Novo incipiente

 

Celibacy and Priestly Life

Letter of Pope John Paul II to All the Priests

of the Church for Holy Thursday, 1979

 

1. FOR YOU AM A BISHOP, WITH YOU I AM A PRIEST

As I begin my new ministry in the Church, I think it my duty to address you—all of you without exception: diocesan priests and religious priests alike—who are my brothers through the Sacrament of Orders. At the very outset I want to attest my faith in the vocation which unites you with your bishops in a special fellowship of sacrament and ministry whereby the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is built up. By a special grace and extraordinary gift from our Savior you bear "the heat and burden of the day."1

Amid the many cares of my priestly and pastoral office, my mind and heart have been turning to all of you since the day when Christ called me to this See in which St. Peter long ago by his life and death gave the ultimate response to Him who has asked him: "Do you love me more than these?... Do you love me?"2

I think constantly of you, I pray for you and with you. I seek with you ways in which we may be spiritually united and work together, for in virtue of the Sacrament of Orders, which I, too, received from the hands of my bishop (the Metropolitan of Krakow, Adam Stephen Cardinal Sapieha, of unforgettable memory), you are my brothers. I wish, therefore, to adapt some well-known phrases of Augustine and to say to you today: "For you I am a bishop, with you I am a priest."3

A special occasion—I refer to the coming Holy Thursday and its commemoration of the Lord’s Supper— impels me now to convey some thoughts to you by letter. This annual feast of our priesthood brings the entire presbytery of each diocese together around its own bishop for a concelebration of the Eucharist. On this day, too, all priests are asked to renew, in the presence of and along with their bishops, the promises they made on the day of their ordination.

As a result, I will be able, in union with each of my brothers in the episcopate, to be present in your midst due to the special bonds of unity that link us, and, above all, to be present at the heart of the mystery of Jesus Christ in which we all share.

The Second Vatican Council, which so luminously explained the collegial role of bishops in the Church, has also given a new form to the life of communities of priests who are bound to each other by special fraternal ties and united with the bishop of their local Church. The entire life and ministry of priests has for its purpose the strengthening and deepening of these bonds. In dealing with the various tasks of this life and ministry a special responsibility belongs to the senates of priests which are to play an active role in each diocese, according to the mind of the council and the apostolic letter motu proprio Ecclesiae sanctae of Paul VI.4

The aim of these provisions is that the individual bishops, in union with their presbyteries, may more effectively serve the great cause of evangelization. Through this service the Church carries on her specific work and fulfills the requirements of her specific nature.

The importance, therefore, of the union of priests with their bishops is confirmed by the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch: "I exhort you to do everything in a God-given harmony, under the leadership of the bishop who holds the place of God, and of the presbyters who hold the place of the apostolic senate, and of the deacons who are so dear to me and to whom the ministry of Jesus Christ has been entrusted."5

2. LOVE OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH UNITES US

It is not my intention in this letter to discuss everything that contributes to the richness of the priestly life and ministry. In this regard I refer you to the entire tradition of the Church’s teaching and especially to the teaching of Vatican Council II as set forth in its documents. I refer you in particular to the Constitution Lumen gentium and to the Decrees Presbyterorum ordinis and Ad gentes divinitus. We should also go back to the encyclical letter Sacerdotalis caelibatus of my predecessor Paul VI.

Finally, I want to lay great emphasis on the document The Ministerial Priesthood which Paul VI approved as being a quasi-summary of the discussion at the Synod of Bishops 1971, for although the synodical meeting that produced the document had a purely advisory function, we find in the text an extremely important statement of all that concerns the specific character of priestly life and ministry in the modern world.

Fidelity to Christ and the Church

It is my intention in this letter to be faithful to all these sources, with which you are already familiar, but to limit myself to a few points which I regard as especially important at this time in the life of the Church and the human race.

My words are inspired by love for the Church which can meet its responsibilities to the world only if it remains faithful to Christ despite the onslaught of human weakness in its manifold forms.

I know that I am speaking to men whom a common love of Christ has enabled to devote themselves, in accordance with a special vocation, to the service of the Church and, within the Church, the service of the human race and the solution of the most important human problems, especially those that have to do with the eternal salvation of the person.

