Dear Brothers, Friends in the Lord, I am happily responding to Antony’s request to give you a message on the Priesthood on the occasion of your Sahodaya gathering this year, the Year of the Priest.
My message will be in three parts:
First, some quotations on the Priesthood, hoping that you will want to go to the sources, and already begin to read some serious books on this subject.
Second, my comments on some important aspects of priestly life.
Third, a short list of books and articles that I hope you will read, and find informative and inspiring.
PRIESTHOOD - Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard:
“Beloved brethren, you ought now to realize more clearly the incomparable dignity of a priest; all the sacerdotal power of Christ is, as it were, at his discretion.
He is a conscious and free minister, and it depends on him whether the eternal mediation of the Saviour reaches the souls of his fellowmen or not; it is also up to him whether the world pays God the homage which is due Him, for he has the unique privilege of being able to renew the Sacrifice of the Cross here on earth.
In his hands rests the whole redemption, the entire Church.” (“Priests among Men”) “[The priest must] make his own the matter of the salvation of mankind, to the point of feeling the anguish of their redemption more keenly than they do.” [id.] “A priest must be simultaneously a man of God and a man among men, if he is to be the real mediator for human society.” “It is in the Sacrifice of the Mass that priests find their living synthesis and their most lofty reconciliation.”
“Notwithstanding his personal limitations, a priest’s role is to be, by vocation, one with God. ‘God is my lot,’ the holy Cure of Ars used to say.” “So obviously a priest’s work is to concern himself with the things of God. ‘His office is not for human things and things that pass away, however lofty and valuable these may seem; but for things divine and enduring’. … His whole life is specialised, directed to the promotion of God’s Kingdom. … His apostolate is not mere philanthropy, it is absolutely God-centred.”
“Like Moses, a priest is a man of Mount Sinai. Like Moses, and even more so, the Lord has made him ‘strong and solitary.’ A priest must always remember that. At the very moment when he is most active and in the thick of things, a part of him, his highest part, must remain on the mountain, lost in the clouds. To the end of his life, indeed to the end of time, he is to be ‘a man of mystery’.” [Simone Weil: “The Catholic priest is comprehensible only if there is something in him that is incomprehensible.”]
“To the very end, however, that peerless ‘stranger’ will be the salt of the earth, counteracting the insipidity of the world, the force that will awaken it from its lethargy. The first function of the priesthood is to save it from being self-contained. Its first duty is to remain transcendent. Human society will be saved only by becoming super-human. It will only realize the City of Man by becoming the City of God.”
“To be a priest suited to the twentieth century is not a matter of slavishly copying methods suited to former times, nor of inventing new forms for the sake of novelty; but it means to translate the message of Christianity into present-day terms.”
Benedict XVI:
“I wish to speak in particular of the priest’s configuration to Christ, the Head of the Church through the three munera of teaching, sanctifying and governing.” “In their ministry, priests act ‘in persona Christi’—in the person of Christ.” “The priest is called to preach and teach not himself, but Jesus Christ and His revelation of the Father.”
“The life of prayer and the sacraments are an authentic pastoral priority for priests, that will help them to respond with determination to the call to holiness that they have received from the Lord, and to their mission of guiding the faithful along the same path.” “He who prays does not waste time, even if the situation has all the markings of being an emergency, and seems to push us towards action alone.” “Priestly identity must never be likened to any secular title or confused with civil or political office. Rather, configured to Christ, who emptied Himself taking the form of a servant, the priest lives a life of sanctity, chastity and humble service, which inspires others by example.”
“The priest, called to be in constant contact with the transcendent holiness of God, becomes, in Christ, the bearer of this holiness in the world.” “Pastors are credible in the measure that they reveal Christ.” “With the faithfulness of her priests, the Church wishes to illumine the darkness of a culture that dispenses with God, and to be a guide toward the dawn of a spring of holiness among men.”
Eucharist:
“The priest must re-discover Jesus as Victim. Eucharist demands that the priest offer the sacrifice of himself, invites him to share the pain of Christ and the anguish of His people. And He commands that the priest carry within himself the wounds of Jesus.” (A’bp Fulton Sheen)
“To be worthy ministers, you must ceaselessly nourish yourselves with the Eucharist, source and summit of Christian life.” “The secret or the key of spiritual life is the passionate love of Christ, which brings Pau’s passionate announcement: ‘For me to live is Christ!’
