What an Honour, a Responsibility, a Mystery! …Other Christs

Today is the world’s day of prayer for vocations to the priesthood, Good Shepherd Sunday. And I would like to tell you that there is no vocation more needed in the world, in this world, than vocations to the priesthood. Ah! It might be because I am a priest…! No, my friends. What I mean is that the world needs good priests, holy priests, heroes. Not just a greater number of priests, or more church administrators: what we need is other Christs, who may be light for the world, who are willing to die as Jesus died, for the sake of the Gospel. We need God to walk on earth again. That is a priest—I mean, that is what a priest should be. Someone who once knew St. John Vianney—"the holy priest”— said of him, “I’ve seen God in a man.”

The organizers for the upcoming IVE Youth Festival in the USA asked me to write a song for the Festival, and I thought I could use that song today to speak about priesthood. The theme of the Youth Festival is “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your word” and the point of the song is that God’s servants are like Mary, people who commit themselves entirely to the salvation of others, to loving others as Jesus loved us. This applies to every Christian, but most of all to missionaries and priests.

[Why should we serve the Lord?]

The fullness of time had arrived,
the Word a servant would become
and he came to his servant, Mary.

He came to serve not to be served,
to bring us life with his own death.
The King of Love came to be loved,
and so we say…

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.
Send me to teach, to be the bearer of your Son,
to bring the dawn of a new world.

I'm only a youth
but where you send me I will go
and what you tell me will my message be.
I'm not afraid if you are with me.
I am yours, Lord.

[What does it mean to serve him?]

The mission is a work of love,
the fruit of being one heart with God
and like Mary, bring light to the world.

To be a servant is to love,
to give your life for those you help,
to love with Jesus' heart who died
to make us friends.

1) Importance of preaching the message. The priest is most needed in the world, because he is the bearer of the message of Salvation, he brings Salvation itself, and he brings the Saviour Himself to the world, when he celebrates the Mass. There is nothing more needed in the darkness than the light of the sun. The message of Salvation is the dawn of a new world, because it brings to the world the hope of eternal life. In the first reading (Acts 13:14, 43-52) we’ve heard: “All who were destined for eternal life came to believe”. And then St. Paul says to some Jews, “but since you reject [the word of God] and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.” God wants to save, and God’s instrument is the priest. What an honour, what a responsibility, what a mystery…! That God wants to save human beings through a human being.

2) Bringing joy to the world. The priest with his message produces joy: “The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this and glorified the word of the Lord. […] The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” And the Psalm (100:1-2, 3, 5) expresses the same: “Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands… We are his people, the sheep of his flock… The LORD is good”!

3) Fear of failure, or of not being strong enough? Because these times are so difficult, the priest may fear that not many will persevere on the way of Salvation, that he himself may not persevere on this way, and so may feel discouraged and may want to give up. But John gives us hope (Revelation 7:9, 14b-17): “I, John, had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation… These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress.” With God’s help, both flock and shepherd will arrive safely to Heaven’s eternal pastures.

4) The beauty of priesthood. The priest can, in a sense, begin to taste Heaven on earth, when “he stands before God’s throne and worships Him day and night in His temple.” The priest is anticipating Heaven not only for himself, but also for God’s people when, like Jesus, he “shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving water” and tries to “wipe away every tear from their eyes.” The priest can say with Jesus: (John 10:27-30), “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” His sheep will never perish, because nobody and nothing on earth can overpower God: “No one can take my sheep out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one”, says Jesus, and the priest should say with his life, “Jesus and I are one. As Jesus gave up His life for His sheep, so do I. I will feed His sheep with my word, with my work, with my whole life.”

May God walk again with us, may we see His face again in many holy priests. We need them more than the sun, we need their message more than water, we need the Eucharist more than life. We will not be saved without Jesus. In order to build a better world we need Jesus, and Jesus comes to us through the priest. We all need priests. May God give us many and holy priests, and may the priests give us Jesus.