Although in beginning these reflections I have mentioned several written sources and published documents, I wish above all to return to that living source which is our common love for Christ and His Church. This love owes its existence to the grace of our priestly vocation and to the supreme gift of the Holy Spirit.6

3. "TAKEN FROM AMONG MEN...THEIR REPRESENTATIVE BEFORE GOD"7

The Second Vatican Council gave an extended explanation of the concept of priesthood, presenting it, in the context of its teaching as a whole, as the expression of those inner forces or dynamisms that determine the mission of the entire People of God in the Church. Here we must go back especially to the constitution Lumen gentium and carefully reread the sections on this subject. The People of God carry out their mission through participation in the role and office of Jesus Christ himself.

As is well known, this role and mission has three facets: it is a role and mission as prophet, as priest and as king. If we examine carefully what the council has to say in these passages, we will see clearly that we should speak rather of three aspects of the ministry and office of Christ than of three different offices. For the three are closely interconnected; each explains, conditions and sheds light on the other two.

It is from this threefold unity that our participation in the mission and role of Christ flows. First as Christians and members of God’s people and then as priests who are part of the hierarchic order, we have the source of our existence in the entire mission and office of our Master who is prophet, priest and king, and our goal is to bear special witness to Him in the Church and before the world.

The priesthood in which we share through the sacrament of orders and which has been permanently imprinted on our souls by a special God-given sign or character, is related in the manner indicated to the universal priesthood of the faithful, that is, of all the baptized, from which, nonetheless, it differs "in essence as well as degree."8 In this way we see the full force of what the author of the letter to the Hebrews says when he describes the priest as "taken from among men" to be "their representative before God."9

The major text of Vatican II

The best thing we can do at this point is to reread in its entirety the splendid text in which the council luminously explains the principal truths about our vocation in the Church: "Christ the Lord, the high priest taken from among men (cf. Heb 5, 1-15), made the new people ‘a kingdom and priests to God His Father’ (Ap 1, 6; cf. Ap 5, 9-10). Through regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the baptized are consecrated as a spiritual house and a holy priesthood so that through all their deeds they may offer the spiritual oblations of a Christian and proclaim the power of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light (cf. 1 Pt 2, 4-10). Thus all Christ’s disciples, persevering in prayer and praising God (cf. Acts 2, 42-47), must present themselves as a holy, living sacrifice, pleasing to God (cf. Rom 12, 1). All over the earth they must bear witness to Christ; and to those who seek it, they must render an account of the hope which is in them, the hope of eternal life (cf. 1 Pt 3,15).

"Though they differ in essence as well as degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial—or hierarchic—priesthood are ordered toward one another; each in its own distinctive way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ. Through the sacred power which he enjoys, the ministerial priest shapes and rules the priestly people, confects the eucharistic sacrifice in the person of Christ, and offers it to God in the name of the whole people. By virtue of their royal priesthood, however, the faithful join together in offering the Eucharist. And they exercise that priesthood by receiving the sacraments, by prayer and thanksgiving, by the testimony of a holy life, by self-denial and active charity."10

4. THE PRIEST, CHRIST’S GIFT TO THE COMMUNITY

We should repeatedly meditate, and in depth, not only on the theoretical meaning but also on the practical effect of that mutual relation which exists between the hierarchic priesthood and the universal priesthood of the faithful. If these two differ not in degree alone but in essence, this is certainly due to the overflowing richness of the priesthood of Christ himself who is the sole source and, as it were, the center of the participation proper to all the baptized and of that further participation bestowed on us by a special sacrament, the Sacrament of Orders.

Due to its very nature and to the effect it has on our life and work, that sacrament, which is special to us and is both the fruit of an exceptional grace of vocation and the basis of our identity, causes the faithful to become more fully aware of their own universal priesthood and to make it a reality in their lives.11 It reminds them that they are the people of God and enables them to offer those "spiritual sacrifices"12 by means of which Christ himself in turn offers us to the Father as an eternal gift.13

This latter offering takes place above all when "through the sacred power which he enjoys, the ministerial priest... confects the eucharistic sacrifice in the person of Christ and offers it to God in the name of the whole people,"14 as we read in the passage quoted above from the council.

Our special ministry

Our sacramental priesthood, therefore, is a priesthood that is at once hierarchic and ministerial. It is a special kind of ministry since it is a service to the community of believers, but it does not have its origin in the community as though it were up to the latter to call or to delegate. It is, however, a gift for the good of the community and has its origin in Christ himself, that is, in His fullness of priesthood.

This fullness manifests itself by the fact that while Christ gives to all the capacity to offer spiritual sacrifices, He also calls and prepares certain ones to be ministers of the sacramental sacrifice of this same Lord—the Eucharist—in the offering of which all the faithful take part and into which the spiritual sacrifices of God’s people are integrated.

