Weekly THIS AND THAT for May 30, 2010: An Educational Mission That Has Grown Out of Ordination

This and That:
An Educational Mission That Has Grown Out of Ordination


“Though priests are called to preach a message that is not their own, they are also called to identify with that message, allowing themselves to be profoundly transformed in it.” This was a reflection made by Benedict XVI at a recent general audience in St. Peter’s Square. As the Year for Priests draws to a close – closing celebrations are scheduled for June 9-11th – the Pope said he would dedicate a series of reflections to priestly ministry.

In that address he took up the first of the three offices the priest receives (teaching, sanctifying and governing), reflecting on the importance of the priest in the midst of what he refers to as an educational emergency. “We live amid great confusion about the fundamental choices of our life,” the Holy Father observed, saying there are “so many contrasting philosophies, which arise and disappear, creating confusion about the fundamental decisions.” However, as promised in the Gospel, the Lord has compassion on his “sheep without a shepherd,” the Holy Father said. “The Lord, moved by compassion, interpreted the Word of God, he himself is the Word of God, and thus he gave guidance. This is the function ... of the priest: to render present, in the confusion and disorientation of our times, the light of the Word of God, the light that is Christ himself in this our world.”

This means, Benedict XVI explained, that the priest “does not teach his own ideas, a philosophy that he himself has invented, has found and that pleases him; ... but, in the confusion of all the philosophies, the priest teaches in the name of Christ present, he proposes the truth that is Christ himself, his word, his way of living and of going forward.”

Of course, the Pope clarified, that this does not mean the priest is “neutral” in relation to this Word, “almost like a spokesman who reads a text which, perhaps, he does not appropriate.” Instead, like Jesus with the Father, the “priest who proclaims the Word of Christ, the faith of the Church and not his own ideas, must also say: I do not live from myself and for myself, but I live with Christ and from Christ and because of this all that Christ has said to us becomes my word, even if it is not mine.”

It is clear that the teaching the priest is called to give must be internalized and lived as an intense personal spiritual journey, so that the priest first enters into a profound interior communion with Christ himself. I have come to realize that anything I teach by way of doctrine or Catholic moral practice must first be grounded in the relationship I have with Jesus. Without a daily regular practice of prayer and presence to the Lord, no such relationship is possible. On the other hand, with it, one gains a sense of compassion and understanding to act as Jesus would act and with the same respect he had for the Law.

In beginning a new ministry in July, I will be doing many of the same things I have done the past 15 years among the people of Our Lady of Grace, namely celebrating Mass, preaching, and teaching. What I will not be doing anymore is administration, attending meetings, or fundraising. So in offering Contemplative Retreats for the Laity, conducting Parish Missions, and presenting Days of Recollection, my ministry will take a decided fuller emphasis on teaching and preaching. The support and the power to do this will come from a more regularly lived contemplative lifestyle with early rising and time for extended daily prayer, reflection, physical labor, and the preparation of food. As I see it, it will have a monastic flavor. The daily lifestyle of union with the Lord will then flow over into the preaching and teaching any given week. Weekends that I will not be presenting will be spent assisting parishes that need a celebrant and preacher for Masses.

Who among us would not like to slow life’s pace down a bit? Who among us would not want more time for inner silence and reflection? Who among us would not want a closer union with God? In this sense the priest/teacher is called to be a countercultural voice in today’s society, opting for each of these values and not only opting for them, but helping provide them in a concrete way for those wanting to do something about bringing them about. Only such a lifestyle of prayer and union can bring about an authentic and profound renewal for our people grounded in Christ as the Living One and experience of a God who operates in our life and for the life of the world and gives us his very presence as a way to live.

The priest is always a teacher, but he gives his lesson with the humble and happy certainty of one who has found Christ and in his encounter with the Lord, he has been gripped and transformed. Because of this he can do nothing less than proclaim and assist others in experiencing it.

Our people are asking us to assist them in renewing our encounter with Christ who alone can give us the inner joy and peace we crave. It is my desire to serve the Lord by helping others experience the loving embrace of God the Father, the healing forgiveness of Jesus, and the abiding, sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit.

Fondly,
Father Nicholas