Priests' pitfalls, commitments listed

Nothing gives a bishop greater joy than to share the Sacrament of Holy Orders with others who are ready, willing and able to exercise this sacred task.

This year, I have had the privilege of ordaining two fine men to the priesthood: Fathers Tom Morrette and Matthew Frisoni. In doing so, I am mindful of the great challenges and opportunities involved in sacerdotal ministry.

Based upon my 41 years of lived experiences of priesthood, let me share three perennial pitfalls to be avoided and three invaluable commitments to embrace.

PITFALL 1: PAROCHIALISM

We priests are ordained not just for a diocese or for the parish communities where we serve or for the Church in the United States. Rather, we are ordained for the world.

The Catholic Church is a universal church; if we priests do not have a sense of the global Church in which Jesus calls us to serve, then we will shortchange the people entrusted to our care. We will run the risk of offering our people a very insular understanding of the Gospel, and fostering the type of isolation and separation from the wider Church for which St. Paul so severely criticized the early Church at Corinth.

For example, the victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia and Africa, and the plight of the famine-stricken, war-weary people of the Sudan must be on our radar screen, as should be the elderly in nursing homes, those in our community residences for the developmentally disabled, and those in our county jails and state prisons.

PITFALL 2: 'LONE RANGERS'

A second obstacle to avoid is the temptation to behave like a Lone Ranger. It is only natural to want freedom and independence, and to set up things in ways that are personally comfortable and secure, and that give us a sense of control.

That normal human tendency is reinforced by the rampant individualism within our society, which also has infected the priesthood itself. Some priests adapt the attitude, "I am the priest in this parish. I run it and will brook no interference from anyone, not the trustees, not the parish council members, not the neighboring priests, not the diocese nor Rome."

But, as priests, as public ministers in the Church, we must always be accountable: to our people...to the diocese and the Holy See...and to other priests and pastoral leaders.

In particular, we must keep in close contact with our brother priests. More than ever, in these days of upheaval and turmoil in the Church, we priests need one another for mutual support and friendship, for the sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves, and for sustaining one another in the "collective ministry" that is ours.

This priestly solidarity is not meant to foster clericalism or elitism, nor to discourage close-knit relationships with family and non-clerical friends. But, it is intended to reinforce the fact that there is a sacramental bond of identification and intimacy that we priests ignore at our own peril.

What is needed among priests, in other words, is not isolation, competition or condemnation, but cooperation, communication and collaboration.

PITFALL 3: BUSYNESS

A third obstacle to avoid is busyness. We priests need to tune out the demonic, accusatory voices that tell us that we must be busy all the time.

If we are not running around incessantly or if we are not in constant demand, we may become convinced that we are not good priests. Hence, being utterly devoured by work or ending up as burnt-out cases have become major problems in the contemporary priesthood.

We priests must have the courage at times to just say no; to find time for rest and relaxation without feeling guilty, and without having to make excuses for why we are taking a day off; to pursue a hobby, listen to music or just chill out.

We need and deserve this self-care and self-compassion, both personally and professionally.

COMMITMENT 1: PREACHING

Now, let me cite three commitments we priests should embrace. First, we should make preaching, especially at the Sunday Eucharist, a priority in our ministry. All the research reveals that this is what priests most enjoy and what our people most treasure.

At the heart of our faith is the Word made flesh. Priests must seek to bring the Word of the Gospel to birth in the community where we live, in its own language, within its own cultural structures, within its own victories and defeats, its riches and its poverty.

The Dominican theologian and author Father Timothy Radcliff suggests, "The preacher is the midwife in this birthing process. He listens to the Gospel and the teaching of the Church, and he listens from within the culture of his own people and with them, to see how God's word may be born here and now, fresh as a baby, with God's eternal newness."

What an awesome responsibility and, yet, what a golden opportunity: to make God's Word alive and relevant for those whom we serve...a word that understands the life realities of our hearers...a word that knows what drives their engines, what soothes and burdens their souls, and, most of all, what speaks to their minds and hearts...a word that challenges the apathetic and indifferent, that consoles the poor and downtrodden, that brings hope and serenity to the confused and anxiety-prone, and that offers reassurance and peace to those who strive faithfully each day to live the Gospel message.

COMMITMENT 2: REACHING OUT

A second commitment we must embrace is to reach out to those who are alienated or on the margins.

More and more people today lack a grasp of the fundamentals of our Christian faith. While we priests see the Church as the center of our lives and the parish as our primary community, many of our parishioners put the Church and the parish far down on the list of places to which they belong, after their homes, work sites, children's schools, country and golf clubs, and even the neighborhood bar.

It is important that we priests seek to put ourselves in their shoes: to hear with their ears, to see with their eyes and, in short, to be them in some sense, so that we can bridge the gap between the ideal and the real.

In other words, we must accept people where they are, which may not be where we would like them to be. Many who come to us for Baptism, Confirmation, marriage and burial have only a tenuous relationship with the Church. Many in the pews in front of us find themselves in irregular marriages or do not accept, or at least understand, the teaching of the Church on issues like homosexuality, abortion, birth control, in vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell research, the death penalty and only God knows what else.

We cannot abandon our teachings to accommodate the fashions of the moment, but we must seek to understand our people and to discover with them how to proclaim the Word of God and the wisdom of the Church in ways that make sense to them.

We priests must be attentive to those who have "not yet arrived." We must be prepared to take the first step: in being vulnerable, in taking risks and in asking for forgiveness.

If our people don't respond, or at least don't respond in the way we expect, or if we no longer see those we have prepared for the sacraments in Church, we must not become discouraged, disillusioned, embittered and cynical. We must not conclude that we are failures. Remember: Jesus shared the same experience. On the night of the Last Supper, for example, after three years of intensive preparation, one of His disciples sold him out, another denied Him and the rest ran away.

When faced with the choice between inclusion or exclusion, we must always opt for inclusion, and do so with love and compassion as the sign of God's boundless mercy and forgiveness and of God's radical grace.

COMMITMENT 3: PRAYER

The final commitment we priests must embrace is prayer. Priesthood is not just another activity. It is not an endless litany of roles to be exercised: sage preacher, wise counselor, effective administrator, creative liturgist, inspirational leader, spiritual mentor, and able communicator who relates equally well with children, young adults, the newly married, the middle-aged and the elderly.

Rather, priesthood is a way of being. It is a path to holiness, not in the Old Testament sense of separation and superiority, but in the Gospel model of solidarity with God's people, especially the poor, vulnerable and powerless.

This way of being, this path of Christian discipleship and servant leadership, will be possible only if we priests are persons of prayer. Prayer must be as integral to our life as eating and sleeping.

Despite the hectic demands of ministry, we must be willing each and every day to spend "useless" time with the Lord -- time when we can open ourselves to God in all of our weakness, powerlessness and vulnerability, and allow God to be the Lord, to speak to us and to show us in which direction we are to move in our everyday lives.

The nature and style of our prayer is relatively unimportant. But, that we pray is absolutely essential. Without prayer, our lives will be empty and our efforts to be of service to others will become totally bankrupt.

On the other hand, with prayer, we can find our innermost selves and offer those whom we serve an hospitable place to enter and be healed.

It is my hope and prayer that all priests will seek to avoid the temptations of parochialism, "Lone-Rangerism" and busyness, and embrace preaching, prayer and reaching out to the marginalized as essential aspects of our ministry.

If we do that, we can be assured that our priestly lives and ministry will truly give honor and glory to God, and bring hope, peace and betterment to God's people.

(8/4/05) [[In-content Ad]]