National Vocation Awareness Week

 Resumed Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  This week the Church in the United States focuses on vocations in National Vocation Awareness week.  We are invited by our bishops to focus our attention on vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life, and to pray for those considering it.
    Vocations to holy orders and consecrated life are such important parts of the Church’s life.  Through priests, we have access to the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance, by which our sins are forgiven.  Deacons assist with baptisms and funerals, as well as at Mass, and are of great service to the Church in many other ways.  Consecrated men and women remind us that this world is not all there is, and that we should always keep our minds and hearts on heaven, where all the People of God will be poor (relying on God for everything), chaste, and obedient.  A sign of a healthy parish is when men and women consider these forms of life.  We will be blessed in a little over a month to have one of the sons of St. Matthew parish, Deacon Jeff Raths, ordained to the priesthood for the Augustinians.  I know that we have other men who are considering a vocation to the priesthood, as well.  
    As with any vocation, a call to the priesthood, diaconate, or consecrated life is a call from God, a gift, which cannot be earned.  A vocation is a way to build up the Church and to serve the Church to assist in the spreading of the Gospel and the salvation of souls.  No one is worthy of the call, but Christ makes worthy those whom He calls.
 

Bishop Boyea anoints my hands in my ordination to the priesthood

   In my own life, my discernment was not some audible voice from the heavens, nor did I get struck by lightning.  It came through perseverance in prayer, openness to doing, first and foremost the will of God, and a dialogue with the Church to see if I would be a good priest. I didn’t hear an answer when I wanted (God was teaching me patience, I think).  But through daily prayer, going to Mass when I could (beyond Sundays and holydays), and even listening to others, I was able to discern that I had to apply to go to seminary.  And in seminary, by following the formation program, I was able to discern that I wanted to be a priest, and the Church decided that I would be a good priest.  That’s a super simplified version, but it’s the gist of what I went through.  There were no really big moments in my life that pushed me, but the daily openness to the will of God and trying to do His will as best as I knew it.
    The month of November is also dedicated to prayers for the dead.  The priest is the one who can help usher a soul to God at the end of life, and can help save souls.  The priest is invited in to the life of a parishioner at the last moments, and through the last sacraments of Penance, Anointing of the Sick, and Viaticum, as well as the plenary indulgence of the Apostolic Pardon, can change the trajectory of where a soul is headed.  Without priests, we are left to our own virtue, which is not always promising.  Without priests, I know families would be more distraught at the loss of a loved one.  And without priests (and deacons), there would be no one to commend the soul to God in a funeral.
    The priesthood requires a real man.  It is not for the faint of heart.  I certainly could not imagine doing anything else with my life, nor could imagine being truly happy in any other vocation.  But there are hard days (just like there are in marriage and family life), and like any vocation, it does require sacrifice.  But the sacrifices are worth it, and are easily borne because of love.  I would hope that any young man here would consider a vocation to the priesthood.  If it does work out, it is a great service to the Church.  Or, if God calls you to another form of life, discerning the priesthood is always beneficial to knowing what God wants you to do and having that certainty that you knew the vocation God was calling you to, rather than simply defaulting to marriage because it is most common.  
    So, too, consecrated life, which includes monks and nuns, brothers and sisters, and consecrated virgins, is a call that takes courage.  In a society that values money, sex, and one’s will over almost everything else, the call to be poor, chaste, and obedient is a kind of revolt against the fallen values of the secular world.  But, again, it is a special form of life to which Christ calls some, and any young man or woman should consider if God is calling you to it.  The religious men and women I know are some of the happiest people I know.  We have our sisters here, the Servants of God’s Love, and I know some of the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, as well as a few consecrated virgins.  They exude happiness; and not the passing happiness from having what one wants at the moment, but the longer-lasting happiness of doing the will of God and living that vocation with others.  In addition to the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty, and obedience, the blessing (and challenge) of community life is one of the marks of so many consecrated men and women.  They know that they are not alone as they seek to imitate the poor, chaste, and obedient Christ.  I certainly also encourage young men and women of the parish to consider consecrated life.  We need that witness of those who live the heavenly life already here on earth.
    And in order to have good priests, deacons, and consecrated men and women, we need good and holy families that encourage discernment.  Vocations don’t fall out of heaven in a gift box; they are the fruit of a family seeking to do the will of God and developing good habits of discernment like daily prayer, devotion to the Eucharist, and frequent reception of the sacraments.  It also does take the encouragement (but not forcing the issue) of vocations in the family or among friends of parishioners.  Never be afraid to tell a young man or young woman that you think he or she would be a good priest, deacon, or consecrated man or woman.  You don’t have to tell them every time you see them, but mention it once in a while, as a way of letting them know that it’s a good thing to consider in life.
    This week the Church invites us to assist others in discerning a vocation.  May our lives and our witness help others to consider a life that puts service to the Church as a real possibility to be the man or woman that God is calling them to be.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Glorifying God and Lifting Burdens

