13th Sunday of Ordinary Time--The Year for Priests

A week ago Friday, June 19th, the Feast of the Sacred Heart began "A Year for Priests".  Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the special year to coincide with the 150th Anniversary of the death of Saint John Vianny, the parton saint of the priesthood.  The year-long celebration of the  will end next June.   I imagine there were a lot of different responses to the Holy Father's proclamation.  A lot of priests probably thought, "It's about time!"  Some lay people probably thought "Isn't every year a year for priests?"  I suppose some priests' family members and friends thought "What's the big deal about priests?"  And I have some friends who probably thought, "So, when's the year of the deacon?"

Priests.  We have a special relationship with them.  They're with us for the happiest times of our life and for the saddest.  They're absolutely essential for the thing that unites all of us in our faith, the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  We hold these men in high esteem and to very high standards, but they are just men; just human beings like the rest of us. 

A priest's life is full of irony.  They take a vow of celebacy, never to have children.  Yet everyone calls them Father.    When we see them they're usually surrounded by people, but at the end of the day they go home alone.  Out of billions of people on earth, they're the only ones who can consecrate the Eucharist, literally making Jesus Christ present for us, but they could make more money working at McDonalds.  They're also on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  But we often pay the parish secretary more than we pay the pastor.

The priest gets free room and board for life.  But his "home" is often also the parish office.  In exchange for a place to live, he gives up his privacy.  Parish staff and volunteers often have a key to his house and don't mind using it.

If you were here when Fr. Tom Donaldson gave a parish mission marking the    anniversary of our parish in       , you may remember he read us a chain letter that was going around called the "perfect pastor".

The Perfect Pastor
The Perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes. He condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone's feelings. He works from 8 a.m. until midnight, and is also the church janitor.

The Perfect Pastor makes $40 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $30 a week to the church. He is 29 years old and has 40 years' worth of experience. Above all, he is handsome.

The Perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of his time with the senior citizens. He smiles all the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his church. He makes 15 home visits a day and is always in his office to be handy when needed.

The Perfect Pastor always has time for church meetings and all of its committees, never missing the meeting of any church organization. And he is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.

The Perfect Pastor is always in the next town over!

If your pastor does not measure up, simply send this notice to six other churches that are tired of their pastor too. Then bundle up your pastor and send him to the church at the top of your list. If everyone cooperates, in one week you will receive 1,643 pastors. One of them should be perfect.

Have faith in this letter. One church broke the chain and got its' old pastor back in less than three months."

And we wonder why young men aren't breaking down the doors to get into the seminary.

As a deacon, I have some experience belonging to a part of the Church where there's much more emphasis on getting new recruits than there is on taking care of the guys who are already here.  In fact,  that's a common practice even in business.  The cable company and the cell phone companies have all kinds of deals to get you to switch, but once you're a customer, you never get a deal.  Every organization has to keep growing, so recruitment is almost always the number one priority. 

I was only half kidding about a year for deacons, but I'm very glad to see a year for priests.  But what's it mean?  Is it just some PR stunt to keep the troops in line, or does it really mean something?  When the Holy Father asks us to support the priests, is he suggesting that we all run home and bake Fr. Gary a pie?  Or is he looking for something a little more substantial?

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office said recently, "The priest's service is of findamental importance in the life of the Church.  But it is a mystery that today endures not just a few difficulties."  He said the priestly year "responds to struggles caused by various factors: "the general climate of secularization in vast regions of the world, a lessened appreciation for the role of the priest in society, the deep wounds inflicted on the public image of priests due to unworthy behavior by some of them, and even the worthy valuing of the lay vocation in the Church."

On one hand, the Pope is calling for priests themselves to take part in a spiritual renewal.  He's asking them to use Fr. Vianney, the Cure of Ars, as an example.  Vianney was a very humble man, but he understood what a gift he had  been given in the sacrament of holy orders.  He once said, "O, how great is the priest! ... If he realised what he is, he would die. ... God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from heaven at his voice, to be contained within a small host". Explaining to his parishioners the importance of the Sacraments, he would say: "Without the Sacrament of Holy Orders, we would not have the Lord. Who put Him there in that tabernacle? The priest. Who welcomed your soul at the beginning of your life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it strength for its journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest, always the priest. And if this soul should happen to die [as a result of sin], who will raise it up, who will restore its calm and peace? Again, the priest. ... After God, the priest is everything! ... Only in heaven will he fully realise what he is".

