April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
REFLECTION
A few months in, priesthood seems like married life
After being ordained for a few months, I have realized a few things that I did not know before I was ordained. These have really helped me to understand my identity as an ordained member of the Church, and my relationship with the rest of the Church.
The first thing I realized is just how similar my vocation as a priest is to marriage. If I had been married, I would have promised love and fidelity to my wife for my whole life. And I would have not only gained a wife, but also in-laws, cousins, children, and friends. I would suddenly have all these other relationships with people, with whole families.
I would also have certain responsibilities to my wife and her family: to care for her when she was sick, to love her in good times and in bad, to remember our anniversary. I would want to be the best husband I could be for her.
With her side of the family, I would celebrate holidays and family reunions and other special days throughout the year (this is often the hardest thing for families to manage, because both sides of the family want them there for Christmas and the big holidays).
But as it is, I am ordained, and the relationship that I have with the Church is different from, but analogous to, a relationship with a wife.
By virtue of the promises I made at my ordination, I was put in a special relationship with the rest of the Church. I promised
• to celebrate the sacraments with and for the rest of Church;
• to live celibately and simply, in imitation of Christ, in order to be more united with Him; and
• to pray for the Church unceasingly.
I made other promises, but these most clearly show how priesthood is like marriage. Through these promises, I have special responsibilities to the Church that others do not have.
I provide for the needs of the people of God by celebrating the sacraments with them that they need, and by praying for the Church and all her people all the time.
I also try to be the best priest I can be, and I do that by being "united more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered Himself for us" (from the promises made at priestly ordination).
Like a spouse, I also will celebrate my anniversary every year, and it will also be hard for me to celebrate the big holidays with my family. But most importantly, instead of making promises that gain me brothers- and sisters-in-law, I made promises that gained me, in a deeper way, brothers- and sisters-in-Christ.
This brings me to the second thing I realized: how little my vocation is like a job or career. If priesthood is like marriage, then my job is not "priest" - because being married, though it may take a lot of hard work, is not a job.
My job is "associate pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in Albany." It could as easily have been "high school teacher," "hospital chaplain" or "director of music" (for instance, Vivaldi, though a priest, was a composer and taught music at an orphanage for 30 years).
It is true that in our part of the world, most priests are pastors because that is where they are needed most, but that is not necessarily the job of every priest. But since the life of a priest is not a job, even if he's without a job at any one time for any reason, he still has to pray, he still has to celebrate and he still has to conform himself to Christ.
Now that I am a priest, I have a new place in the whole order of the Church and the world. I have been "ordained." Some are bishops; some are teachers; some are parents; some are children. One of those roles is Christ. (His is pretty unique.)
I am a priest, and that puts me in a wonderful relationship with all the rest of the Church. This is what I was called to do and have promised to do, and, with the help of God, I will try to fulfill it well.[[In-content Ad]]
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD
Comments:
You must login to comment.