7. CHRIST’S DOUBLES

Prayer

Lord Jesus, when I think of priestly holiness the thought of the publican of the gospel comes to my mind. He did not even raise his head while praying because of his unworthiness. I forget that every holiness comes from you. You have made me your priest; please give me the grace to acquire that holiness which is commensurate with the mission entrusted to me. The measure of that holiness is that what YOU want me to have. It is not my puny mind that determines it but your generosity. Hence make me open to your overflowing love so that I be a less unworthy instrument in your hands.

Staying with Jesus¹ is an absolute condition to answer his call. We have meditated on the precious gift of our priesthood: the great change, which, the poor, worthless and incapable, human beings have undergone by the mercy of God. We take the place of the Son God, made man; we are so to say the "walking Christs" of today’s world. Therefore, the dispositions of the priests spelt out by the Pope Benedict XVI is very relevant for priests to make what he says realized in their very person. 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)².

“Saint Paul addresses the recipients of his letter as “the saints”, “the holy ones” (hoi hagioi), but upon reading the epistles it becomes immediately and abundantly clear that he is not praising their high moral qualities. In fact, he chastises them for their rancour and divisiveness and sexual abuses. Yet despite these imperfections they are still the holy ones, the elect of God; and it is this very fact that Saint Paul seizes upon to call them to a life of exemplary – indeed, supernatural –virtue.” ³ Paul is speaking of holiness in the ordinary Christian. But God has called his priests to be other Christs.

“There is a passivity to the category of holiness that can be seen in the use of such terms as election and in such passages as “It was not you who chose me, it was I who chose you” (Jo 15:16). It was in such terms that Hans Urs von Balthasar spoke of his own calling:

Even now, thirty years later, I could still go to that remote path in the Black Forest, not far from Basel, and find again the tree beneath which I was struck as by lightning…And yet it was neither theology nor the priesthood which then came into my mind in a flash. It was simply this: you have nothing to choose, you have been called. You will not serve, you will be taken into service”⁴.

This gratuitous gift demands from us holiness. True, indeed, it is that God does 99.9% for our sanctification but we must do that 0.1%. Let us see how we can play our part in this all important responsibility of ours. "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect"⁵ By making us His priests He has endowed us with a special grace. "The human weakness of his flesh is remedied by the holiness of him who became for us a high priest holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners”.⁶

The common priesthood of all the faithful and the ordained, hierarchical priesthood differ not only in degree, but also in essence.⁷

“These are men who, through absolutely no merit of their own, have been chosen and set apart from the service of God. In relation to the laity they have become “holier than thou”⁸."By the anointing of the Holy Spirit the priests and sent by Christ, mortify the works of the flesh in themselves and dedicate themselves completely to the service of people, and so are able, in the holiness with which they have been enriched in Christ, to make progress towards the perfect man"⁹

In fact, “those who have received the gift of faith and have been endowed with the indelible character of baptism are no longer simply worldly and carnal. They are called apart, consecrated, set aside to redeem that world within which they continue to live”¹⁰.

We must always remember “the priesthood is not ours to do with as we please. Ours is to be true to the one who has called us. The priesthood is a gift to us and through us the priesthood is a gift for the Church”¹¹

It is true that the” ministerial priesthood does not of itself signify a greater degree of holiness with regard to the common priesthood of the faithful; through it, Christ gives to priests, in the Spirit, a particular gift so that they can help the People of God to exercise faithfully and fully the common priesthood which it has received"¹²

We are not alone in this arduous undertaking. Christ and Holy Spirit are with us in helping us with their active presence to co the expectation this "undeserved" call demands. By uniting ourselves with Christ's life, his almost 30 years of hidden life, his years of public ministry, his agony, suffering, passion, death, resurrection and ascension will make us rise from our sinfulness. We have been immersed in the priesthood of Christ. With a little effort we must try to live the life of Christ in the way each one of us can. In other words to reproduce in us the very life Christ has lived on the earth. Imitation of Christ, therefore, is the necessary condition for our sanctity.

"It is through the sacred actions they perform everyday, as through their whole ministry which they exercise in union with the bishop and their fellow priests that they are set on the right course to perfection of life"¹³

“As Josef Ratzinger put in another context, “Excess is .. the real foundation and form of the history of salvation, which in the last analysis is nothing other than the truly breathtaking fact that God, in an incredible outpouring of himself, expends not only a universe but his own self in order to lead man, a speck of dust, to salvation. So excess or superfluity… is the real definition or mark of the history of salvation”¹⁴ Hence what the priest has to live in his personal life is this excess and that is generosity in the service of God.

First of all, we must be witnesses of the love of Christ. We have repeated so often that we are priests by His Love. He, sometime in our life; asked us: "Do you love me more than these?"¹⁵

Each one of us in a particular time and place has given the Lord an answer. Jesus told us: "Feed my lambs". Hence it is imperative that we fulfill the duties of a shepherd. What does a shepherd do? He leads, guides, nourishes, protects and makes the sheep grow. We are the leaders of the people of God in Faith. The shepherd leads the sheep. Like Peter we have to confirm our brothers in faith. We must be able to say "we have seen the Lord". This is the very first condition to strive for holiness in a priest. Unlike the apostles we have to see our Lord through the eyes of faith. Deep and unconquerable faith in the person of our Lord. When the wear and tear of time have made its inroad into our existence, the only bulwark that will withstand our weariness, routine, discouragement, lack of appreciation, left-in- a-corner-feeling, the biological and psychological demands of a human nature, is unshakable trust in the Master. We must pray for an increase of Faith every day.

