"VESSEL OF MERCY" ^_[1]

CHARISM OF INTEGRITY

1.  The true sign of great wealth is extravagant giving. Some persons make grand philanthropic bequests while others happily share their simple home and table. The greatest gifts, it would seem, are those that are shared but not surrendered, those that are unseen but clearly demonstrated.

2.  Material gifts certainly are to be seen, and they are expected to be happily surrendered. But seeing and surrendering cannot apply to the charism of integrity--one's uncompromising adherence to honesty and moral principle. Integrity is meant to enrich friendship or leadership; it may be clearly demonstrated. But to hand over integrity would be to destroy it.

3.  The Book of Hebrews, though commenting on faith, defines the most significant aspect of any charism: "...the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen".  [Heb 11:1]  The human longing for the fulfillment of virtue is shared and demonstrated, but it cannot be seen or surrendered. St. Paul was well aware that Christians face a far greater test of trust than the hardened atheist ensconced in the shell of his intellectual and spiritual sloth.

HUMAN LIBERALITY 

4.  Christians must peer into the world of the spirit--the apostle wrote "for now we see in a mirror dimly"  [1Cor 13:12]--and accept that his knowledge of God, while received and understood imperfectly in the world of the flesh, is entirely sufficient for him to live a God-directed and meaningful life. The Christian's partial knowledge of God, and here we speak of an informed relationship with Christ, gives him the assurance and the conviction that in the hour of Christ's return in glory, he will understand the mysteries of salvation fully even as he has been fully comprehended by God.

5.  Hence the Christian's partial knowledge of God gives him the fullness of three great charisms by which he is endowed with intrinsic meaning and value in life: "So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."  [1Cor 13:13]  The most heroic example of human liberality, however, cannot obscure man's finite capacity to give in the face of God's infinite capacity to give. Less understood than man's finite capacity to give is his actual experience of giving.

EXEMPLI  GRATIA OF SACRIFICE

6.  While we speak of Jesus Christ who offered his life as ransom for the souls of many, we must observe that, just as significantly, he gave his death. Thus the offering is hallowed by the sacrifice. Herein is the Lord's institution of the priesthood as the consummate fulfillment of his saying, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  [Jn 15:13]  In every way, priesthood fulfills the charism of sacrifice for the explicit purpose of consecrating a worthy offering: a man solemnly vows his life that he, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, may lift others up to Christ. The supreme test of human love, in the manner of  the Lord's own example, is the unselfish offering of one's own life that others may be spared.

7.  Hence, to the extent that any gift is lacking in selfless sacrifice, it forfeits the imprimatur of divine life and love. A priest may give only what he has received from God and no more. If he abandons the self to give himself completely to God, if he is wheat and grape placed in the hands of the great high priest, if he will fulfill his vow for the salvation and care of souls, he may be assured of receiving the fullness of the priestly charism on the day of his consecration to Christ. Uniting himself to the exempli gratia  (Lat. pleasing example)  of Christ on the cross, he will build on the solid foundation of the Church. He will become the living stone  [cf. 1Pet 2:4-5]  by which Christ perpetuates his sacrifice until the hour of his glory: He will place the riches of the Church in the hands of God's people, saying, take and eat! 

LIVING "PROOF TEXT"

8.  Some look upon a priest as the endpoint of a sequence of religious events rooted in history. They see him as a living "proof text" of the divine Logos (Gk. word, truth, Christ), the bearer of the mysteries of God. Ordinary persons cannot easily comprehend a priest's theological and philosophical knowledge. It would seem to many lay persons that through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a priest is given the privileged grace for which Moses was renown in ancient days--knowing the Lord face to face [Deu 34:10]--the very grace forfeited by the foolish Adam who walked in the garden with God in the cool of the evening breeze.  [cf. Gen 3:8]  Not a few, then, will impute to God what they see in the priest.

9.  If he is holy and devoted to the Church and to its members, then God is perceived as perfect and charitable. However, if a priest is perceived as worldly and egotistical, many will be misled by their weak faith to perceive God in the same way. Thus is it critical for the attentive priest to lead believers to Christ and not to himself. The presence of the priest is certainly a sign of the nearness of God. But the priestly ministry is not merely one of presence; still less is it the cultivated passivity of religious intellectuals for whom the supernatural power of God is a worn abstraction. The young man who presents himself for ordination stands in two worlds, with one foot on earth and the other in heaven.

