3. Summoned By God

Lord Jesus, like Samuel in a particular time of my life I heard your call. Like him I took time to recognize your voice. Jesus I really do not know what you found in me to be your messenger, not only, but your double. Whatever you saw had been placed in me by your preferential, unique and unrepeatable love only for me. There were others at least according to my of thinking much better than I. But you had your plan, your decision, and your choice. I thank you with my whole existence for the gift of your call. Make me answer it everyday of my life until I give the final answer to be with you for ever.

"Every High priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God"(Heb.5:1). Chosen from among men: Man: All the human condition with its various manifestations; with its incessant evolution; with its continuous enrichment and at the same time losses. This indefinable being who, cannot be reduced to a scheme, the one has sterling qualities as well as obscure negative traits. God chooses one of these to be his follower. It is good to reflect on our "man-ness".

Man is the image of God. It means he makes God visible. It also means he has no existence without Him. Hence when I think of man, I must also think of my relationship with someone else. The picture is presented to us is that of Jesus: "Behold the man” He became God visible for us: "He who sees me sees the Father". The man of ordinary life: "Is he not the son of the carpenter, Joseph? Is not his mother, Mary?"(Mt 13:55).

So as priests we think of ourselves as men we understand that our humanity or our being "man" is assumed by the Man Jesus. He guarantees the presence of his high, royal, prophetic and sacramental priesthood through which salvation becomes the history of humanity and the salvation history of every single human being; redemption becomes the glory of God and our reconciliation becomes the seed of eternal communion of the Father, in the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Before delving into the nature of priesthood let us reflect on our call as priests: our vocation.

Priesthood only becomes possible if one has learned to hear his voice. "And he went up on the mountain, and called to him those whom he desired; and they came to him; and he appointed twelve to be with him, and to be sent out to preach" (Mc.3:13-15). “These words fix the origin of New Testament ministry, where and how it takes shape. According to what is said in the text, this ministry is above all a response to a call and acceptance of his will. He calls to himself those who are eager to do this and thereby come in fulfillment of their own will. He calls those whom he desires. It is these moments of response to a call and acceptance of his will that are constitutive of ministry in the New Testament. The New Testament office of ministry is not the creation of one’s own autonomous decision. It is dependent for its reality on an attentive hearing that grows into a belonging to and into obedience. The origin of New Testament ministry is simple and forceful “He desires it”¹ It depends on a relationship of dialogue. But it depends above all on his initiative. The form of words used by St. Marc is very clear:” he called those whom he desired" - not just those who wanted to be called themselves. Only someone who is with him can be sent. And only someone who, lets himself to be sent who, transmits his message and his love. Of course there are various different kinds and forms of this mission, various different patterns of the apostolate (diocesan priests, religious of various calling: contemplatives, active apostolate, secular institutes; committed lay men etc.) but all those who are called are to be close to him. But prior to and transcending all these differences there is a fundamental unity that is indispensable. "To be with Him".

“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 gif to us and through us the priesthood is a gift to the Church”²

There is no right to the priesthood. One cannot choose it as one can choose this job or that. To be a priest does not belong to the list of human rights, and no one can sue to obtain it. He calls those whom He desires. There are human rights which people are entitled to on account of this God-created nature and far which those who believe in the Creator must unconditionally assume responsibility. But there is also a right of the Lord - to take those whom he wants. For those who have received this call this means: He wants me. There is a will of Jesus concerned with me. I must enter into this will and mature within it. It is the space within which I must live. Our life will become the more fulfilled and free the more we become one with this will in which the profoundest truth of our own self is contained."³ To be called by name: Name signifies the person; name means nearness; name means relationship; name means friendship; name means love. To forget the name of one who is dear is an offence.

Discipleship:

"As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go". And Jesus said to him. "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head". To another he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But he said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God". Another said, "I will follow you Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home". Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God"(Lk:9:57-62).

There are three men whom Jesus encounters here, and in them as in his answers to them is mirrored what discipleship means, what priesthood means. To begin with it is striking that Jesus gives a chilly response to those who are pressing after him and themselves want to follow him. What this is trying to say is that discipleship, or let us just call it by its proper name of priesthood, is not something one can devise as a way of being able( to attain security, earn one's bread, reach a social position. One cannot simply choose it as a means whereby one finds certainty, friendship, and security; how one might construct one’s life for oneself. It can never simply be one's own provision, one's own choice. Priesthood, if it is right, is not something one can give oneself nor seek oneself. It can only be a response to his will and to his summons.⁴

First: What is always needed is that we should " come out of what is simply our own will, simply the idea of being able to bring ourselves to realization and of what could make of ourselves and wanted to have, in order to let ourselves be led by him, indeed let ourselves be led where we do not want to go. Priesthood rests on having this courage to say 'Yes' to another will, to respond to the summons of the other…. It has to do with following the cross, with leaving what is one's own. By becoming free by leaping into the unknown of the other Who is our security i.e. from the cross to the Resurrection seeming failure to sure success.⁵ Hence there is inherent in the call the determination to overcome the seeking of material well being which is so intensely sought after, a well being which is to be attained in any way and at any price. So a refusal to anything that speaks of sacrifice and rejection of any effort to look for and to practice spiritual and religious values must absolutely be avoided.

