From the Bishops Year of the Priest: conciliar themes will emerge

May 14, 2009

On March 16, 2009, the evening before Pope Benedict XVI departed for Africa, he made an important announcement. The Holy Father has established a special “Year for Priests,” beginning June 19, 2009, and concluding one year later, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney, the Curé d’Ars.

 

The overarching goal of the Year for Priests will be simple and profound: to raise up and celebrate the ministerial priesthood as an indispensible gift in the life and mission of the Church.

 

In this process, Pope Benedict, ever the teacher and theologian, will undoubtedly use the opportunity to convey and clarify the Church’s understanding of priesthood, especially as it was articulated in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.

 

Pope Benedict, in his writings as Cardinal Ratzinger, consistently sounded a clarion call to “return to the authentic texts of the original Vatican II … without reservations that amputate them and without arbitrariness that distorts them.”

 

As we anticipate the Year for Priests, the Holy Father will undoubtedly begin by underscoring that priests are “taken from among men,” that is, called from the ranks of the baptized and “set apart in a certain sense within the midst of God’s people” (PO 3).

 

As he anticipates the Year for Priests, Pope Benedict will explore conciliar themes already familiar to those who have studied his writings as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. Themes we may anticipate hearing more about may include the following:

 

The Universal Call to Holiness

 

The Second Vatican Council consistently emphasized that “all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (LG 40). Priests have the special responsibility of forming the faithful in the ways of the Gospel.

 

In his book entitled Called to Communion, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote, “the essential foundation of priesthood is a deep personal bond with Jesus Christ.” Throughout his writing Cardinal Ratzinger consistently stated that “the priest must be a man who knows Jesus intimately, who has encountered him and learned to love him. For this reason, the priest must be above all a man of prayer, a truly spiritual man. Without a strong spiritual substance, he cannot long endure in his ministry.”

 

In short, the priest is called to model for his people the universal call to holiness, the “aspiration to moral perfection” that must dwell in every authentically priestly heart. The priest’s spirituality is always centered around the Eucharist, the Sacraments and the Word of God.

 

By his life the priest must, as St. Paul so aptly described, live in such a way that “it is no longer I, but Christ living in me.”

 

In the words of Pope Benedict, “in the final analysis, God is the only treasure that people desire.”

 

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In his book entitled Called to Communion, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger writes these hard-hitting words: The priest “must learn that he is not in the business of building himself an interesting or comfortable life, or of setting up for himself a community of admirers or devotees, but is working for another, and that it is He who truly matters.”

 

Ecclesial Dimensions of Priesthood

 

Priests are described in the New Catholic Catechism as “co-workers of the episcopal order, and sharers in authority by which Christ himself builds up and sanctifies and rules his Body.”

 

Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, priests are anointed with a special character and configured to Christ the Priest in such a way that “they are able to act in the person of Christ the Head” (PO 2).

 

The Chrism Mass Liturgy articulates the Church’s cherished teaching that all the baptized share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ by virtue of their baptism. But ministerial priesthood is “ontologically distinct” from the priesthood of the baptized, and the Holy Father will probe and articulate the doctrinal distinctions between the priesthood of the baptized and the ministerial priesthood.

 

The hallmark of priestly ministry is that “supernatural authority of representation,” in other words, the priest is one who must faithfully re-present the mind and mission of the Church in all aspects of his ministry.

 

In his teaching and preaching, the priest must “think with the Church, and faithfully reflect her wisdom, authority and tradition.” In his ministry, he must give the Word of God, especially the liturgical homily, a special place of priority.

 

The priest, by word and example, must inspire the people he serves to also raise their lives up to the standard of the Gospel, to become life-long students of the Church, and strive to appropriate and integrate the Church’s rich heritage into their daily lives.

 

The Perfection of Charity

 

In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, the Holy Father challenges the entire Church to reflect the light of Christ through the Gospel of loving service, especially to the poor. “There is an unbreakable bond between love of God and love of neighbor (DCE 16). Deus Caritas Est builds upon the leit motif of the Second Vatican Council that the Church was sent by God to reveal and to communicate the love of God to all peoples and nations.

The priest has the special responsibility to ensure that in his community the least, the last and the lowly have a special place in the heart of the community.

 

“Love of neighbor, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its entirety.”

 

Deus Caritas Est challenges both priest and people to make the connection between the altar and compassion, between discipleship and service, between Word and action, between love of God and love of neighbor.

 

Missionary Spirit

 

The whole Church shares the mission mandate of the Gospel to “go and teach all nations.” The Holy Father will underscore the special mission responsibility each priest holds to stir up the spirit of evangelization in the community he is sent to serve.

 

Pope Benedict will emphasize that the most profound message the priest preaches is through the witness of a holy life. In the words of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, example is not the main thing in life, it’s the only thing.

 

Pope Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, developed an extensive vision of the “new evangelization,” which punctuates the responsibility of every Christian to lead others to Christ and experience the fullness of His life in the Church.

 

Pope Benedict will predictably identify the priest as a vital catalyst in the new evangelization, which the ministerial priesthood and priesthood of the baptized share in common. In Cardinal Ratzinger’s writing, the mission mandate is expressed in these simple words: “I am on a mission and have become the bearer of that which another has committed to my charge.”

 

Conclusion

 

As we gathered as a body of believers and presbyterate at the Chrism day liturgy, I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving as I looked out to the assembly of priests and people.

The Second Vatican Council underscores the importance of collaborative ministry: the ordained and laity working together to build up the Body of Christ.

 

This Diocese is singularly blessed by the presence of outstanding, gifted and joyful priests who will inspire others to consider the calling to this wondrous vocation in the Church.

 

So, too, we are blessed with women and men who have embraced the call of baptism and are serving God’s holy people in collaboration with the ordained clergy.

 

Together we must keep the eyes of our hearts fixed on Jesus Christ, who is ever in our midst “as one who serves.”

 

PO- Presbyterorum Ordinis; LG- Lumen Gentium; DCE-Deus Caritas Est

 

Printed with permission from The Montana Catholic, newspaper for the Diocese of Helena.