8. COMMITTED TO THE CAUSE

Prayer

Lord Jesus I know you have called me by name. Your call is irrevocable. Your call contains within itself an obligation on my part. To love You with my whole heart, with my whole mind, and with my whole being. You sent me to serve You with an undivided heart. There is no either or in my choice. I must love only You and everything else in You. It is not that I lose the rest but I gain everything in you because you are One" and "Al1 ". Through your Spirit make me understand and live the radicalism of the Gospel.

The Church teaches that priestly ordination is the indispensable condition for the valid celebration of the Eucharist. Indeed, "in the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, High Priest of the redemptive sacrifice." Certainly the ordained minister also acts "in the name of the whole Church, when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice." As a result, priests should be conscious of the fact that in their ministry they must never put themselves or their personal opinions in first place, but Jesus Christ. Any attempt to make themselves the centre of the liturgical action contradicts their very identity as priests. The priest is above all a servant of others, and he must continually work at being a sign pointing to Christ, a docile instrument in the Lord's hands. This is seen particularly in his humility in leading the liturgical assembly, in obedience to the rite, uniting himself to it in mind and heart, and avoiding anything that might give the impression of an inordinate emphasis on his own personality. I encourage the clergy always to see their Eucharistic ministry as a humble service offered to Christ and his Church. The priesthood, as Saint Augustine said, is amoris officium, it is the office of the good shepherd, who offers his life for his sheep (cf. Jn 10:14-15)¹

What the world really wants from us, and truly needs, John Paul II says is that the mystery of redemption should be made accessible to the men, women and children of our day. And it is through the Eucharist that Christ’s redemption touches human hearts and transforms human history. It is through devotion to the Eucharist, that we are enabled to read accurately the ‘signs of the times’ and to understand all the requirements that genuine aggiornamento makes on us personally. It is in our faithful Eucharistic ministry that we are fully effective ministers of the gospel and servants of Jesus Christ and his people. It is only through the Eucharist that we can be true pastors of our people and relevant spiritual leaders of our communities.’²

Paul VI in 1969, On the feast of Saints. Peter and Paul, wondered if the steady decline in number of men who enter the priesthood was not due in part to the desire for a Christianity ‘with out heroism, and without sacrifices, with out the cross and therefore devoid of the moral greatness of total love³

It is sad but true that there is a growing dissatisfaction of the laity with the clergy bordering on antagonism and at times degenerating into open hostility. According to a survey the first of all qualities that people look for and expect in the priest is that he should be a man of God in all that he does. Priests will be spiritual schizophrenics if their prayer life is not fed by their active life and their pastoral ministry will be barren if it is segregated from their prayer life (Examiner, 1. 4.95). Card Gracias spoke of priests who read Reader’s Digest in the confessional! When people complained of a Parish priest he had sent them, he said, ‘I sent you not one whom you would like, but one whom you need.’

“Each one of you has indeed received a great trust. We are sure that you are firmly resolved to be worthy of it in every way, withdrawing no part of the offering of self which you have freely made in placing ourselves completely at the disposal of Christ and His Church. May your faithfulness to that resolution enable you to say with St. Paul at the end of your earthly lives, ‘I have kept the faith’ (2.Tim), I have been faithful to God, to Christ to the church, faithful to my vocation, to the ministry which has been entrusted to me.’

On7^th May 82 John Paul II addressing the American Priests in Rome affirmed, without minimizing in any way all the possibilities of pastoral service that are open to the priest of today, the Council did not hesitate to declare its absolute priorities. And it did this repeatedly. The essential mission of the priesthood is found in the Eucharist. Your identity and mine are fixed for ever in the Eucharistic celebration, that action of Jesus which in turn, is the fullest and most effective proclamation of his whole gospel message, ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

’On the eve of Vatican II Pope John gave the following advice to a large group of priests, ’A priest is above every thing else, a man of God. It is in this light that the Christian people consider and judge you; it is thus that God wants you to be. You must therefore conform your conduct of life to the pure thoughts, which this description has the power to conjure up in our heart. By calling a priest a man of God one omits from the concept of priesthood everything, which is not God⁴..