I'm not going to do a biography of St. John Vianney.  There are plenty of resources you can look up, either on line or at the library.  I'll just say that he was a model priest by anyone's standards and it's easy to see why the Holy Father chose the 150th anniversary of his passing to eternal life as a proper time to begin a year for priests.  Benedict wrote, "In today's world, as in the troubled times of the Cure of Ars, the lives and activity of priests need to be distinguished by a forceful witness to the Gospel. As Pope Paul VI rightly noted, "modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses".

So, the Pope wants priest to be more like Fr. Vianney.  Good for them!  It's hard to argue with that.  But what about us?  Are we supposed to keep an eye on our pastor and email the Pope if we don't think he's doing enough?  Not at all.  And if you're already doing that, cut it out!  No, Benedict has a part for us too.  First and most important, he wants us to pray for our priests.  We expect them to pray for us so isn't it reasonable that we should return the favor?  And by praying for priests, the Holy Father doesn't mean adding a postscript to our daily prayers.  "Oh, yeah.  Bless Fr. Gary.  Amen"  No, he's looking for a little bit more and I'll talk about that in a minute.

Number two, the Pope is calling on us to support our priests.  By support, he's not talking about financial support, even though that's important.  You support your priest by not talking about him behind his back.  You support him by offering your time to help out around the place.  You support him by listening to what he has to say, not just during the ten minutes he preaches on Sunday, but all the time.  You support him just by saying "nice homily" or "the church really looks nice" or simply by saying "thank you" when he's said or done something that's helped you.

Admit it, over the years we've not always been the most supportive parish in the land.  Hurtful comments have been made.  Annonymous letters have been sent.  We've gotten pastors relocated and even helped one young man decide to leave the priesthood.  Constructive criticism is a form of support, but we're sinful human beings and sometimes we cross the line. 
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You and I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a man of God and listen to Letterman make a cheap joke about priests.  Or to watch so-called comedy shows making a mockery of your vocation.  But knowing that you have the support of the people around you surely makes it a little easier.  So for you and me, the year of priests might better be called the year of supporting our priests.

The third thing the Holy Father asks us to do is to encourage vocations.  We need more priests!  I can't say it any more plainly than that.  You hear people say that there is a decrease in vocations.  Hogwash!  There are plenty of vocations.  What's missing is people who are willing to listen to God's call.  God is not letting His Church run short of priests because He's too busy to ask people to serve.  He didn't forget to put "call new priests" on His to-do list.  He still asks, but because He gave us free will, the ones who are asked can say no.  And they're saying no in record numbers.  You and I are letting the Church run short of priests because we're not encouraging our young people to be open to the call.

You may have noticed that every week's petitions used to include a pray for "an increase in vocations."  A while back we changed it to a prayer that those who are called and their families might be open to the Father's will.  We made the change when a survey found that parents were discouraging their sons from priestly vocations.  So the third piece of the puzzle is not just praying for an increase in people, young and not-so-young, who are open to religious vocations, but also to actively do something about it. 

The good news is that here in Saint Louis we're actually running out of room at the seminary.  In fact, the Archdiocese is beginning a capital campaign to raise money for an expansion.  You may think, "Oh great.  They're going to be asking for more money."  Yes, they are.  Everything costs money.  But think it through.  We need more room in the seminary!  That's excellent.  It's exciting!  It means more young men want to enter the priesthood.  Isn't that exactly what we need?  By supporting a seminary expansion, both by our donations and by encouraging our friends to make donations, we're doing our share of part three of the Holy Father's outline.

I said earlier that I'd get back to part one, praying for our priests.  Here';s what the Holy Father has suggested that we do.  We've a;ready missed one of these, but there are still plenty of days left.  On the Anniversary of St. John Vianney's passing, on the on the first Thursday of the month, and on the final day of the year for priests, we are to have attended confession, attend the sacrifice of the mass and offer prayers to Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, for the priests of the Church, and for any good works that we have done on that day.  By math, that's a total of 14 days in the next twelve months.  The Pope has also left open the possibility that local Bishops may designate more days.  In exchange for this small sacrifice we get a plenary Indulgence.  We don't hear much about indulgences any more, but to refresh your memory, a plenary indulgence takes away the temporal punishment for our sins.  In other words, our time in purgatory.

So, go to confession, go to mass, pray for priests, pray for any good works we've done that day (assuming we've done any good works that day) and get a "get out of pergatory free" card.  You can't get a deal like that on E-bay!

