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This week we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, the "Cure D'Ars" and patron saint of diocesan priests. This anniversary is an important part of the observance of the Year of the Priest initiated in June by Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI.

Last year, the Church observed the year of Paul of Tarsus, the great Apostle to the Gentiles. The confluence of these celebrations is significant, I believe, because there are six aspects of Paul's exemplary apostolic ministry which I would suggest all priests should seek to emulate in their ministry to God's people. 

First and foremost, Paul was a pastor. His epistles account for 13 books of the New Testament, and constitute the first systematic theology of Christianity which has profoundly shaped the Church over the past two centuries. 

Although Paul is considered by many as the most influential theologian in Christian history, he perceived himself primarily as a pastor. The only reason Paul would wax theologically was to respond to a pastoral need or to some concern particular to this place, this time and with these people. He surfaced issues in order to persuade and to motivate individuals and communities to move from where they were spiritually to where they ought to be. 

Pastoral Paul
As a pastor, two things were obvious in his ministry: his immense love for the people he served and his pastoral solicitude for their salvation. Every word, every thought, every step of his journey sprung from his unswerving commitment to do the utmost -- to spend and be spent to the last full measure.

Contemporary priests, like Paul, must seek to demonstrate to their people that they love them and want to serve them to the best of their ability. While people may admire the priest's abilities as an educator, counselor or administrator, what they need to sense most is that the priest is present in their midst not for his own personal aggrandizement, privilege or status -- not to rule, control or discipline -- but to walk with them as a brother among brothers and sisters on our shared journey of Christian discipleship. 

Preacher Paul
Second, Paul was a preeminent preacher -- a man consumed with the desire to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ in its integrity: to tell the story of Jesus in word, in worship and in countless practical examples of applicability to people's everyday life experience.

Preaching must be a priority for today's priests, as well. Priests, however, must not seek to relate the story of Jesus the way a parent might tell a bedtime story to a child. Rather, as a servant of the word, the priest must be engaged as one of the participants in this story. 

Preachers are not called primarily to teach those who are ignorant or to pour a message into empty ears, but to awaken within the community a hunger of which we may not be aware and, then, to satisfy that hunger by drawing out the way in which the Scriptures -- especially the message of Jesus -- are relevant to us here and now, just as they enlightened or challenged the scribes and the Pharisees; the tax collectors and the prostitutes; the Zaccheuses, Mary Magdalenes and Pilates of His day. 

This will require that, like Paul, priests know their people well, listen to them carefully and communicate a message that resonates with their hopes and joys, their fears and anxieties, their dreams and expectations.

Evangelize, too
Third, Paul was an evangelist. He had an insatiable thirst for bringing the Gospel of Christ to those places where it was not yet known: from Jerusalem, to Asia Minor, to Greece and, ultimately, to a martyr's death in Rome. 

For Paul, there were two kinds of evangelization. The first was kerygma -- namely, bringing the Good News to outsiders and making converts. 

At the core of this Pauline activity was "to proclaim Jesus Christ crucified, a stumbling block for the Jews and a folly to the Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 1:23). This meant at times that he had to engage the wider world: for example, challenging the Romans about the idolatry, superstition, sexual deviancy, cruelty and materialism which were so rampant in their society; or as he did at Athens when he had the courage in the face of mockery, hostility, intimidation and threats to call that sin wounded community to repentance and to the acceptance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

So kerygma is "evangelization ad extra": that is, to the unchurched or to the alienated and fallen away.

The second kind of evangelization is didache -- that is, "evangelization ad intra," to the practicing Church community. There is the need to preach to the faith community again and again about the power of God saving actions and words. We who are baptized and confirmed Christians and who are striving to be faithful disciples still have not yet arrived fully.

We are, as Paul analogizes, "running a race." We tire out. We fall to the sidelines. We wander off course. The insidious influences reflected in the distorted values of our contemporary culture and in that relativism -- which Pope Benedict XVI calls "the greatest threat to faith today" -- find ways to seduce our minds, to corrupt our hearts, to erode our spirits. Thus, we have to be renewed constantly in mind, heart and spirit. 