Second: He would like to wait until his father dies and conduct his own affairs for as long as is necessary for everything to be concluded in peace, brought to an end and handed over in good order to someone else. But who knows when that will be? Will he still then be able to rise up and follow Jesus? This shows that the call of Jesus takes priority over everything else. One cannot offer a piece of oneself, a portion of one's time and one's will⁶. No wonder why John Paul II has said “Sometimes the very family situations in which priestly vocations arise will display not a few weaknesses and at time even serious failings” ⁷

This also means that there is a moment of Jesus Christ which one cannot put off and calculate and say:” Yes, I want to all right, but at the moment it is too risky for me." The call of Jesus has precedence over everything else.

The third man in this little drama likewise wants to settle things that are waiting at home to be settled. He is also told "I have need of all of you". There is no such thing as half-time or half-hearted priesthood. It is something that needs the person who gives himself and not a part of his time or ability.

"Leave the dead to bury their own dead". Work in. this world in order to have and possess things is fundamentally concern for what is dead. 'But as for you, leave the dead work of this world and proclaim joy' - that is he real core of the summons that the Lord directs to those who are to carry his word further. To proclaim joy - for this reason Paul called the servants of the gospel 'ministers of your joy'. It is from the passion of our Lord that Joy emerges.⁸

“Freedom, is essential to vocation, a freedom which when it gives a positive response appears as a deep personal adherence, as loving gift, or rather as a gift given back to the Giver who is God who calls, an oblation: “The call – Paul VI once said – is as extensive as the response. There cannot be vocation, unless they be free; that is, unless they be spontaneous offerings of oneself, conscious, generous, total.. Oblation, we call them: here lies in practice the heart of the matter … It is the humble and penetrating voice of Christ, who says, today, as yesterday, and even more than yesterday: come. Freedom reaches its supreme foundation precisely that of oblation, of generosity, of sacrifice”⁹. This kind of freedom demands from those who are called to shun distorted ideas of freedom based on specious philosophical or “scientific” theories, and exaggerated idea of autonomy which insists on self-affirmation¹⁰

WITNESS

The first condition to be a follower of Jesus is that he should be His witness. Jesus must have seen him himself and must have known him. In fact, this is what the Apostles gook as a criterion to choose one to replace Judas: “”So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us – one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).

Jesus stands on the bank; at first we do not recognize him, but through the voice of the Church we hear: 'It’s him'. It is up to us to make a start, to look for him and to approach him. In listening to the scripture, in living with the sacraments, in the encounter with him in personal prayer, in the encounter with those whose life is filled with Jesus, in a variety of experiences in our life and in a variety of ways we encounter him, he seeks us, and thus we learn to know him.¹¹

Apostles are eye-witnesses and if it can be said ear- witnesses. Only someone who knows him, who knows his words and deeds, who has himself experienced him in the encounter of long days and nights that is "to be with him".

The story of the patriarch is a master- piece of the initiative of God in choosing people. An initiative that is loving! What generosity does God show to Abraham! The Almighty gives him land in abundance and the sterile couple becomes the ancestors of a countless progeny as sands on sea shore. No obstacle is insurmountable for the one who called him but on condition that he obeys Him in faith. It is a clear manifestation that everything comes from Him!

When we reflect on the call of Moses we come to realize that he was chosen form an oppressed people. He was nursed, guided and educated by the daughter of an oppressing Pharaoh to be a leader from whose care he goes away and murders one of the oppressors. He was not wanted by his own people because he had to run away from them to the desert. Humanly he has no credentials to be called by God. But it is in the desert that the Lord calls him to liberate His people from their unbearable slavery. God so loved him as to prefigure Christ, mediator of the new and perfect covenant. In vain did he try to run away from the responsibility. But his humility enabled him to fulfill a task with unparalleled meekness, in spite of the fact that his own people opposed the God-given plans!