The radicalism of the gospel demand is made anew to priests, not only because they are "in" the Church, but because they are "in the forefront" of the Church, as much as they are configured to Christ, the Head and Shepherd, equipped for and committed to the ordained ministry, and inspired by pastoral charity. Within and as a manifestation of the radicalism of the Gospel one can find a blossoming of many virtues and ethical demands which are decisive for the pastoral and spiritual life of the priest, such as faith, humility in relation'" to the mystery of God, mercy and prudence. A particularly significant expression of the radicalism of the Gospel is seen in the different "evangelical counsels" which Jesus proposes in the Sermon on the Mount (cf. Mt 5-7), and among them the intimately related counsels of obedience, chastity and poverty". The priest is called to live these counsels in accordance with those ways and, more specifically, those goals and that basic meaning which derive from and express his own priestly identity"⁵

We priests who are called to announce the saving mission of the Gospel to others and to make them appreciate this precious gift must realize that it is a gift first of all offered to ourselves and this demands commitment on our part.

We will not be able to transmit the message of the Gospel to others unless we ourselves receive it in a convincing manner and make it a norm for our daily living. Hence we must accept the entire Gospel not only when explains the law of God but also the desires of the divine Master when He invites us for a greater perfection and fidelity.

Is there a difference then between the fidelity in the practice of the evangelical counsels practised by a religious and a diocesan priest. The practice of obedience, chastity and poverty must become a part of a patrimony lived by the priest who committed to this fidelity not as a promise which depends on him but as an exigency which he has accepted when the Church handed over to him the Gospel so that he become its living and credible witness and an enthusiastic announcer.

The difference between the fidelity to the evangelical counsels of the religious and that of the priests consists in the fact that for the religious it is the result of a profession pronounced according to the rule and particular spiritual tradition whereas for the priests it is the result of an exigency of the Church that has in her priests a continuous manifestation of her identity as an immaculate and holy spouse.

The fullness of the gospel found in the Church must become the specific characteristic of the sanctity of the priest.

OBEDIENCE:

Priestly obedience has a particularity because it arises tram a special grace shared by the bishop and priest. Because of the gift the Holy Spirit has given to the priests at their ordination they teach, sanctify and shepherd the people of God. they participate in the authority of Christ and the apostles; they are inserted into the hierarchy of the Church as helpers and advisors of the bishops⁶. Every priest is chosen and consecrated in view of the fulfillment of a mission. As rulers of the community they cultivate the form of asceticism suited to a pastor of souls, renouncing their own convenience, seeking not what is to their own advantage but what will benefit the many far salvation always making further progress towards a more perfect fulfillment of their pastoral work and, where the need arises, prepared to break new grounds in pastoral methods under the guidance of the Spirit of lave who breathes where he wills⁷

Therefore there is nothing strange if for our apostolate we find ourselves in concrete situations that may not be according to our likings, if we want to be faithful we must obey the gospel. Pastoral demands are imperative. We are not free to choose, it is not for us to decide. If we really give a thought to it we will realize that our daily tasks are not governed by us but by the demands of the kingdom; the good of souls, by the unforeseeable fruitfulness of redemption (for ex. sick calls, a death, a couple coming for counselling, a boy or a girl wants to discern his or her vocation.. these are not pre-planned at all).

We must live our ministry realizing that fidelity to it is itself an obedience. It is not a field that we command but it is yoke that we accept joyfully. We do the will of God manifested more often in doing the will of others.

Very often this means fatigue; it is surrendering our will, our tastes, our preferences. This is not a spiritual luxury to which we may consent or no but it is a precise responsibility; fidelity to our ministry as obedience.