Mary Mother of Jesus has an affinity for priests, and she who stood at the foot of the Cross will share with them her intimacy with Jesus. She is their model in their responsibility for others.” (id.)
Nourishing the Priestly Life
(1) Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “If you want my adv ice, I would say to you, after 54 years of living in the Society and almost 16 of being its General, that there is a tremendous power latent in this Devotion to the Heart of Christ. … There is here an extraordinary grace that God offers us.” (Fr Arrupe) Remember the 10th Promise of the Sacred Heart: “I will give to priests the gift of touching the most hardened hearts.”
(2) Filial devotion to Mary: “The Jesuit continues to look for help and protection from Mary as mother, just as St Ignatius himself hoped and desired.” (Fr Arrupe)
(3) The Eucharist: the centre of the priest’s life! [Read Arrupe’s “The Mass in My Cathedral”]
(4) Sin and Pardon: The Priest is the ‘expert’ in Sin and God’s Pardon -- in a world that has lost the ‘sense of sin’! [Read: Karl Menninger: “Whatever Became of Sin?”] “Let us discover our vocation as a ‘mystery of mercy’.” (John Paul ii)
(5) Compassion: We radiate the spirit of Jesus, who was always “moved with compassion” at the sight of human suffering.
(6) The Cross: Beware the inclination to resist the Cross! [Lk 4:1-13 Mt 16:22-23 Mt 27:42 1C or 1:17.22.23] Remember: Jesuits have vowed to fight under the banner of the Cross.
(7) The World! Guard against the spirit of the world! Jn 15:19 [Also: Jn 18:36 1Cor 3:19 Gal 6:14 Heb 11:7 Jas 1:27 4:4 1Jn 2:15 SpEx 63]
(8) Humility: Denis Diderot, French philosopher: “You may find every imaginable kind of Jesuit, including an atheist; but you will never find one who is humble.” True?
(9) Availability: “There were people coming and going incessantly, so that they had not even time for meals” (Mk 6:31) “…we are not ideal Jesuits, whatever our work, unless we remain permanently and joyfully ‘disposable,’ ‘men ready to be sent’.” (Arrupe) “Only with this thorough availability can we aspire and live up to the condition of ‘being sent,’ which guarantees our personal integration & true apostolic identity.” (id)
(10) Mysticism: Read the mystics, and study mystical theology – to be able to guide those who have been given the gift of mystical prayer.
(11) Two Questions: Keep challenging yourself with these two questions:
(a) What kind of priest do I want to be?/ am I working to be?
(b) What kind of priest are people looking for today?
LIST OF BOOKS
Cardinal Suhard: “Priests Among Men” [pastoral letter]
Karl Rahner: “Eternal Priesthood”
Fulton J. Sheen: “A Priest in not His Own” “Those Mysterious Priests” “Treasure in Clay” (autobiography)
Donald Cozzens: “The Changing Face of the Priesthood”
Leo Trese: “A Man Approved” “Vessel of Clay” “Tenders of the Flock”
Gaston Courtois: “Before His Face” (2 volumes of Meditations)
Joe Currie: “Shepherds after My Own Heart”
Catherine Doherty: “Dear Father” [“Gospel Without Compromise”]
Andrew Greeley: “My Love” (personal diary)
Pope John xxiii: “Journal”
Boyd Barrett (ex-SJ): “Ex-Jesuit” “Shepherds in the Mist” “Shepherd without Sheep” Eucharist
Pedro Arrupe: “The Mass in My Cathedral” (personal notes)
Luis Bermejo: “Body Broken Blood Shed”
George Maloney: “Living the Blessed Eucharist”
Scot Hahn: “The Lamb’s Supper”
Novels/Biographies:
Graham Greene: “The Power and the Glory”
Georges Bernanos: “Diary of a Country Priest”
??: “The Junky Priest”
??: “The Hoodlum Priest” (about Fr Dismas Clark, SJ)
??: “The Cypresses Believe in God”
? Sanchez: “A Priest Confesses”
Neil Boyd: “Bless me, Father” (humour)
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