Seriously, if you've heard me before, you probably know that I get very frustrated by the state of the world today. Just this week we lost three celebrities.  One was a man who's helped raise millions of dollars to fight  Muscular Distrophy.  One was a woman who gave up her privacy to share her fight with cancer in the hopes that her story might help others.  The third one was Michael Jackson.  Which one got the most press coverage?  This week the President appeared on television to explain his health care plan.  Regardless of what you think of the plan, it's something that is sure to have a huge impact on our economy for years to come, affection our children's children's children.  Yet the number one rated show this week, drawing twice the audience of the president, was Jon and Kate plus 8 where the couple announced that they're giving up on their marriage. 

Obviously it's not easy to stand "in persona christi" in a world like the one we find ourselves in today.  It takes faith.  It takes courage.  It takes commitment.  And it takes the prayers and support of all of us.  The Holy Father concluded his letter to priests with these words, speaking of Fr. Vianney:
May his example lead all priests to offer that witness of unity with their bishop, with one another and with the lay faithful, which today, as ever, is so necessary. Despite all the evil present in our world, the words which Christ spoke to His Apostles in the Upper Room continue to inspire us: "In the world you have tribulation; but take courage, I have overcome the world". Our faith in the Divine Master gives us the strength to look to the future with confidence. Dear priests, Christ is counting on you. In the footsteps of the Cure of Ars, let yourselves be enthralled by Him. In this way you too will be, for the world in our time, heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace!

The Body and Blood of Christ

I was talking to a parishioner the other day and he was telling me about his new hearing aid.  He said it was the most wonderful thing he'd ever seen.  Now he can hear conversations clear as a bell.  He can hear birds singing and even crickets chirping.  It was very expensive, but it must be the finest hearing aid in the world.

I asked him, "What kind is it?" and he said (looking at his watch)  "12:30."

All of us have a hard time hearing some times.  Even if our physical hearing is perfect, sometimes we just don't hear.  We may think we hear, but for some reason, our minds just don't process the information.  Today's Gospel is a perfect example.  Jesus spoke very plainly.

"He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them and said, 'Take it; this is my body.'  Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them and they all drank from it.  He said to them, 'This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many.'" 

He couldn't have been much clearer or more direct.  He turned simple bread, wheat and water baked in an oven, into His own Body.  Then he took wine, fermented grape juice, and turned it into His own Blood.  He could do that.  He's God.  He can do anything.  Yet, there are millions, maybe even billions of people on this earth who don't believe him.  It's hard to find fault with that.  Last weekend Father Gary spoke to us about the Trinity.  One God in three persons.  Remember, he said that it's beyond our understanding?  We just have to take it on faith.  It's the same with Christ's Body and Blood.  It makes no sense.  It goes against everything our senses tell us.  The Eucharist looks like bread and wine.  It tastes like bread and wind.  How can it be Jesus' Body and Blood.   But we know it's true.  Why?  Because Jesus said so!  If we don't believe it, then we might as well throw everything else out the window too!

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He can't lie.  Everything He says is true.  If He told us even one lie, our entire faith would be a lie because we wouldn't know what to believe or not believe.  Faith is the belief in something that can't be proven.  Even something that our senses tell us just can't be.

Let's take a look at what will happen here in a few minutes.  This is a bottle of the wine we use for communion.  It's really the good stuff.  It costs about $18.00 for this gallon bottle.  We use about a cup of it at each mass.  That means we'll use a little over a dollar's  worth of wine at this mass.  Father will say the words of consecration and turn that dollar's  worth of wine into something priceless, the Blood of the Son of God.  It's so priceless that when mass is over it must all be consumed.  Not a single drop can be wasted.  After it's consumed, the cups must be purified with water and the water must be returned to the earth.  Even the water that touched the empty cup that held the Precious Blood must be disposed of properly.

What about the bread.  This is a box of unconsecrated hosts.  You think the wine's cheap?  These cost about 21/4 cents apiece.  2 1/4 cents!  But once Father consecrates them they become the most precious commodity on earth, the Body of our Savior.  They're so priceless that we lock the leftovers up in a special safe called a Tabernacle.  Through the years, people have run into burning churches to save the contents of the Tabernacle.  Sane people don't run into burning buildings to save bread! 