Hierarchical Obedience: Priests for their part should keep in mind the fullness of the sacrament of order which bishops enjoy and should reverence in their persons the authority of Christ the supreme Pastor. They should therefore be attached to their bishop with sincere charity and obedience. That priestly obedience, inspired through and through by the spirit of cooperation, is based on that sharing of the Episcopal ministry which is conferred on priests by the sacrament of Order and the canonical mission"⁸

Humility: By humility and responsible and willing obedience priests conform themselves to Christ. They reproduce the sentiment of Jesus Christ who "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant...and became obedient unto death"(Phil. 2:7-9), and who by his obedience overcame and redeemed the disobedience of Adam, as the apostle declares: "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous"

( Rom. 5 : 19) .

But the development of sociology, psychology, anthropology, history, culture has made obedience a difficult virtue to be handled. We are not now talking to bishops now but to priests. Hence the aspect that is highlighted refers to us priests. This does not at all mean that all the bishops are saints as not all priest are holy.

“As the Synod Assembly recommended, I offer a special word of thanks to those Fidei Donum priests who work faithfully and generously at building up the community by proclaiming the word of God and breaking the Bread of Life, devoting all their energy to serving the mission of the Church. (82) Let us thank God for all those priests who have suffered even to the sacrifice of their lives in order to serve Christ. The eloquence of their example shows what it means to be a priest to the end. Theirs is a moving witness that can inspire many young people to follow Christ and to expend their lives for others, and thus to discover true life”.

CELIBACY

The choice of celibacy “on the part of the priest expresses in a special way the dedication which conforms him to Christ and his exclusive offering of himself for the Kingdom of God. The fact that Christ himself, the eternal priest, lived his mission even to the sacrifice of the Cross in the state of virginity constitutes the sure point of reference for understanding the meaning of the tradition of the Latin Church. It is not sufficient to understand priestly celibacy in purely functional terms. Celibacy is really a special way of conforming oneself to Christ's own way of life. This choice has first and foremost a nuptial meaning; it is a profound identification with the heart of Christ the Bridegroom who gives his life for his Bride. In continuity with the great ecclesial tradition, with the Second Vatican Council and with my predecessors in the papacy, I reaffirm the beauty and the importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition. Priestly celibacy lived with maturity, joy and dedication is an immense blessing for the Church and for society itself”⁹

Referring to the evangelical counsels, the Council states that "preeminent among these counsels is the precious gift of divine grace given to some by the Father(cf. Mt 19:11; 1 Cor 7:7) in order more easily to devote themselves to God alone with an undivided heart(cf. 1 Cor 7:32-34) in virginity or celibacy.

Precisely this aspect was emphasized by John Paul II when he wrote “It is especially important that the priest understand the theological motivation of the Church’s law on celibacy. In as much as it is a law, it expresses the Church’s will, even before the will of the subject expressed by his readiness. But the will of the Church finds its ultimate motivation in the link between celibacy and sacred Ordination, which configures the priest to Jesus Christ the Head and Spouse of the Church. The Church, as the Spouse of Jesus Christ, wishes to be loved by the priest in total and exclusive manner in which Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse loved her. Priestly celibacy, then, is the gift of self in and with Christ to his Church and expresses the priest's service to the Church in and with the Lord"¹⁰ .

For an adequate spiritual life of the priest it is necessary that celibacy is accepted with serenity and happiness. It should not be considered as a negative element. It may be good as priests to educate ourselves in the positive aspect of celibacy, to put it crudely, perhaps sex. The word itself because of custom, usage, pornography, television, radio and a consumerist society has a very negative connotation. But the creator has instituted the sexes for his glorification. Finding that man should not be alone he made Eve as companion. Scripture says:” and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed". But shame and hiding from God carne only when man wanted to be independent of God. We can say therefore, sex becomes bad only when we run away from God and gratification outside Him. We priests have accepted at our ordination to have God as "our portion and cup". He will make us happy, He made us happy and He makes us happy. This does not mean celibacy has not its struggles; its dark moments; its doubts and anxieties, may be at times, its failures but the grace of God is able to conquer all these weaknesses of man. Man is created for the infinite and the transcendent and has the capacity to be filled with the infinite love of God.