If we bear all this in mind, we can understand in what sense our priesthood is hierarchic—that is. bound tip with the power to shape and rule the priestly people15—and for that very reason ministerial as well. We carry out the office in which Christ himself constantly "serves" the Father in the work of our salvation. Our entire life as priests is and should be deeply pervaded by that kind of service if we wish to offer the eucharistic sacrifice in the person of Christ in a suitable manner.

A priest’s integrity

The priesthood requires a special integrity of us in our life and ministry; such integrity supremely befits us in our identity as priests. It expresses both our great dignity and the readiness that is appropriate to the latter, for what we are speaking of is a soul that is humbly and eagerly ready to receive the gifts of the Holy and dispense the fruits of love and peace to others and to give others that certitude of faith which will enable them to grasp the profound meaning of human life and to bring moral order into individual lives and the social relations of human beings.

Since the priesthood is bestowed or us in order that we may constantly serve others as Christ the Lord did. we may not renounce it because of the difficulties we encounter or the sacrifices we are required to make. Like the apostles "we have left everything and followed Christ."16 Therefore, we must persevere at His side, even when the way lies through the cross.

5. IN THE SERVICE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

A special concern for souls

As I write. I think of the vast and varied areas of human life to which. dear brothers, we are sent as into the vineyard of the Lord.17 Another parable that applies to you is that of the flock,18 for, by reason of the priestly character, you share in the pastoral charism which is the sign of a special relation of likeness to Christ the Good Shepherd. You are signed with this relationship in an entirely special way for, although concern for the salvation of others is and should be the duty of each member in the great community of God’s people—and therefore of all our lay brothers and sisters, as the Second Vatican Council explained at length19—nonetheless a concern and a commitment are expected of you priests that are greater and different from those of any lay-persons’. This is because your participation in the priesthood of Jesus Christ differs from theirs "in essence as well as degree."20

Our model

In fact, the priesthood of Jesus Christ is both the primal source and the expression of that persevering and always active concern for our salvation which allows us to look upon Him as our Good Shepherd. Do not His words: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep"21 refer to the sacrifice of the cross which is Christ’s final priestly act? Do they not show the way all of us, too, must travel to whom Christ the Lord has given a share in His priesthood through the sacrament of orders? Do they not teach us that we too are called to a special concern for the salvation of our neighbor? That this concern is the peculiar reason for our living a priestly life?

That this concern, finally, gives point to our life and only through it can we find the full meaning of our life and thus our perfection and salvation? This matter is discussed in several passages of the conciliar decree Optatam totius.22

But this point can be better understood in the light of the Master’s own words: "Whoever would preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will preserve it."23 These words are mysterious and even seem contrary to common sense but they cease to be mysterious once we endeavor to put them into practice. For then all that is strange in them disappears and their utterly simple meaning becomes clear. May this grace be granted to all of us in our priestly life and our zealous ministry.

6. "THE ART OF ARTS IS THE GOVERNMENT OF SOULS"24

This special solicitude for the salvation of others, for the truth, love and holiness of the entire People of God, and for the spiritual unity of the Church—a solicitude which Christ has made ours along with the power of priesthood—finds expression in various fashions. The ways in which you, dear brothers, pursue your priestly vocation are undoubtedly diverse. Some of you are involved in the daily pastoral work of a parish; others are in mission fields; still others toil in the area of education, teaching and forming the young, devoting yourselves to the various organizations and associations entrusted to your care, and contributing to the progress of social and cultural life; others of you, finally, work among the sick, the suffering, the abandoned, with you yourselves being at times confined to a sickbed. Varied indeed are the ways you walk, and they cannot be listed here in detail. They are necessarily many and quite different, because the conditions of human life are themselves so varied, as are social circumstances, historical traditions, and the heritage of so many cultures and civilizations.

Yet, despite all these differences, you are always and above all men marked by your special vocation for you possess the grace of Christ the eternal priest and the charism of the Good Shepherd. That is something you may never forget, but must bring to fruition in every time, place and manner. For your work is "the art of arts" to which Christ has called you:

"The art of arts is the government of souls," said St. Gregory the Great.

Men of our time

Accordingly I tell you: endeavor to be "artists" in pastoral work. There have been many such in the history of the Church. Need I mention names? To each of us a St. Vincent de Paul, a St. John of Avila, a John Mary Vianney, a St. John Bosco, and Blessed Maximilian Kolbe—to name but a few—have something to say, as do so many others. Each of them was distinct from the rest; each was a child of his own age and was "up-to-date" in relation to his times.

