4. TRANSFORMED BUT MEN ALL THE SAME

Prayer

Lord I thank you for making me your priest. Theoretically I know it is an inestimable gift. But to live up to your expectation I find it so hard. Make me taste the sweetness of your love shown to me in making me a priest. It is through your spirit that I will be able to understand what is meant by a priest and what its implications are. Send your spirit abundantly on me to-day so that my self-realization of being a priest will make me live my priesthood better and serve my brethren with generosity and dedication.

There is no better way of understanding and meditating on the nature and functions of priests than follow the Apostolic Exhortation "Pastores Dabo Vobis". Basing myself on this document I will try to give some points of reflection to enable us to live our priesthood happily and with serenity.

There is an increasing shortage of priests: due to the reluctance of young men to enter the priestly ministry; some have resigned from the priesthood; and there are some who show signs of exhaustion, who are overworked and under excessive psychological stress in addition there are complaints and protest against certain form exercising authority; and there

is a negative attitude even from the so-called good catholic families towards priesthood.

We are living in a secularized society which lacks faith; the profile of the priest has become blurred - a life centered on sacred functions and secluded from the life of the common man; modern notion of 'democracy everywhere' and so the notion of hierarchy has suffered; vertical and horizontal concept of priestly office(vertical: particular mission from Christ; horizontal: service to fellow men); many duties are taken by the laity.

Although we in India did not have very much of a doctrinal crisis with regard to the understanding of priesthood yet we must say we also have lost a decent number from our ranks. In fact, the Holy Father in his post synodal exhortation pastores dabo vobis has this to say: “The crisis in priestly identity arose in the years immediately following the Council. 1t was based on an erroneous understanding of - and sometimes even a conscious bias against - the doctrine of the Conciliar Magisterium. Undoubtedly, herein lies one of the reasons for the great number of defections experienced by the Church, losses which did serious harm to

pastoral ministry and priestly vocations, especially in missionary vocations. 1t is as though the 1990 Synod, rediscovering by means of the many statements which we heard in this hall, the full depth of priestly identity, has striven to instill hope in the wake of these sad losses. These statements showed an awareness of the specific ontological bond which unites the priesthood to Christ the High Priest and Good Shepherd. This identity is built upon the type of formation which must be provided for priesthood, and then endure through out the priest's whole life. This was the precise purpose of the Synod”¹.

This is what Cardinal Ratzinger has to say on the subject. “One can see how the real danger is, for it is probable that all the great crises in the Church were essentially connected to a decline in the clergy, for whom intercourse with the Holy had ceased to be the fascinating and perilous mystery it is, for coming close to the burning presence of the All-Holy One, and had become instead a comfortable craft to which to secure one’s daily needs. The venture of being called close to the mystery of God requires a preparation like that of Moses, who heard words that still hold true: one must take off one’s shoes. Shoes made of leather, from the skins of dead animals, were a symbol of the dead, of that from which we must free ourselves”.² The modern man with the almost overpowering attractions which the world proffer find it hard to take on an arduous journey of the priesthood.

Christians are always called to recognize in Jesus of Nazareth the definitive fulfillment of the message of the Prophets: "And he began to say to them 'Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing'"³. Let us imagine Jesus standing in front of us and reading the following passage. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord"⁴. Jesus thus presents himself as filled with the Spirit, "consecrated with an anointing" "sent to preach good news to the poor". He is the Messiah, the Messiah who is a Priest, Prophet and King⁵.

"The priest's identity," as the Synod Fathers wrote, "like every Christian identity, has its source in the Blessed Trinity", which is revealed and communicated to people in Christ, establishing, in him and through the Spirit, the Church as "the seed and the beginning of the Kingdom". The Apostolic Exhortation Christi Fideles Laici, summarizing the Council's teaching, presents the Church as mystery, communion and mission: "She is mystery because the very life and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the gift gratuitously offered to all those who are born of water and the spirit(cf. Jn 3:5), and called to relive the very communion of God and to manifest it and communicate it in history(mission)".