But when Father Gary says "This is my body which will be given up for you.  Do this in memory of me.", it's not bread anymore.  It's the Body of Christ.  Same thing with the wine.  When he says "This is the cup of my blood", that's what it is.  The cup of Jesus' blood.  We believe that Jesus turned water into wine.  We believe that He walked on the water.  Why is it so hard to believe that He can turn ordinary food, the simplest food of all,  into His own Body and Blood?

When He first told the people that if they didn't eat His flesh and drink His blood, they would have no life in them, many of them walked away.  "This is a hard saying.  How can we eat His flesh and drink His blood?"  They didn't understand and they didn't have enough faith to take Him at his word.

Even our protestant brothers and sisters who insist that every word of the Bible is literally true, just can't get their minds around this idea.  Growing up a Baptist we had communion once a month and it was grape juice and oyster crackers.  We weren't taught that they were anything other than that.  There was no Tabernacle.  If anything was left it was just put back into the plastic bag.  The grape juice was served in little plastic cups.  When the service was over, they threw them into the trash.  We were taught that communion was just a symbol, kind of like eating cake on someone's birthday.  What a shame!  They're really missing out on something special.

In a few minutes most of you will stand in line to receive this precious gift.  Hopefully you're expecting to receive something more than a 2 cent piece of bread and a penny's worth of wine.   As Master Card might put it.  Wheat wafer--2 cents.  Sip of wine--a few pennies.  The Body and Blood of Christ--Priceless"   

Tomorrow at our ten thirty mass (Today at the 10:30 mass) (In a few minutes) we'll be celebrating the Anointing of the Sick.  It's also something special.  By anointing the foreheads and hands of the sick of the parish, we strengthen them to fight their illness.  Father will pray that the Lord in his love and mercy will help them with the grace of he Holy Spirit.  Again, this makes no scientific sense.  Our minds tell us that you can't make someone well by putting oil on their forehead and hands.  You and I can't.  But our faith tells us that Father Gary can.  And, like receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, or confessing our sins to the priest, we have no way of proving if the sacraments work or not.  We won't know in this lifetime.  We will find out eventually.

But, meanwhile, our faith tells us that the sacraments are real.  We believe in spite of what our senses tell us.  Anointing and the prayers that go with it does strengthen us in our battle against illness.  Receiving communion does make us closer to Christ by actually making his Body and Blood part of our body and blood.  The priest does have the power to act on Jesus' behalf to forgive our sins.

I said earlier, it hard to fault nonbelievers because our faith is a gift and not everyone shares in that gift.  That's why you can't just show up at a Catholic church and join.  We're not Sam's Club or the YMCA.  Wanting to be one of us is just the first step.  It takes a while to teach people what we believe.  We want to be sure they understand what they're getting into, because they're getting into something mysterious and wonderful.  To fully participate in this wonderfulness, you have to accept these things that defy the senses.  It takes time and it takes faith.

The thing that bothers me is people who leave the Catholic Church.  They leave for any number of reasons but if they really knew what they had, they'd never give it up.  Again, it's hard to fault them.  Somewhere along the line someone, either their parents, or their teachers, or maybe the clergy failed them.  If they had been properly taught the faith, they could never leave. 

Believe me, I've heard all the arguments.  I've used most of them myself in my non-Church-going days.  So-and-so made me mad.  Church is full of hypocrites.  I don't have to go to a building to be close to God.  All they ever talk about is abortion.  They're just after my money.   Even if these things were true, how can they justify giving up the greatest gift that Jesus left us?  The answer is, "They can't."

 Of course this message isn't for those people.  They're not here to hear it.   The message is for you and me.  We're here.  We know what we have, or at least I hope we do.  The message is to never forget it!  Never take it for granted!  Never give it up!  Don't mistake the lowly bread and wine for the all powerful sacrament that it is.  Don't mistake my marginal preaching for the message it contains.  Don't consider the humble origins of this building.  It's no less the House of God than the St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

 If Christ wanted to make Himself food and drink, why did He choose bread and wine?  Why not something more noble, more expensive, harder to get.  Because He's always chosen the humble to represent the magnificent.  He was born in a stable to a humble mother.  His birth was announced to shepherds.   He hung out with sinners, not saints.  He chose fishermen and tax collectors to build His Church.  No, bread and wine are the perfect materials for the Eucharist. 

As we wait in line today to receive Christ's flesh and blood, let's say a little prayer for those who aren't able to share in this wonderful feast, either because they've never been told about it, or because they've forgotten what it is, or because they're physically unable, or because they're faith has been shaken.  We long to welcome them to the table.

That's our faith.  That's what we believe.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.