But this "being a man of the times" was a specific response to the Gospel, the kind of response the times required: a response of holiness and apostolic zeal. That is the only rule in accordance with which we can, in our priestly life and activity, be "up-to-date" in response to our times and to the world of today. Beyond any doubt, the various plans and attempts to laicize priestly life cannot be regarded as a fitting kind of "accomodation" to the times.

7. DISPENSER AND WITNESS

Signs and guideposts

Priestly life has its foundation in the sacrament of orders which impresses on our soul the indelible sign we call the character. This sign, which is imprinted in the depths of our human reality, has a personalizing dynamism for the priestly personality must be a crystal-clear sign and guidepost to others.

This is the first condition for our pastoral ministry. The human beings from among whom we have been taken and whom we represent before God25 desire to find in us above all that kind of sign and guidepost; and they have a right to find it!

At times it may seem that they do not want it or even that they prefer us to be "like them" in every way. Sometimes they seem actually to demand this of us. It is precisely here that we need a keen sense of faith and a gift of discernment, for a man can easily let himself be guided by appearances and be profoundly deluded.

Those who call for the laicization of priestly life and who applaud the various signs of such a change will certainly abandon us once we yield to their solicitation. Then we will cease to be needed and popular. Our age is characterized by various kinds of manipulation and instrumentalization of man, but we may not yield to such abuses 26

In the last analysis, the only priest who will always prove necessary to human beings is the one who is conscious of the full meaning of his priesthood: the priest who is a profound believer and professes his faith courageously; who prays fervently, teaches with deep conviction and serves; who follows the principles of the beatitudes in his own life; who is able to love unselfishly and is always available to everyone, especially the more needy.

A priestly perspective in all things

Our pastoral work requires that we be available to people in all their difficulties, individual, familial and social. It also bids us be concerned about these problems and cases as priests. Only then will we continue to be ourselves amid all the activity.

If, then, we really want to be of help in these human situations that are often so complex, let us maintain our own proper character and be truly faithful to our calling.

We must show great perspicacity in joining the rest of mankind in the search for truth and justice; we will find the true and changeless reality of these values only in the Gospel and in Jesus Christ himself. Our role, then, is to serve truth and justice under the conditions of man’s temporal life but always in the perspective of eternal salvation.

This approach respects the temporal victories of the human spirit in the area of conscience and moral doctrine, as the Second Vatican Council has taught in an admirable way,27 but it is not concerned solely with these victories. It looks beyond them: "Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love Him."28 The human beings who are our brothers and sisters in the faith, and even those others who are not believers, look to us to open up this perspective to them at all times. They expect us to be authentic witnesses, dispensers of grace, and ministers of God’s word. They expect us to be men of prayer.

Contribution of contemplative priests

In our ranks are to he found some who combine their priestly vocation in a special way with a life of constant prayer and penance in the strictly contemplative context of certain religious orders. Let these men keep in mind that even when lived in this way their priestly ministry is in a remarkable way ordered to the main concern of the Good Shepherd: His solicitude for the salvation of every person.

All of us must bear in mind that no one may permit himself to deserve the name of "hireling," that is, one ‘‘who is no... owner of the sheep," one who "catches sight of the wolf coming and runs away, leaving the sheep to be snatched and scattered by the world. That is because he works for pay; he has no concern for the sheep."29 The concern of every good shepherd is that men and women "might have life and have it to the full"30 and that none of them may be lost’ but may obtain eternal life.

Let us see to it, then, that this same concern permeates deep into our hearts. Let us endeavor to make it a reality in our lives. Let it mold our person and be the basis of our identity as priests.

8. THE MEANING OF CELIBACY

Allow me at this point to address the question of priestly celibacy. I shall touch on it in only a summary way since it has received a profound and complete treatment in the encyclical letter Sacerdotalis caelibatus and, most recently, at the regular meeting of the Synod of Bishops in 1971. That kind of full discussion was required in order to present the whole question in a more mature way and to confirm with surer reasons the meaning of the decision which the Latin Church made so many centuries ago and to which it endeavors to be faithful now and intends to be faithful in the future.

This question is so important and serious and is so clearly connected with the very language of the Gospel that we cannot afford to think about it except in the categories and formulas which the council, the Synod of Bishops, and that great pontiff Paul VI have used. We will succeed in penetrating more deeply into the question and in giving a more mature response to it only if we free ourselves of the influence exerted by the various objections always raised, today no less than in the past, against priestly celibacy, and by the various interpretations of it which are based on norms of judgment alien to the Gospel and tradition and the teaching of the Church. They are norms, I may add, whose anthropological accuracy and solidity prove quite doubtful and of uncertain value.