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week is the week the Church in the United States focuses on promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life, and it’s called National Vocation Awareness Week.  That may seem odd, because our first reading from Malachi and our Gospel passage sound pretty rough on priests.  God the Father, speaking through Malachi, has some harsh words for priests: “If you do not listen, if you do not lay it to bear, to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, I will send a curse upon you.”  God the Son, Jesus, also is critical of the scribes and Pharisees, who were not necessarily priests, but who were leaders of the Jewish communities in their day: “‘The scribes and Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.  For they preach but they do not practice.  They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not lift a finger to move them.’”  It doesn’t sound like God the Father or Jesus has much love for priests and religious leaders!

  But, on the contrary, God the Father and Jesus both love priests, but they both also hold priests to a very high standard, because they are acting in God’s Name and are called to reflect who God is.  As Jesus says elsewhere, “To whom much has been given, much will be expected.”  God through Malachi chastises the priests because they are not leading the people in giving glory to God’s Name.  And Jesus does not condemn the priests for what they are teaching, but for what they fail to do in terms of helping God’s people.  Sadly, in our own country, a few priests have not led the people in glorifying God, and they have not helped God’s people, but have hurt them, sometimes in horrific ways.  

So what is the solution?  Should we get rid of priests?  Should we close down the seminaries and become Christian communities who do not have priests because a small group of priests have not lived up to their vocation?  To do so would be not put ourselves as masters of the Church, and as I preached a few months ago, it is not our Church; the Church belongs to Jesus; She is His Bride.  Instead, we need better priests.

People often ask me what I do each day (usually right before someone else chimes in that priests only work for an hour or two on Sundays).  And I can say that no two days are exactly the same.  There are some common things, but you never know what will happen on any given day.  The most important part of my job is to do what Malachi said: to lead you in giving glory to God, and that happens most perfectly, most eminently, in the Mass.  The Mass is the high point of my day, as I offer to God the Father through Christ the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit, the one, acceptable sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross for the salvation of the world.  And in that, I hopefully draw you in, not to glorify ourselves, not to focus inward on how great we are, because we are not great, but rather, to glorify God and so focus on serving God first in the Mass and then after the Mass in our daily lives.  That is the key to a priest’s life: the Mass; the Eucharist.

Outside of that, I try to do what Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees for not doing: practicing what I preach, and lifting burdens from people’s shoulders.  Practicing what I preach means treating ever parishioner the way I would want to be treated, and treating them according to what the Church, sitting on the Chair of St. Peter, has taught, never giving special consideration because a person is famous, gives a lot, or is a friend.  Each day I also try to lift the burdens of the people in my parish, as I talk to them about their marriages, as I hear their confessions and offer them God’s mercy, as I try to help our school students see how much God loves them and help them to mature as Catholic young men and women.  Does it take a lot out of me?  Certainly.  Being a priest is about giving of oneself, in a similar way to how marriage is about giving of oneself (without the sex part).  But that is why the Eucharist is so important, because it is the source of the strength and wisdom, without which a priest would quickly burn out and become useless.

The reality is that we need more priests.  We need courageous, adventurous men who are trying to live according to God’s law to become priests.  We don’t need sissies; they won’t make it.  The priesthood calls for a man’s man; not a man with machismo, who is all about his own strength, but for a man who seeks to glorify God and care for the people entrusted to his care, even when the people don’t want the care that he knows God wants for them.  You don’t have to be perfect to become a priest; I’m living proof of that!  But you do have to want to follow God as perfectly as you can, so that God can be glorified, and His people can be cared for in love and truth.