Priests, like Paul, must be evangelists both to those not yet part of the fold and to the members of the flock. This will require of them, as it did of Paul, wisdom, vision, creativity, courage, patience and perseverance.

All together
Fourth, Paul was able to accomplish as much as he did because he was a collaborator. He preferred not to be a "loner Apostle," but to work together with other preachers, teachers, prophets, deacons and servants of the Lord. 

In his image of the Church as the Body of Christ, Paul points out that every member of the body is truly indispensable -- uniquely providing something necessary for the welfare of the whole, whether as an eye, an ear or a foot. We dare not say to any part of the body, "I have no need of you" (1 Corinthians 12:21).

For Paul, the exclusion of any person's gifts or charisms was not an option. He related cooperatively with a wide spectrum of men and women: with his co-missionaries, Timothy and Titus; with his traveling companions, the married couple Acquilla and Priscilla; with Phoebe, a deacon of the Church; and with Nympha, Mary and Lydia, heads of house churches. 

Not only did Paul interact collegially with others, but delighted in their ministry. As he writes in Corinthians, "We are God's coworkers" (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Priests today, if they are to exercise their sacerdotal ministry successfully, must also be collaborators, working harmoniously with brother priests and deacons, vowed religious, lay ecclesial ministers, ecumenical colleagues and the gifted members of the faith community they serve -- and treating them "not as Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female but as one in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 3:11).

Be healed
Fifth, Paul was a healer and reconciler. In so many of his epistles, he sought to address tensions and divisions which had arisen among the members of the churches he founded or in which he preached.

For example, in his letter to the Christians of Corinth, who were being torn apart by factions and personality cults, Paul writes about these quarrels: "One says, 'I follow Paul;' another, 'I follow Apolos;' another, 'I follow Peter;' and another, 'I follow Christ.'" 

Then, Paul poses the searching question: "Is Christ divided?" (1 Corinthians 1:12-13).

In today's Church, we, too, are being scandalized by tensions and divisions, with people being labeled as liberal or conservative, orthodox or unorthodox, pre-Vatican, post-Vatican or Restorationists -- and often polarized by issues like the changing roles of the laity (women in particular), the effectiveness of faith formation programs, the Catholic identity of schools, colleges, hospitals and social service institutions, the way the church should be present in political life, et cetera. 

These and other issues often drive people into opposing camps, or into a posture rejecting those who think differently about these challenges.

Today's priests must seek to relate to all these individuals and groups, knowing, as the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin suggested in his Common Ground Initiative, "that no single group or viewpoint has a complete monopoly on the truth -- that we should presume that those with whom we differ are acting in good faith - and that we should put the best possible construction on differing positions."

In fulfilling their sacerdotal responsibilities, contemporary priests, like Paul, must seek to heal wounds, reconcile differences and find common ground.

Prayer time
Finally, Paul was a man of prayer. Almost all of Paul's letters open with a paragraph of prayer: "I am grateful to God when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day" (2 Timothy 1:3). 

What myriads of names Paul must have brought before the Lord each and every day. Such is the passionately caring heart of the true shepherd of Christ's flock. 

Prayer, of course, must also be the backbone of contemporary priestly ministry. 

Priests must find time amidst their hectic and busy pastoral responsibilities to place themselves and their people before the Lord; to open themselves to God in all of their weakness, powerlessness and vulnerability and, then, to allow God to be the Lord, to speak to them, and to guide them in the sacerdotal responsibilities they exercise on behalf of God's people.

To do so, at times, can be a great challenge, but it is really only the fulfillment of the charge given the priest on the day of ordination when the bishop presents him with the paten and the chalice, saying, "Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to Him. Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate, model your life on the mystery of the Lord's cross."

This is what Paul did. Hopefully, priests today will be imitators of him as he was of Christ. 

During this Year of the Priest, please pray for our priests that they, like Paul, may strive to be loving pastors, insightful preachers, enthusiastic evangelists, collaborative coworkers, compassionate healers and men of fervent prayer -- and thus, by their life and ministry, truly give honor and glory to God, and bring hope, peace and joy to God's people.[[In-content Ad]]

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