March 18, 2024

The Real Mission of a Catholic Priest | #1417

12 minutes

Lent, 5th Sunday (B) Being a priest in the modern world is very challenging. You need to live celibacy in a culture soaked in sex, convince Catholics to come back to Mass, teach the next generation not to abandon the faith like their parents did, save all the marriages, win the culture war, keep the buildings open, convince young men that this is a great career choice.... Did I miss anything?

But what if all that is just the mission I gave myself. What if God is calling me to basically four things:

Love God, and love His people.
Be an obedient son of the Father.
Be a wise steward of my Father's gifts.
Offer my life as a sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

I am not the Savior, but that I am called to join my sacrifices to those of the Savior. Today's Mass readings make more sense from this perspective. The covenant written on our hearts refers to the call to love God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible. Jesus learned obedience as he offered his life for the salvation of the world.

You cannot join Jesus in Easter Sunday if you haven't walked with him on Good Friday. Perhaps the struggles you are experiencing while trying to live your faith are actually indications that you are right where God wants you to be.

(17 Mar 2024)

Going Deeper: Prayerfully reflect on this quote from Gaudium et Spes:

37. Sacred Scripture teaches

the human family what the experience of the ages confirms: that while

human progress is a great advantage to man, it brings with it a strong

temptation. For when the order of values is jumbled and bad is mixed

with the good, individuals and groups pay heed solely to their own

interests, and not to those of others. Thus it happens that the world

ceases to be a place of true brotherhood. In our own day, the magnified

power of humanity threatens to destroy the race itself.

For a

monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole

history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the world

and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has attested.(8)

Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is

to cling to what is good, nor can he achieve his own integrity without

great efforts and the help of God's grace.

That is why Christ's

Church, trusting in the design of the Creator, acknowledges that human

progress can serve man's true happiness, yet she cannot help echoing the

Apostle's warning: "Be not conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:2). Here

by the world is meant that spirit of vanity and malice which transforms

into an instrument of sin those human energies intended for the service

of God and man.

Hence if anyone wants to know how this unhappy

situation can be overcome, Christians will tell him that all human

activity, constantly imperiled by man's pride and deranged self-love,

must be purified and perfected by the power of Christ's cross and

resurrection. For redeemed by Christ and made a new creature in the Holy

Spirit, man is able to love the things themselves created by God, and

ought to do so. He can receive them from God and respect and reverence

them as flowing constantly from the hand of God. Grateful to his

Benefactor for these creatures, using and enjoying them in detachment

and liberty of spirit, man is led forward into a true possession of

them, as having nothing, yet possessing all things.(9) "All are yours,

and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:22-23).

38.

For God's Word, through Whom all things were made, was Himself made

flesh and dwelt on the earth of men.(10) Thus He entered the world's

history as a perfect man, taking that history up into Himself and

summarizing it.(11) He Himself revealed to us that "God is love" (1 John

4:8) and at the same time taught us that the new command of love was

the basic law of human perfection and hence of the worlds

transformation.

To those, therefore, who believe in divine love,

He gives assurance that the way of love lies open to men and that the

effort to establish a universal brotherhood is not a hopeless one. He

cautions them at the same time that this charity is not something to be

reserved for important matters, but must be pursued chiefly in the

ordinary circumstances of life. Undergoing death itself for all of us

sinners,(12) He taught us by example that we too must shoulder that

cross which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who search after

peace and justice. Appointed Lord by His resurrection and given plenary

power in heaven and on earth,(13) Christ is now at work in the hearts of

men through the energy of His Holy Spirit, arousing not only a desire

for the age to come, but by that very fact animating, purifying and

strengthening those noble longings too by which the human family makes

its life more human and strives to render the whole earth submissive to

this goal.

Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse: while He

calls some to give clear witness to the desire for a heavenly home and

to keep that desire green among the human family, He summons others to

dedicate themselves to the earthly service of men and to make ready the

material of the celestial realm by this ministry of theirs. Yet He frees

all of them so that by putting aside love of self and bringing all

earthly resources into the service of human life they can devote

themselves to that future when humanity itself will become an offering

accepted by God.(14)

The Lord left behind a pledge of this hope

and strength for life's journey in that sacrament of faith where natural

elements refined by man are gloriously changed into His Body and Blood,

providing a meal of brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the

heavenly banquet.

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By Fr. Joel Sember

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March 18, 2024

The Real Mission of a Catholic Priest | #1417

12 minutes

But what if all that is just the mission I gave myself. What if God is calling me to basically four things:

Love God, and love His people.
Be an obedient son of the Father.
Be a wise steward of my Father's gifts.
Offer my life as a sacrifice for the salvation of the world.