Celibacy difficult to understand

In any event, we should not be too surprised at all the objections and criticisms that reached a pitch of high intensity after the council but that already seem to be weakening everywhere today. When Jesus Christ proposed to His disciples the renunciation of marriage "for the sake of God’s reign," did He not add these significant words: "Let him accept this teaching who can"?32

It was and is the will of the Latin Church that, in accordance with the example of the Lord Christ himself, the teaching of the apostles, and its own special tradition, all those who receive the sacrament of orders must embrace this renunciation for the sake of God’s reign. This tradition is compatible with respect for the diver gent traditions of other churches.

It is rather a characteristic mark and heritage of the Latin Catholic Church; to it this Church owes a great deal, and it is determined to per severe in it in spite of all the difficulties in the way of such fidelity and in spite of the fact that individual priests are showing many signs of weakness and crisis, for while we are all quite convinced that "we possess this treasure in earthen vessels,"33 the same time we know for certain that it is, indeed, a treasure!

Celibacy a treasure

In what sense is it a treasure? When we give it this name are we at tempting to play down the value of marriage or the vocation to family life? Are we the victims of a Manichean contempt for the human body and its functions? Is it our wish to show scorn in any way for the love which leads a man and a woman into marriage and the conjugal union of bodies whereby they become "two in me flesh"?34

How could we think any of these; things or argue in such a manner when we know and believe and reach with St. Paul that marriage is a "great foreshadowing" with reference to Christ and the Church?35 No there is no truth in any of the arguments used to persuade us that the celibacy which the Church extols and endeavors to make part of her life by means of the commitment and bur den which priests take on themselves before sacred ordination is undesirable.

The essential, proper and adequate reason for celibacy is to be found in the truth which Christ revealed when speaking of the renunciation of marriage for the sake of God’s reign and which St. Paul proclaimed when he wrote that each person has his or her own gift from God.36 Celibacy is precisely such a "gift of the Spirit."

A comparable, though different gift is contained in the vocation to the true faithful conjugal love that in the context of the sacrament of matrimony is directed to fleshly procreation. Everyone knows how important this latter gift is in building the great community of the Church, God’s people.

But if this community really wants to do full justice to its vocation in Jesus Christ, then there must be due room in it for this other gift: the gift of celibacy "for the sake of God’s reign."37

But why does the Latin Church link this gift not only with the life of those who follow the austere way of life of the evangelical counsels in religious institutes, but also with the vocation to the hierarchic ministerial priesthood generally?

She does so because celibacy "for the sake of God’s reign" is not only an eschatological sign but also has great social importance in our present life for the service of God’s people. The priest’s celibacy makes him a "man for others," although in a way different from that of the man who through conjugal union with a woman likewise becomes, husband and father, a "man for others," especially within the home and family, that is, for his wife and, with her, for the children to whom he gives life.

The priest renounces the kind of fatherhood proper to married men and seeks another kind of fatherhood and even another kind of motherhood, for he is mindful of the apostle’s words about the children whom he begot and brought to birth.38 These are his spiritual children, the persons whom the Good Shepherd has entrusted to his care, and they are many, more numerous than any ordinary family could comprise. The pastoral vocation of priests is great, indeed, and the council teaches that it is even universal, since it embraces the entire Church,39 and is, therefore, missionary as well.

This vocation is normally associated with a ministry to a specific community in the People of God, where Christians seek the loving care and attentive kindness of a Driest. But celibacy itself is the sign of a certain freedom for service. Because of this sign, the hierarchic, that is, ministerial priesthood is, according to the Church’s tradition, more closely ordered to the universal priesthood of the faithful.

9. A TESTED SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

There is a widespread view which is the result of ambiguity, if not of bad faith. It maintains that priestly celibacy is nothing but a custom imposed by law on those who receive the Sacrament of Orders. We all know that this is not so.

Every Christian who is about to receive the Sacrament of Orders accepts the duty of celibacy with full awareness and freedom after many years of preparation and after giving careful reflection and much prayer to the subject. He decides on a life of celibacy only after being firmly convinced that Christ is bestowing this gift on him for the benefit of the en tire Church and the service of others. Only then does he accept a celibacy which he must maintain for the rest of his life.

It is clear, then, that a decision thus taken obliges him not only in virtue of a law the Church has passed but also because he is aware of a personal responsibility. The issue, then, is fidelity to promises made to Christ and the Church. Fidelity to the promise the priest has made is a proof of his interior maturity and an expression of his personal dignity.