It is within the Church's mystery, as a mystery of Trinitarian communion in missionary tension, that every Christian identity is revealed, and likewise the specific identity of the priest and his ministry. Indeed, the priest, by virtue of the consecration which he receives in the Sacrament of Orders, is sent forth by the Father through the mediation of Jesus Christ, to whom he is configured in special way as Head and Shepherd of his people, in order to live and work by the power of the Holy Spirit in service of the Church and for the salvation of the world"⁶

The priest therefore, is related to the Trinity. It is in this "relational" dimension that the identity of the priest is understood. His identity comes from the love of the Father, the grace of Jesus Christ and the gift of unity of the Holy Spirit. We know that the Church is the prolongation of the relationship that exists in the Trinity. Christ is her head and the Holy Spirit vivifies her. There is communion between the Church and the Trinity. So the priesthood cannot be understood apart from the Church and Jesus Christ, the Head. The priest therefore is related to the Trinity and in communion with the Church. Two fundamental principles that is absolutely essential to understand role of the priest in the world of to day.

Christ was anointed by the Spirit. By the same Spirit in the sacrament of ordination priests are made partakers of the anointing of Christ. It is through this mysterious sacramental anointing that they become other Christs. They are thus continuators of his prophetic, priestly and kingly role. Truly the priest can say: "This is my Body" and "I absolve your from your sins" Through us the redemption of the world is continued. Together with Paul we must say: "It is not I that live but Christ lives in me".

It is in this context that we are able to grasp the meaning of what Cardinal Ratizinger says:” The fundamental structure of the Christian ministries becomes clear once this understanding which Jesus had of himself and the insight of New Testament belief in him are firmly grasped. These ministries are also grounded not in self-authorization, nor in simple expediency, nor in mutual agreement, but rather on a being called to him who is himself the call of God, the “Word”. It is from this Christological centre that the essential features of the Christian concept turns on the mission of Christ and the Christian’s co-mission with him.” ⁷

This identification to Christ through the sacrament of ordination is a very mysterious fact. It is a reality not depending on our subjective view but guaranteed objectively which we call sacramental grace. Our intention is not to give a theological dissertation on how we become priests. We have studied in our theology classes but to reflect on our roles as priests.

If God has given us His life in a particular way then why should there be such an effort to live this great event? Why should we at times feel abandoned, closed in on our own fragility, our own anxieties and our powerlessness? Can't we say in moments of doubts and temptations that we belong to Christ and the evil should not touch us. Our sacramental priesthood, is a "hierarchical" and at the same time a "ministerial" priesthood. It constitutes a special ministerium, that is to say "service", in relation to the community of believers. It does not however take its origin from that community, as though it were the community that "called" or "delegated". The sacramental priesthood is truly a gift for this community and come from Christ himself, from the fullness of his priesthood"⁸.

“The laying on of hands is not primarily a symbol of the transference of power from the community but rather of the fact that spiritual authority in Christianity does not come from below nor from within, but from without and from above. It is a symbol, therefore, of the activity of the Spirit, over which he community does not have control. “⁹

Like St. Paul, the presbyter is called to be a “servant of the Gospel” (Ep 3:7. a “servant of the Church” n(Col 1:25), a servant of Jesus Christ: (Ph 1:1), and “the slave of everyone” (I Cor 9:19). But he is also called to be “steward of the mysteries of God” (I Cor 2:17), and the “ambassadors of Christ” (2 Cor 5:20). ¹⁰

We must be really convinced through our faith that we are inserted into Christ and we are given a duty to perform not through our choice alone but due to his munificence to be His priest. He saw something in us which He had already placed in us. The first duty of the priest is therefore, to announce the Kingdom of God as Christ did: "The time is fulfilled, the Kingdom of God is at hand". This teaching duty form the teaching of catechism, homilies, sermons, conferences, spiritual direction, visiting the sick, ordinary dialogue with men and women, boys and girls and children, in meetings of various kinds in the parish and elsewhere, the variety of associations etc. The priest is building up the kingdom of God. Here we see the importance of the preparation to priesthood. The necessity of study and reflection. This duty of the priest is not over with the ordination. But it an indispensable requisite in the daily life of a priest. Precisely for this reason Pastores Dabo Vobis states:” This identity is built upon the type of formation which must be provided for priesthood, and then endure through out the priest's whole life"¹¹.