“If bearing witness to Jesus Christ before men is the task of the priesthood, then it is the presupposition of this task that the priest first know him, that the priest live and find the real centre of his existence in a way of being that is in fact a being-with-him. For the man who, as priest, attempts to speak to his fellow men of Christ, there is nothing greater importance that this: to learn that being-with-him, existing in his presence, following him mean, to hear and see him, to grasp his style of being and thinking.”¹⁶ “This means he is chosen out of, separated from, for the very purpose of being sent to”¹⁷

After asking whether Peter loves Him more than others we are told in the Gospel of St John: "Before you went your own way. Now another will determine your way and will lead you; it is no longer your will that decides where you go but the will of someone else." He must follow: following in discipleship to the ministry of the disciple, and this ministry is a way of sanctification. To follow the Lord where He sends us.

“If priestly being is precisely being-sent, then being a priest necessarily means being being-for-others.

Whoever accepts such a mission seriously ceases in a twofold fashion to belong to himself. He ceases to belong to himself on behalf of the one who has sent him as well as on the behalf of those to whom he is sent as representative. A steadfast fidelity to this being-sent involves a splitting of one’s existence along two directions. It means withdrawing from limelight to make way for the one who is being represented. It means taking one’s position as herald and messenger seriously. And this involves the realization that one’s own person is not the core of the message. ..It means being ready to decrease that he might increase”¹⁸

"The Council’s statement that "all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity" applies in a special way to Priests. They are called not only because they have been baptized, but also and especially because they are priests, that is, under a new title and in new and different ways deriving from the Sacrament of Holy Orders"¹⁹.

The next requisite is to have a deep rooted and experiential conviction that we are His true friends. "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard tram my Father I have made known to you"²⁰ It is good to analyze a little what is meant by friendship. We all know the pithy saying: "a friend in need is a friend indeed". The famous phrase of Cicero: "Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur". A true friend is recognized in very trying and hopeless situations. Think of the parable of Good Samaritan. The Priest and the Levite pass by and a stranger takes care of the wounded traveller. The real friend. We cannot forget at this moment the plight of some of our companion priests who either due to affective problems or due to financial crisis or due to misunderstanding with the people and with the bishop or superiors, are not with us but they are all travellers on the road to eternity in priesthood. We must first of all bring to the Lord our companion priest in sincere, affectionate and loving prayer. Only prayer can make us become one with him, to understand him.

In these cases before running to any human friend, which is also necessary we must go to our true friend: "Come to me all you who labour and heavy laden, I will give you rest”²¹ Is not our Blessed Lord our real friend? Not only because he became man, lived, suffered and died far us but everyday together with Him we offer His sacrificial offering of friendship in the celebration of the Eucharist. We identify ourselves with Him: “This is my Body".

Dear companion priests, we must feel this friendship in our prayer of the liturgy of the hours in our personal prayer, in our visits to the Blessed Sacrament, in our desire to read spiritual books. Our priestly function is not a part time job. It is a daily loving commitment of 24 hours. We must cultivate constantly "union with God". It is from Him through our ministry that we become holy and that is cardinal Ratzinger tells us: “holiness through ministry; ministry not alongside holiness, but as the form of priestly holiness. Responsible activity in the service of man and intimacy with God are not in competition with each other. The service of others is the articulation of one’s being-consumed for God, of one’s being grasped by Him, of one’s being-with-Him”. ²²

“He gives not only his strength, but the very substance of what he is. Such was the case with Christ. It was only in the moment of the Cross that the real and decisive fruitfulness of his activity came to fulfilment (Jo 12:24). The Cross became the Gospel²³.

Hence the priest will uphold the sacredness of the divine mysteries he celebrates without giving into those who do no distinguish between the sacred and profane.

The sacredness is expressed as the Holy Father insists is seen in what the holy Father says: “I am thinking in general of the importance of gestures and posture, such as kneeling during the central moments of the Eucharistic Prayer. Amid the legitimate diversity of signs used in the context of different cultures, everyone should be able to experience and express the awareness that at each celebration we stand before the infinite majesty of God, who comes to us in the lowliness of the sacramental signs²⁴

The Lord looked at Peter: "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord...”²⁵ What a look it must have been. Imagine and reflect of the look of a loving mother for her son; the lover for his beloved. In these occasion words are not needed. Sympathy, understanding, appreciation, caring, in depth feeling for each other wells up to the surface. A look that changed the broken hearted Peter to become the head of the Apostolic College. This is the kind of look that we must beg of the Lord to make us enthusiastic in our ministry.