One of the needs of human nature is intimacy. Even this word has unfortunately a negative connotation. But if we read spiritual books on the love of the Sacred Heart for man we will find that this word is very often used. "An authentic human intimacy is the hall mark of the mature and healthy adult. The capacity far mature and honest relationships is also critical for a sound and mature spiritual life. The capacity far intimacy determines the priest’s conceptualization of God and readies him for the experience of God's presence and love in his life. He becomes aware of God's "affection" far him - the experience of which allows him to pass through loneliness into solitude.

We must get out of that feeling of fatalism if there is, that chastity is a kind of insurmountable barrier against which man has to fight the barrier that is within man and if he does not succumb at least he loses his serenity and peace.

Celibacy "for the sake of the kingdom" is not only an eschatological sign; it also has a great social meaning, in the present life, for the service of the People of God. Through his celibacy, the Priest becomes the "man far others", in a different way from the man who, by binding himself in conjugal union with a woman, also becomes, as husband and father, a man "for others", especially in the radius of his own family; for his wife, and, together with her, far the children, to whom he gives life. The Priest, by renouncing this fatherhood proper to married men, seeks another fatherhood and, as it were, even another motherhood, recalling the words of the Apostle about the children whom he begets in suffering. These are children of his spirit, people entrusted to his solicitude by the Good Shepherd. These people are many, more numerous than an ordinary human family can embrace. The pastoral vocation of priests is great, and the Council teaches that it is universal: it is directed towards the whole Church", and therefore it is of a missionary character. Normally, it in linked to the service of a particular community of the People of God, in which each individual expects attention, care and love. The heart of the priest, in order that it may be available for this service, must be free. Celibacy is a sign of a freedom that exists for the sake of service. According to this sign, the hierarchical or "ministerial" priesthood is, according to the tradition of our Church, more strictly "ordered" to the common priesthood of the faithful"¹¹

May the Lord grant us the gift of fidelity to help us to be aware that we can offer to God a gift not without sacrifice which a real sign of the conquering love of Christ.

POVERTY

"Priests, following the example of Christ who rich though he was became poor far lave of us(cf. 2 Cor 8:9), should consider the poor and weakest as people entrusted in a special way to them and they should be capable of witnessing to poverty with a simple and austere lifestyle, having learned the generous renunciation of superfluous things, Optatam Totius, 9, CIC 282.¹².

The Pope continues, poverty alone ensures that the priest remains available to be sent wherever his work will be most useful and needed, even at the cost of personal sacrifice. It is a condition and essential premise of the Apostle's docility to the Spirit, making him ready to "go forth", without travelling bag or personal ties, following only the will of the Master (cf.Lk 9:57-62; Mk 10:17-22)"¹³ .

According to the papal document poverty should make the priest a perfect believer totally subject to the over Lordship of God, Master of everything and the highest good. There is only One Good, things are good but they are only signs of God's goodness. It is necessary that this absolute becomes a certainty and security in life and experience.

The effects of privation, of sacrifice, of offering, of humiliation that material poverty brings with itself cannot be lacking in the life of the priest but this is not the reason why poverty is chosen; they are only a consequence, a passing phase that one day disappear when the Lord finally will become our portion.

The poverty of the priest makes the proclamation of God’s kingdom more credible. The Lord told the apostles to take nothing with them on their journey, no bag, no purse, no money, no shoes, no bread, no spare tunic (Lk 9:1ff. 10:1ff) In the preacher who is poor, needy, unpretentious, the claim of the message itself can appear unadulterated and without distortion. This frequently pointed in the Pauline writings also. In the Philippians (1:17) St. Paul says that many who are preaching Christ are motivated by self- interest. Although such preaching is not without value, it runs contrary to sincerity and grieves the Apostle. On the contrary, Paul's glory is to have accepted nothing from anyone, although - as he says expressly in 1 Cor 9:4 ff - he would had a just claim to be maintained by the community. Nevertheless, we did not make use of this right, but we endure all things (i.e., earn our keep), so as not to cause any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ'(9:12). 'Because I was not dependent on anyone, I made myself a slave to all, in order to win as many as possible'(9:19). The first epistle of Peter makes a similar call to the presbyters not to shepherd the flock entrusted to them with a view to sordid gain. The poverty of the preacher helps the unhindered exposition of the Gospel, and his own credibility¹⁴

The poverty of the priest is like a sacrament which makes it possible to see the Gospel and the one who has been influenced by it. Not with words alone but through his life. The message of the Cross and resurrection become visible in the poverty of the Apostle.