In this aspect we must remember that we ourselves have to keep the word of God within us as our Blessed Mother did, "She kept everything in her heart".

In proclaiming the word of God we must not be timid but courageous because we are his mouth pieces. We must recall what the prophets did. They were announcing His word and therefore not afraid of consequences. This must be done and we must not have compromises. We have to speak boldly what the Gospel demands and what the church desires.

It is true that we are as individuals responsible in explaining what Christ and the Church require of us yet we must remember that the message is not our own. It is His. We must be careful not to adulterate that message with other philosophies: “And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling; and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God"¹². Like Jeremiah the prophet the Lord has put his own words into our mouth: "Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and tear down, to destroy and to break down, to destroy and to over throw, to build and to plant"¹³. Did not this take place in a mysterious way on the day of our ordination? Each one of us with his own intelligence and memory but His grace took possession of us. This is the role of the priest. The Lord spoke with authority.

“This means, first of all, that the servant of Christ is claimed in the deeply personal fashion characteristic of prophetic ministry. He is not involved in a privilege coming to him with birth, but drawn into the totally personal context of call and response. His ministry takes on reality only within this dialogue of call and response. It is not “flesh and blood” that belong to the structure of this ministry, but word and response. It is on this elevated but ever imperilled level that one finds the reality of the NT office of ministry. It directs man repeatedly to the difficult adventure involved in attending to and obeying him of whom it is said: he desires it”¹⁴.

The second duty is to make Christ present through the Sacraments especially the Holy Eucharist. Generally we say the "administration" of sacraments. This is a very poor expression; we are not administrators of a school or a hospital or a social work or any undertaking of importance. We have not become priests for that purpose. We are "dispensers of the mysteries of God"; or as I said we make Christ present for others and for ourselves. The celebration of the Eucharist, the forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of reconciliation, pastorally assisting at the sacrament of marriage; ministering to those gravely sick. In dispensing these mysteries we must be conscious that we are instruments in the hands of Christ very much united with Him as the hand is united with the body of a person. It is only natural that everyday celebration brings monotony and routine in our lives. The faith aspect gradually disappears. Our aim is to finish what we are doing. Mass for ex. the second Eucharistic prayer; we may take utmost 20 minutes; the same with our meditation. Very often due to pressure of work we have no time to pray the breviary. We have something more important than the Eucharist and meditation to do. The same can be said about our ministry of confession. There is another danger which is not uncommon. "It may sometimes seem to us that the people from whom we are chosen wish us to be in every way like them"; at

times it even seems that they demand this of us. And here one very much needs a profound "sense of faith" and "the gift of discernment". In fact, it is very easy to let oneself be guided by appearances and fall victim to a fundamental illusion in what is essential. Those who call for the secularization of priestly life and applaud its various manifestations will undoubtedly abandon us when we succumb to temptation. We shall then cease to be necessary and popular. Our time is characterized by different form of "manipulation" and "exploitation” of man, but we cannot give in to any of these'¹⁵.

But with the sacrament of orders we have become adorers on behalf of the people of God even to the point of becoming holocausts. Christ has told us “Do this in memory of me". The liturgical life and Eucharistic life in a word the sacramental life should be in us the fulfillment of the design of the Father realized in His Son. That is why I said earlier we are continuators of Christ's life and action.