"The spiritual life of the ministers of the New Testament should therefore be marked by a fundamental attitude of service to the People of God²⁶, freed from all presumption or desire of "lording over" those in their charge²⁷ the priest is to perform this service freely and willingly as God desires. In this way the priests, as the ministers, the "elders" of the community, will in their part, is called to display this same priestly attitude of service towards the world, in order to bring to humanity the fullness of life and complete liberation"²⁸

Charity is sanctity. Charity is salvation. In fact that is what the Lord says in the Gospel of St. Matthew,” for I was hungry you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you carne to me"²⁹ ….inherit the kingdom of God.

The whole life of Christ "is a continual manifestation of his "pastoral charity", or rather, a daily enactment of it. He feels compassion for the crowds because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without shepherd³⁰. He goes in search of the straying and scattered sheep³¹ and joyfully celebrates their return. He gathers and protects them. He knows them and called each one by name³² He leads them to green pastures and still waters³³ and spreads a table for them, nourishing them with his own life. The Good Shepherd offers this life through his own Death and Resurrection, as the Church sings out in the Roman Liturgy. "The Good Shepherd is risen, alleluia He who laid down his life for his sheep, who dies for his flock, he is risen, alleluia” ³⁴.

"In his spiritual life he is called to live out Christ's spousal lave towards the Church his Bride. Therefore, the priest's life ought to radiate this spousal character which demands that he be capable of loving people with a heart which is new, generous and pure, with genuine self-detachment, with full, constant and faithful dedication and at the same time with a kind of "divine jealousy", ³⁵ and even with a kind of maternal tenderness, capable of bearing "the pangs of birth" until "Christ be formed" in the faithful ³⁶

We have already spoken about the personal love that we must have for our Lord. Do you love me more than these? Included in this love there are two other means of sanctification: Feeding and Following. We have seen that we have to follow Him where we would not like to go like Peter but where He wants us to go.

Feeding not ourselves but feeding the flock of God. Our Lord told Peter: "Do not be afraid, hence forth you will be catching men"³⁷ . What does "catching men" mean? It means to lead people out into the open, into broad expanse of God, into element essential to their life that is intended for them. Admittedly anyone who is torn away from his habitual surrounding always puts up a fight against it. Someone who has become used to the sea thinks first of all that his life is being taken away if he is brought to the light. He has fallen in love with darkness. So being a fisher of men is not comfortable undertaking - but the most wonderful and, humanly speaking, the finest there can be. Certainly it includes many unsuccessful expeditions. But never the less it is a wonderful task to accompany people on the way to the light, to the open air, and to teach them to know God's light and openness³⁸

Still there is another aspect of "catching men". The phrase is set in the context of Jesus preparing the bread and fish far the disciples to eat. "Both (bread and fish) symbolize himself. Just as he becomes the grain of wheat that dies, so he has become the fish. He himself sank into the depths of the sea. With his whole life he fulfilled the sign of Jonah, letting himself be swallowed up by the belly of the sea. Only someone who give himself can be a witness. Only someone who like Jesus himself becomes a 'fish' can be a fisher of men."³⁹

"Pastoral charity is the virtue by which we imitate Christ in his self-giving and service. It is not just what we do, but our gift of self, which manifests Christ's love far his flock. Pastoral charity determines our way of thinking and acting, our way of relating to people. It makes special demands on us..."⁴⁰ This is real feeding the flock of Christ with our very person.” He gave Himself for us all".

As St. Paul aptly said; "I will most gladly spend and be spent far your souls"⁴¹

Indeed, the priest has given his life to something bigger than himself - the gospel of Christ and the building of the reign of God in history. He preaches the word in season and out, when it is joyfully received and when it is cynically rejected. While in need of ministry himself, he ministers to others, while wounded himself, he heals and gives comfort. Though broken in heart and spirit, he reconciles and forgives, though anxious himself, he gives courage and hope to the alienated and estranged. In the name of God and the Christ and the Spirit, he has set out on a journey fraught with dangers and dragons. His quest is to set people free with the freedom and grace of the gospel and in doing so to renew the face of the earth. The grail after which he seeks is the treasure hidden within the hearts of all men and women: to find their true selves in God, for therein lies their salvation. As a priest continues to discover his true identity as a member of the people of God with a unique and heroic mission to fulfill, he will discover the spirituality that is properly his own" his own priestly holiness.⁴²

I cannot conclude this talk on priestly holiness without touching on an indispensable weapon that is necessary for perseverance and that is prayer. "In these recent years - at least in certain quarters - there has been too much discussion about the priesthood, the priest' s "identity", the value of his presence in the modern world, etc. and on the other hand there has been too little praying. There has not been enough enthusiasm for actuating the priesthood itself through prayer, in order to make its authentic evangelical dynamism effective, in order to confirm the priestly identity. It is prayer that shows the essential style of the priest; without prayer this style becomes deformed. Prayer helps us always to find the light that has led us since the beginning of our priestly vocation, and which never ceases to lead us, even though it seems at times to disappear in the darkness. Prayer enables us to be converted continually, to remain in a state of continuous reaching out to God, which is essential if we wish to lead others to him. Prayer helps us to believe, to hope and love, even when our human weakness hinders us" ⁴³