On Friday, 19 June, feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Year for Priests kicks off. It will close on 19 June, 2010. It was through Pope Benedict XVI’s insight that the time has come in the Catholic Church to appreciate more deeply the identity and mission of the ministerial priesthood.
When speaking to the students of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, precisely on 23 May this year, the Pontiff referred to the Year for Priests as “a valuable occasion to renew and strengthen your generous response to the Lord’s call, in order to intensify your relationship with him.” An authentic priest is the one who immerses himself into his inner bath of love, that is prayer. Saint John Marie Vianney, Curè of Ars and Patron Saint of Priests, used to say: “Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself”. A priestly soul cannot do without prayer. Pope Benedict highlighted this essential point in the aforesaid speech: “Without this solid spiritual base, how would it be possible to continue our ministry? Those who work in the Lord’s vineyard in this way know that what is achieved with dedication, with sacrifice and for love, is never lost.”
We, as priests, need to be acquainted with spiritual mountains. The Bible presents the mountain as the place where an intimate encounter with the Lord occurs. On the example of Jesus, we priests are called to meet the Father who has chosen us to serve Him, on various mountains. The mountain of our temptation; the mountain of our great preaching, the mountain of our Transfiguration, the mountain of our agony, the mountain of our Cross, the mountain of our Resurrection, are all privileged places whereby we meet our God face to face.
The people we serve are not interested in seeing in us great politicians, journalists, psychologists, entertainers or business managers. The People of God need to experience in our life and ministry Jesus Christ himself. In the same speech the Pope said: “The Lord wants us to be saints, in other words entirely ‘His’, not concerned with building a career that is interesting and comfortable in human terms, not seeking success and the praise of others, but entirely dedicated to the good of souls, ready to do our duty unto the end, aware of being ‘useful servants’ and happy to offer our poor contribution to the spreading of the Gospel”.
Humility is the prominent priestly virtue which turns us, priests, from sheer professionals into humble and holy ministers of Jesus Christ. As from this year throughout our lifetime, may our priestly lips become naturally inclined to pray this powerful prayer which John the Baptist prayed two thousand years ago, when he recognised Jesus, as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world: Lord Jesus, May you increase and I decrease (see John 3, 30).
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann