyful people I’ve ever met, priests, religious,
married, and single people, have been those who have dedicated their lives to
loving God and loving others with as much selflessness as they could muster.
It’s no coincidence that our culture which glamorizes selfishness and
self-absorption is also so joyless; because joylessness and selfishness go
hand-in-hand. Tracing joylessness to the source, you always find some lack of
love for the true and living God.
In the second reading St. Paul praises the Thessolonians for
turning away from their pagan idols. Why because those idols do not bring joy,
they do not give life. This is why it should
be a regular and routine spiritual practice for Christians to examine our lives
for idols—to pray “Lord, show what I value more than you. And help me to be rid
of it.” When we have the courage to utter that prayer, and follow where God
leads in answer to that prayer, it can change everything, your whole life.
In that 1979 letter to priests, the holy Father told priests
that every day priests must be converted anew.
Priests struggle with sin and selfishness too. And so the Holy Father’s
reminder is a good reminder. Many a priest goes to bed each night reflecting on
how he could have loved Christ more. Newly beatified Blessed Archbishop Fulton
Sheen once said, “If I were asked if I had my life to live over again, would I
live the priesthood as I have? The answer is: ‘No, I would try to love Christ
more.”
And again, this isn’t just a lesson for priests. True Love,
the love that Jesus commands in the Gospel, seeks to love more deeply. And so
love always demands conversion, constant conversion, to love more deeply than I
did yesterday. But that daily conversion requires daily self-scrutiny. Not
scrupulosity, but honesty scrutiny. “What are the ways, Lord, that you are
calling me to love more deeply? What are those idols from which I must turn
away?”
In that 1979 letter, Pope John Paul also addressed a growing
concern about the number of priests, and how there are some communities of
Catholics throughout the world that do not have access to Holy Communion
regularly because they don’t have priests.
These communities meet to pray on Sundays, but they can’t celebrate the
Eucharist and can’t receive Holy Communion because they don’t have a priest,
they do not have regular access to the Sacrament of Confession, and so they
have to carry the guilt of their sins. “Such places are not lacking in the
world.”
Which is why the Church has a duty to pray for and to
encourage young men to discern the call to the priesthood. Many of our
seminarians say that it was a priest who first asked them if they ever thought
about becoming a priest. That was the case in my life. My parents,
grandparents, aunts and uncles, never mentioned. Not once. Which is why they
were pretty surprised when I told them I was entering seminary. But it’s not
just the job of priests. Dear ones, please “have the talk” with your sons,
grandsons, and nephews. Tell them that they should consider it, because the
priesthood is a good life, a life of service to God.
After communion today, seminarian John Scantling will share
the story of how he is answering God’s call to the priesthood. If you are a
young man and his story inspires you to wonder if God is calling you to the
priesthood, please let me know, we can begin a conversation.
But for the rest of us, consider how God is calling you to
answer the call to serve the mission of the Church and to love more deeply, for
love is our deepest calling and our deepest fulfillment for the glory of God
and the salvation of souls.
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