All this is clearly manifested whenever the fidelity promised to Christ in the conscious and free commitment to perpetual celibacy runs into difficulties, is put to the test, or is even, at times, exposed to temptation. The priest is not spared any of these trials any more than is any other human being and Christian.

Victory through prayer

In these periods of crisis the individual must win the help he needs by fervent prayer. Through prayer he must find within himself the attitude of humility and sincerity toward God and his own conscience that will be a source of strength to support him in his weakness. Then he will discover a confidence such as St. Paul was expressing when he said: "In Him who is the source of my strength I have strength for everything."40

The truth of what I have been saying is confirmed by the experience of many priests and is attested to by real life. The acceptance of it is the basis for fidelity to the promises made to Christ and the Church. It is at the same time, the proof of authentic fidelity to oneself, one’s own conscience, one’s own human dignity. It is of this that one must think especially in moments of crisis and not immediately take refuge in a dispensation that is thought of simply in terms of an "administrative intervention," as though there were no question of an important issue of conscience and a test of one’s humanity.

God has the right to subject each of us to such tests, if, indeed, it be true that earthly life is a time of struggle for every human being. God also wants us to emerge victorious from such struggles. Therefore, He gives us the help we need.

Perhaps there is good reason to add here that the duty of conjugal fidelity which is based on the sacrament of matrimony carries with it comparable obligations and becomes at times the focus of analogous trials and experiences for the spouses both men and women who in such "testings by fire" have the opportunity to prove the strength of their love. For in all its dimensions love is not only a vocation but a duty.

Finally, let us admit that our married brothers and sisters can rightly expect of us priests and bishops a good example and the witness of a fidelity unto the end in our vocation, a fidelity to the calling we chose in the sacrament of orders just as they chose their calling in the sacrament of matrimony.

In this area, too, and in this way we should understand our ministerial priesthood to be subordinated to the priesthood of all the faithful and specifically of the laity and, in particular, of those who live a married life and raise a family. In this way we help "to build up the body of Christ."41

It we act otherwise, not only do we not contribute to the building up of the body but we even weaken its spiritual structure.

Closely connected with the building up of Christ’s body is the true advancement and development of the human personality of each Christian and each priest which is accomplished according to the measure of the grace Christ bestows. The breakdown of the Church’s spiritual structure certainly does not foster the progress of the human person or make the person what he or she ought to he.

10. NEED OFD ALLY CONVERSION

The Church lives by faith and hope

"What ought we to do?"42 Here, dear brothers, you have the question the disciples and hearers of Christ so often put to Him. At a time when there seems to be a lack of priests and when this shortage is affecting especially certain regions and areas of the world, what is the Church to do? How shall we meet the vast needs of evangelization and satisfy the hunger for the word and the body of the Lord?

In her concern to retain priestly celibacy as a gift for the sake of God’s reign, the Church professes her faith and hope in her Master, Redeemer and Spouse who is also "master of the harvest" and "giver of the gift,"43 for ‘‘every worthwhile gift... comes from above, descending from the Father of the heavenly luminaries."44

It is not right that we should weaken this faith and hope by our human doubts or faintheartedness.

We must, therefore, undergo a daily conversion, knowing that such is the basic requirement which the Gospel makes incumbent on every person,45 realizing also that it applies much more to us. If our function is to help others be converted, we must be constantly doing as much for ourselves throughout our lives. To be converted is simply to return to the grace of our calling and to meditate on the infinite mercy and love of Christ for us. He turned to each of us, called us by name, and said: "Follow me!"

To be converted is to give an account to the Lord of our hearts regarding our ministry, our diligence, our fidelity, for we are "servants of Christ and administrators of the mysteries of God."46 It is, also, to give an account of our negligences and sins, our faintheartedness, our lack of faith and hope, our "merely human" rather than "divine" way of thinking.

Let us recall Christ’s warning to Peter!47 Conversion requires that we have recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and seek over and over again the forgiveness and strength of God, so that we may begin ever anew to make daily progress, conquer ourselves, win spiritual victories and be cheerful givers, "for God loves a cheerful giver."48

To be converted means to "pray always and not lose heart."49 Prayer is, in a way, the first and last condition of conversion, spiritual progress, and holiness. In recent years, at least in some milieus and groups, there has, perhaps, been too much discussion of the priesthood, the "identity" of the priest, the importance of his presence in the modern world. and similar matters, while there has been too little prayer.

