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A
reflection on Vocations Awareness Week
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
Vocations Awareness Week deserves attention. Any discussion of it and
its purpose needs to begin with Chapter V of the Second Vatican
Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium).
That chapter is titled “The Call To Holiness.” It teaches that all
Christians (the baptized) in any state or walk of life are called to
holiness.
Holiness is sometimes misunderstood. One does not have to be perfect to
be holy. The Scriptures do have Jesus saying (Matt. 5:48) “you must be
made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” But, in fact, only God
is perfect. The great saints of the Church were holy, but they were not
perfect. The Scripture citation is to be understood as a call to
holiness. According to Lumen Gentium (no. 40), holiness is
achieved when we wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the glory of God and
to the service of our brothers and sisters.
This holiness is pursued in any one of four lifestyles: married life;
the single celibate life; consecrated religious life; or ordained
ministry. All are rightly said to be vocations.
Without denying in any way the dignity of all vocations (a column could
be devoted to each), my thoughts this week are directed to the
priesthood. I chose that path for obvious reasons. The need for priests
is nothing less than critical. Without priests, there is no Mass, the
most important action of the faith community. Without priests, the
sacramental system would disappear.
It must be apparent to anyone with eyes to see that the life of a priest
is challenging, a life of expectations next to impossible to meet each
hour of each day, in every circumstance. This is not to say that a
priest is never honored or that he ministers without the respect and
love of people. Quite the contrary. But priests are also misunderstood,
or not understood at all. Priesthood witnesses to countercultural
values. In reference to priests, Jesus said: “I am sending you as lambs
in the midst of wolves” (Luke 10:3). Nonetheless, love of God and a
desire to “wash” the feet of brothers and sisters has always compelled
men to answer God’s call to priesthood.
Like those called to the priesthood today, the first priests were
ordinary men. Jude Thaddeus was said to be one of Jesus’ relatives, a
cousin. He was a fisherman.
Jesus called Jude’s brother, James the Less, son of Alpheus. James was
the first bishop of Jerusalem, who ended up being stoned to death while
praying for his attackers.
There was another James. He had a brother, John — they were the “sons of
thunder.” Their mother, you recall, had high aspirations for her sons.
She wanted them to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand in his coming
kingdom. These two were also fishermen. John turned out to be one of
four evangelists. The fourth Gospel bears his name. John was the only
apostle who didn’t abandon Jesus at the crucifixion. It is thought he
was a teen-ager at the time Jesus invited him to “follow me.”
Matthew was the tax collector, so he started out low on people’s list.
He, too, is one of the evangelists. The first Gospel, attributed to
Matthew, was written to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.
There was a third set of brothers among the Twelve: Peter and Andrew.
They, too, were fishermen. Andrew was the first apostle to be chosen. He
led his brother Peter to Jesus.
Bartholomew, also known as Nathaniel, was drawn to Jesus by Philip, even
though Bartholomew was stunned that Jesus knew him. “How do you know
me?” he asked.
Recall that it was Philip who said, “Master, show us the Father, and
that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him: “Have I been with you
for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has
seen me has seen the Father.”
Then there was Simon, not Simon Peter, but the Zealot party member. I’ve
always imagined him to be passionate, super-charged, perhaps somewhat of
a hot-headed person.
Not to be overlooked is Thomas, known as the one who doubted, but whose
profession of faith is repeated by countless numbers of people during
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. When the sacred host is lifted up at the
consecration, older Catholics such as myself repeat the words of Thomas:
“My Lord and my God!”
Judas, of course, became famous for what he did, or perhaps one should
say, for what he failed to do after living with Jesus for three years
and witnessing his miracles.
All of these men but one endured a violent death as Jesus said they
would: stoned to death, crucified, skinned alive, stabbed. Only John the
Evangelist escaped a violent death. Tradition says he died of old age.
These were men who were called to leadership roles, called to be the
hands and feet of Jesus Christ to their brothers and sisters, called to
act in persona Christi, not because they were perfect but because
Jesus saw something special in them. I doubt if a professional
consultant would have chosen any of them. Never mind that they were
“ordinary.” Their formation consisted in the time spent with Jesus, time
when they walked with him and talked with him and spent time in prayer
with him. Then on Holy Thursday, still full of questions and far from
ideal candidates for the awesome task they would be given, Jesus
conferred on them his power to change bread and wine into his Body and
Blood, and to forgive sins.
Ordinary men of different talents and temperament, they were
“vocationed” by their Creator to act in the person of Jesus Christ. They
were the first. Even today we don’t know a great deal about them beyond
the fact they devoted themselves to the glory of God and to the service
of others in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus continues to call “ordinary” men to the priesthood today. He may
be calling you, your brother, or you and your brother. The call is to
lead souls to God. In the imposition of the ordaining bishop’s hands,
ordinary men are forever changed, uniquely identified with the One for
whom they are giving their life, like Peter, Andrew, Bartholomew and the
rest.
Will those he is calling here in Northcentral Indiana hear the call?
Will they have the courage to say “yes”? We pray it will be so.
It’s an awesome thing to be invited to “follow me” as a priest! |