The third duty of the priest is to guide the people of God. lf we take it in the sense of royalty ( a royal priesthood, Christ is King) then we have to say to govern the people of God. Our Lord did not come to govern but to serve. When I say the priest ‘serves’ it

must not be considered as 'menial' service although in the sight of God there is nothing menial, however, we mean to serve the other with the personal dignity that one has by birth and acquired through the call of God or given to us for fulfilling a function. Only God is the Master, the real Governor. He is not a servant. Only the Man-God serves. So when we say we serve, we are speaking as priests, parish priests, vicar-foranes, assistant parish priests etc. Keeping that dignity either bestowed on us by God or given by the church we must serve. It is enough to think of the veneration our simple people have for priests. Hence our attitude towards them must be one of humble service as the Lord has done:

"When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master nor

is he who is sent greater than he who sent him"¹⁶.

The priest then is a minister of charity. It is very profitable to reflect on the 13th chapter of St. John which I read. We priests have been sent to evangelize the poor. In fact it was a sign of the divinity of Christ. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to enquire from the Lord who he was he answered: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them"¹⁷.

The breaking of the word to the poor is a sign of the advent of God's kingdom. Naturally this will make the priest lose his patience. The poor generally are poor in everything. They lack intelligence, memory, at times common sense. They are economically, socially and culturally poor. They do not have a particular time; they break upon us in the most inopportune time and very often for trivialities. In fact, dealing with them all our human weakness comes to the fore; your sensitivity is tested; our fears become temptations.

"Today in particular, the pressing pastoral task of the new evangelization calls for the involvement of the entire people of God, and requires a new fervour, new methods and a new expression for the announcing and witnessing of the Gospel. This task demands of the priests who are deeply and fully immersed in the mystery of Christ and capable of embodying a new style of pastoral life, marked by a profound communion with the Pope, the bishops and other priests, and fruitful cooperation with the lay faithful, always respecting and fostering the different roles, charisma and ministries within the ecclesial community"¹⁸.

St. Augustine has said it more forcefully:” He who is head of the people must in the first place realize that he is to be the servant of many. And he should not disdain being such, I say it once again, he should not disdain being the servant of many, because the Lord of Lords did not disdain to make himself our servant"¹⁹

The apostles “are sent out to preach and to have authority to cast out evil spirits. Preaching and authority, word and sacrament are the two fundamental pillars of priestly ministry. They remain so for all time. In the daily life of the priest the two tasks take on a variety of forms. The ministry of the word has many forms, from preaching and instruction to personal conversation. The ministry of the sacrament is not confined only to the moment of liturgical action. It demands the inward preparation of the person administering the sacrament; it demands the guidance of those receiving it. But it is important to take care that we do not let ourselves be pushed away from these fundamental tasks.

After the Council the impression arose here and there that there were more urgent things to do than to proclaim the word of God and to administer the sacraments. Many were of the opinion that one first had to establish a different society before one could again devote time to such things. At the root of such views lay a spiritual blindness that was only able to perceive material values and forgot that men and women always need the whole, that both their physical and spiritual hunger must be answered. Nor can spiritual questions be put off. On the contrary, their postponement or exclusion only incites other problems and makes them even more impossible to solve.

For this reason leading men and women to the living God is never superfluous. It is always the fundamental condition for the best powers of men and women being aroused without which ultimately they cannot live. The more we ourselves are penetrated by the presence of the living God, the more we can bring him to men and women and the more we too will realize that priestly ministry does not pass real life by but has the effect that they may have life and have it abundantly” ²⁰

Let us listen to Cure of Ars to what he says of the priest:

“At the sight of steeple you can say, “What is there?”. The Body of the Lord. “Why is he there?’ Because a priest has passed by and said the Holy Mass”

“Without a priest, the death and passion of our Lord would be of no use. It is the priest who continues the work of Redemption on earth”.

“How great is the priest! The priest will only understand in heaven. Were he understood on earth, people would die, not of fear, but of love”.

“Oh, the priest is something great! If he knew it he would die”. ²¹