There has not been enough effort to make the priesthood a reality for oneself through prayer, to put its true evangelical dynamism into operation and, thus, to verify a "priestly identity."

Prayer reveals the essential priestly attitudes; without prayer these become distorted.

Prayer helps us to find ever anew the light that guided us from the beginning of our priestly vocation and continues to guide us even though it seems at times to be lost in darkness.

Prayer allows us to be constantly converted to God and to persist in that constant thrust of the soul toward God that we all need if we are to lead others to Him.

Prayer helps us to believe, hope and love even when our human weakness is a stumbling block to us.

In addition, when we pray without ceasing we grasp the real nature of that kingdom for whose coming we pray daily in the words Christ taught us. Then we understand our role in bringing to fulfillment the petition "Thy kingdom come" and we see how necessary a part we play in making it come to pass. In prayer, too, we shall perhaps perceive more clearly those "fields that are white for the harvest"50 and grasp the meaning of the words Christ spoke as He looked out on them: "Beg the harvest master to send out laborers to gather the harvest."51

Ongoing formation needed

To prayer must be added the constant effort to exercise ourselves, an effort which is an ongoing formation. As the document which the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy published on this subject52 rightly warns, this formation must be interior, that is, geared to the deepening of the priest’s spiritual, pastoral and intellectual (philosophical and theological) life.

If, then, our pastoral action, our preaching of the word, and our entire priestly ministry depend on the fervor of our interior life, this life, in turn, must be supported by diligent study. We may not be satisfied with what we once learned in the seminary, even if we did our studies in a university setting, as the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education strongly urges. This intellectual formation must go on throughout our entire lives, especially in the modern age which has seen a general improvement in the level of public education and culture at least in many parts of the world. It is to men and women who enjoy the advantages of this progress that we must be intellectually competent witnesses to Jesus Christ. As teachers of truth and morality we must give these people a persuasive and effective account of the hope that spurs us on.53 This is part of the daily conversion to love that is brought about by means of the truth.

Dear brothers! You who "bear the heat and burden of the day,"54 who have put your hand to the plow and do not look back,55 you who perhaps are filled with doubt about the meaning of your vocation and the value of your ministry: think of the places where people look eagerly for a priest and where, for many years now, they have felt the lack and continue to desire his presence! It may be that at times they gather in an abandoned church, place on the altar the stole they have preserved, and recite all the prayers of the eucharistic liturgy. Then, at the moment when the transubstantiation should occur, there is a profound silence, broken occasionally by the sound of weeping. So ardently do they long to hear the words which only a priest’s lips can effectively pronounce! So deeply do they yearn for the Lord’s Supper in which they can share only through a priest’s ministry!

With equal fervor they long to hear the divine words of forgiveness: "I absolve you of your sins." That is how deeply they desire the priest whom they do not have!

There are certainly such places in the world. If, then, any of you doubt the importance of your priesthood, if you think it "socially" unprofitable and useless, reflect on what I have just been saying!

We must be daily converted, daily lay hold anew of the gift Christ himself gave us in the Sacrament of Orders by realizing the importance of the Church’s mission of salvation and by reflecting, in the light of this mission, on the profound meaning of our vocation.

11. THE MOTHER OF PRIESTS

My dear brothers! As I enter on my ministry, I commend you to the Mother of God who is, in a special way, our Mother, too, the Mother of priests. When Christ was hanging on the cross He commended to His own Mother the disciple whom He loved and who, as one of the 12, had heard the Lord saying in the upper room, "Do this as a remembrance of me."56 Regarding this disciple He said to her: "There is your son."57 The man who on the day of the Supper had received power to celebrate the Eucharist now found the dying Redeemer entrusting him to His own Mother ‘‘as her son."

All of us, therefore, who have received the same power through priestly ordination also enjoy beyond other people the right to have that Mother as our own. For that reason I desire that all of you would join me in acknowledging Mary as Mother of the priesthood we have received from Christ.

It is my wish, too, that you would entrust your priesthood in a special way to the Mother of God. Allow me to do this by entrusting each of you without exception to the Mother of Christ in a solemn yet simple and humble way. I ask too, dear brothers, that each of you would do the same in private according to the urging of your own heart and especially your love of Christ the Priest and your own weakness that accompanies your desire to serve and to strive for holiness. That is what I ask of you.

The present-day Church describes herself chiefly in the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium. In the final chapter of this document she professes that she looks to Mary as Mother of Christ, because she calls herself a mother as well and desires to be a mother who begets men and women to new life in God.58

My dear brothers, how closely you are connected with this divine enterprise! What a very important part it plays in your vocation, ministry and mission! That is why, amid the people of God who raise their eyes to Mary with profound love and hope, you must look to Mary with exceptional hope and love.