Another motive is seen in the incident of the rich young man (Mk. 10:17 ff) who wanted to follow Jesus. It is a prerequisite for the following of Jesus. "Just as the poverty of Jesus was the form of his love for mankind - 'he became poor to make us rich' (2 Cor 8:9) - also the poverty of the disciples is a means of exercising love for men, and particularly far the poor, who are the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Poverty leads to solidarity with the poor, to greater availability in love. Only one who is himself poor can really be a friend of the poor, the insignificant, the outside. J.B. Metz remarks: 'poverty as protest against dictatorship of ownership and possession, of downright self-assertion...drives one into actual solidarity with those of the poor for whom poverty is not a virtue but their situation in life, and an unreasonable social imposition'"¹⁵

John Paul II stresses the radicalism when he exhorts : “ Jesus Christ, who brought his pastoral charity to perfection on the Cross with a complete exterior and interior emptying of self, is both the model and source of the virtues of obedience, chastity and poverty which the priest is called to live out as an expression of his pastoral charity for his brothers and sisters. In accordance with Saint Paul's words to the Christians at Philippi, the priest should have "the mind which was in Christ Jesus", emptying himself of his own "self", so as to discover, in a charity which is obedient, chaste and poor, the royal road of union with God and unity with his brothers and sisters(cf.Phil.2: 5)"¹⁶.

Pope Benedict XVI underscores clearly the communion, (cum+union) that should exist between the Holy Trinity, the Priest and the human family. “The eucharistic mystery helps us to understand the profound meaning of the communio sanctorum. Communion always and inseparably has both a vertical and a horizontal sense: it is communion with God and communion with our brothers and sisters. Both dimensions mysteriously converge in the gift of the Eucharist. "Wherever communion with God, which is communion with the Father, with the Son and with the Holy Spirit, is destroyed, the root and source of our communion with one another is destroyed. And wherever we do not live communion among ourselves, communion with the Triune God is not alive and true either."(215) Called to be members of Christ and thus members of one another (cf. 1 Cor 12:27), we are a reality grounded ontologically in Baptism and nourished by the Eucharist, a reality that demands visible expression in the life of our communities¹⁷.

Today there is a need to rediscover that Jesus Christ is not just a private conviction or an abstract idea, but a real person, whose becoming part of human history is capable of renewing the life of every man and woman. Hence the Eucharist, as the source and summit of the Church's life and mission, must be translated into spirituality, into a life lived "according to the Spirit" (Rom 8:4ff.; cf. Gal 5:16, 25). It is significant that Saint Paul, in the passage of the Letter to the Romans where he invites his hearers to offer the new spiritual worship, also speaks of the need for a change in their way of living and thinking: "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (12:2)¹⁸.

All this cannot be achieve unless the priest- in- making should start right from his seminary days make his spiritual life his highest priority. He is called to seek God tirelessly, while remaining attuned to the concerns of his brothers and sisters. An intense spiritual life will enable him to enter more deeply into communion with the Lord and to let himself be possessed by God's love, bearing witness to that love at all times, even the darkest and most difficult. To this end I join the Synod Fathers in recommending "the daily celebration of Mass, even when the faithful are not present." This recommendation is consistent with the objectively infinite value of every celebration of the Eucharist, and is motivated by the Mass's unique spiritual fruitfulness. If celebrated in a faith-filled and attentive way, Mass is formative in the deepest sense of the word, since it fosters the priest's configuration to Christ and strengthens him in his vocation¹⁹.