The story of Samuel is still more interesting. Born after incessant prayer of a misunderstood mother, given over to the service of God in the temple of Jerusalem to be completely at God’s service and yet the High Priest himself does not perceive that the child is called by God. It is a convincing proof that always man does not easily understand God’s plan. Samuel is given a mission hard to fulfill since he had to go to anoint David without provoking anger of the King, Saul: “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me”

( I Sam 16:2).

David, from whose kingly family Jesus was born, was not considered by his own father, Jesse, as worthy to be anointed by Samuel the prophet. When Samuel asked Jesse whether those were the only sons he had after bringing to him all the others beginning with the eldest, he replied: “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep” ( I Sam 16:11). He was the one chosen by God! It was not easy at all for David the task to be with Saul. And even when he succeeded Saul he always did not obey the injunctions of God and he had to weep for his sins; “Have mercy on me O God in your kindness”.

The choice of Mary is another mystery in God’s plan of salvation for mankind. Born and brought up in unknown village “What good can come Nazareth?” the Lord asks of her impossible things and she like Abraham obeys in faith to the dictates of the Creator. Thus becomes the mother of God and mother of the Church.

Peter is chosen by the Lord not because of his personality or because of some worthiness but because the good Lord wanted to confer on him gratuitously some of His own greatness and the stability of his own rock- like fidelity to His own Father. No wonder why Peter is called “Cephas” rock. Peter’s mission will be to bolster his fellow apostles for which Christ himself will guard, strengthen and protect Peter’s faith (Lk 22: 31ss). We can easily understand the initiative of the Lord in calling him and giving him his mission. The Lord wanted from Peter unwavering faith "You are the Son of the Living God".

It is God who determines whom to call: stammerers like Moses and Jeremiah, of a man of unclean lips like Isaiah, David a shepherd boy, Peter the fisherman, Paul, .the persecutor, Matthew the tax collector. The call is a meeting of two persons. God and the individual,. at any time of life, not withstanding defects, sins,(Moses kills the Egyptian); (Peter denies the Master) family back ground, on one condition deep faith in Jesus.

In Introduction to Christianity, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger gives us the striking example of Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, who experienced the fear that all is darkness. Yet she continued to trust the light of God even though it seemed to her to be dimmed. Faith and vocation are often under challenge. The challenges come from within us, as well as from the surrounding culture. Yet the challenges, if properly faced with openness to grace, bring about a stronger faith and firmer vocation commitment.

Insecurity shows that it cannot be hidden. The priest who has not internalized and accepted the belief that he is one of the ones Jesus “wanted”, and who has not pondered the question(Wanted for what”) will find that insecurity will manifest itself in one of two ways. He will tend to become either clerical or anticlerical. ¹²

There are reasons for this, and they can be understood by examining the history of individuals called by God, in both the Old and New Testament. The reasons relate to fear, anxiety, and a sense of unworthiness. They are found in the responses of prophets and apostles: “I am too young”; “Woe is me”; “depart from me, Oh Lord, for I am a sinful man”. Even Mary, though sinless, needed to hear the words: “Do not be afraid,. Mary, (Lk 1:30). So did the apostles” “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be caching men” (Lk 5:10)¹³

The full acceptance of the call is one of the graces Christ wants most to give to priests because it is so essential for the growth of the Church; but it is also incumbent on us to believe that this acceptance is often resisted – not through any bad will, but through a kind of anxiety or fear about facing such questions. Such questions bring anxiety because they are so ultimate. But God himself is ultimate, and facing this question is a spirit of openness releases the love of the Trinity into our own lives and ministry.¹⁴

Lack of vocations, insecurity and fear for the future must not deter us to choose with God’s help candidates who are willing to serve the Master and not themselves. Listen to what the Holy Father says in this regard: “The Synod also discussed pastoral initiatives aimed at promoting, especially among the young, an attitude of interior openness to a priestly calling. The situation cannot be resolved by purely practical decisions. On no account should Bishops react to real and understandable concerns about the shortage of priests by failing to carry out adequate vocational discernment, or by admitting to seminary formation and ordination candidates who lack the necessary qualities for priestly ministry. An insufficiently formed clergy, admitted to ordination without the necessary discernment, will not easily be able to offer a witness capable of evoking in others the desire to respond generously to Christ's call. The pastoral care of vocations needs to involve the entire Christian community in every area of its life. Obviously, this pastoral work on all levels also includes exploring the matter with families, which are often indifferent or even opposed to the idea of a priestly vocation. Families should generously embrace the gift of life and bring up their children to be open to doing God's will. In a word, they must have the courage to set before young people the radical decision to follow Christ, showing them how deeply rewarding it is¹⁵.