It is your duty to preach Christ, her Son: Who can better acquaint you with the truth about Him than His Mother?

It is your duty to feed the hearts of men by giving Christ to them: Who can make you more aware of this obligation that is yours than she who fed Him? "Hail, true body, born of the Virgin Mary!"

Our ministerial priesthood contains a marvelous and stirring dimension of closeness to the Mother of Christ. Let us endeavor to live this dimension of our lives! If I may refer here to my own experience, I can assure you that in writing as I do it is chiefly on my own experience that I am drawing.

The pope’s prayer for priests

In communicating these reflections to you at the beginning of my ministry to the universal Church, I constantly ask God to fill you, the priests of Jesus Christ, with every blessing and grace. As a pledge and confirmation of this prayerful communion I bless you with all my heart in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Accept this blessing! Accept these words of the new successor of St. Peter whom the Lord commanded: "You in turn must strengthen your brothers."59 Do not cease to join the universal Church in praying for me that I may respond to the demands of that primacy of love which the Lord willed should be the foundation of St. Peter’s mission, when He said to him:

"Feed my sheep."60 Amen.

The Vatican, April 8, Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday), 1979, the first year of my pontificate.

John Paul II, Pope

 

 

NOTES:

 

1 See Mt 20, 12.

2 See Jn 21, 15-16.

3 In Sermo 340, 1 (PL 38:1483), St. Augustine writes: "Vobis enim sum episcopus, vobiscum sum christianus [For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian]."

4 Ecclesiae Sanctae (August 6,1966); see Part I, no. 15.

5"Ad Magnesios VI, 1 (Funk, Patres Apostolici 1:235).

6 See Rm 5, 5;1; Cor 12, 31; 13.

7 Heb 5,1.

8 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, no. 10 [TPS X, 266].

9 Heb 5,1.

10 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, no. 10 [TPS X, 366].

11 See Eph 4,11-12.

12 1 Pt 2, 5.

13 See I Pt 3, 18.

14 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, no 10 [TPS X, 366].

15 Ibid.

16See Mt 19. 27.

17 See Mt 20, 1-6.

18 See Jn 10, 1-16.

19 See the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. chapter 2.

20 Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, no. 10 [TPS X, 366].

21 Jn 10, 11.

22 See nos. 8-11, 19-20.

23Mk 8.,35.

24 Gregory the Great Regula pastoralis I, I 1 (PL 74,14).

25 See Heb 5, 1.

26 See Pope John Paul II, Address to the Clergy of Rome (November 9, 1978): "Let us not deceive ourselves that we are serving the Gospel if we attempt to ‘dilute’ our priestly charism by an excessive concern for the vast field of temporal problems; if we want to ‘laicize’ our manner of life and action; if we eliminate even the external signs of our priestly vocation. We must maintain a sense of our singular vocation, and its ‘extraordinariness’ should find expression even in our external garb. Let us not be ashamed of it! Yes, let us be in the world! But let us not be of the world!" [TPS XXIV, 47].

27 See the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the World of Today, nos. 38-39, 42.

28 1Cor 2, 9.

29 Jn 10, 12-13.

30 Jn 10, 10.

31 See Jn 17, 12.

32 Mt 19, 12.

33 2 Cor 4,7.

34 See Gn 2, 24; Mt 19,6.

35 See Eph 5, 32.

36 See 1 Cor 7, 7.

37 Mt 19, 12.

38 See 1 Cor 4, 15; Gal 4, 19.

39 See the Decree on the Priestly Ministry and Life, nos. 3, 6, 10, 12.

40 Phil 4, 13.

41 Eph 4, 12.

42 Lk 3, 10.

43 See Mt 9, 38; 1 Cor 7, 7.

44 Jas 1, 17.

45 See Mt 4, 17; Mk 1, 15.

46 1 Cor 4, 1.

47 See Mt 16, 23.

48 2 Cor 9, 7.

49 See Lk 18, 1.

50 See Jn 4, 35.

51 Mt 9, 38.

52 See the circular of November 4, 1969: AAS 62 (1970) 123ff.

53 See 1 Pt 3, 15.

54 See Mt 20, 12.

55 See Lk 9, 62.

56 See Lk 22, 19.

57 Jn 19, 26.

58 See the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, chapter 8.

59 Lk 22, 32.

60 Jn 21, 16.