VISIBLE SIGN

10.  The Sacrament of Holy Orders unites the Holy Spirit and the ordaining bishop in conferring upon him the indelible mark of priesthood. He is anointed in the flesh by his bishop, a successor to the Twelve. He is anointed in the Spirit by the grace of Christ, the Lord of all that is seen and unseen. The man of God is ordained to be the visible sign of the invisible supreme power of God. The newly ordained is to be the sign of Jonah  [cf. Lk 11:29-30]: always human and bound to his humanity, he is sent out on the Kingdom road. But the vessel must always find its way back to the fountain.

11.  With one hand a priest clutches the robes of Christ tightly. In the other, he bears the Sacred Word of God. Christ is the fountain of divine revelation through which the priest will minister to the sheep who have not known the Shepherd. The sign of Jonah is a sign of contradiction. God uses the humanity of the priest to overturn human expectations, but the priest for his part must call on the divinity of God to set to rights the broken world. The sign of Jonah is a sign of mercy witnessing to the world that the urgent need to reform is authentic. Though the hour of this age is late and the clock strikes eleven for the present generation, the priest shines God's light on timid spirits huddled in the world's dark corners.

 CHRIST-OUT-OF-EGYPT

12.  He is not there to bring them to silence, but to join them in beseeching the power of Jesus Christ to deliver them. With one foot on earth and the other foot on high, he carries the distress of lost and troubled souls to Christ, and he returns to them the will of the Lord mediated through the sacraments of faith. Whether the priest's apostolic work is easy or rough, he has but one objective: to bring every soul to follow Christ as he himself does, to bring every soul near to the miraculous power of God, and to stir the hearts of people everywhere to praise the Father for his glorification of Christ. To this apostolic task, the Lord Jesus Christ demands that each of his priests offer a humbled spirit willing to preach fearlessly, teach ardently and bring to the apostolic task entrusted to him by Christ the proof of excellence. 

13.  No priest is called by Christ to cultivate the aesthetic of helplessness, or to be a hand-wringer, or to be a mechanical dispensary of sacramental grace. He is to point the way to Christ by the example of his own person, that is to say, the people of this world must see in him the image of Christ-out-of-Egypt repatriating his chosen people to the heavenly Jerusalem. With all that has been said, a priest is not an endpoint or the ultimate result of a series of spiritual activities, experiences or tendencies. Rather, he sets his face towards God so that the faithful might do likewise.  [cf. Lk 9:51] 

MINISTRY OF HEAVEN AND EARTH 

14.  Mindful of the apostle's injunction--"Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness"  [Jas 3:1]--he understands that his desire for union with God will be tested harshly and judged strictly. While aided by the Spirit, many priests will fail to pursue the spiritual quest to its beatific end. They will have yielded to fear and turned away from the narrow gate, the cross of Christ!  [cf. Mt 7:13-14]  Their failure to keep the evangelical counsels--to live simply, chastely and in obedience to lawful authority--will be the downfall of a multitude of souls, for children on milk cannot lead other children to solid food.

15.  The faithful can perceive in the priest a reflection of the Alpha and Omega, the only-begotten Son through whom all things were made:  By mediating the mysteries of salvation on the altar of the cross of Christ, the priest of God prophesies the omega, the cosmic perfection of the order of grace. By his guileless and transparent acceptance of supernatural faith, hope and love, the priest images the alpha, the more perfect baptismal sign of rebirth in the Spirit and the regeneration of the human person "from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit".  [2Cor 3:17-18]  God confers on him, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a ministry of heaven and earth to reveal the form of Divine Truth and to form the Body of Christ.

SPECTACLE AND SPECTER 

16.  He is sent into the disordered and darkened world to bear the life and the light of Christ. Greater than the vessel is the refreshment it pours out. Perhaps John  the Baptizer appeared to the crowds to be more of a spectacle and a specter than an instrument of God. Attired in camel's hair, a leather waistband, and feeding on locusts and honey in the Judean desert, the enormously popular erimite  (Gk. of the desert)  mesmerized large numbers of pilgrims with his denunciation of hypocrisy and his call to repentance. Certainly he seemed acrid and forbidding as he shouted to the Pharisees and Sadducees from the rocks, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"  [Mt 3:7]  and to the crowds from Jerusalem, "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." [Mt 3:10] 

17.  Though not a vessel of beauty, nonetheless John the Baptist was a vessel of mercy from which was poured out a glorious ablution of repentance upon all who acknowledged the need for conversion.  [cf. Rom 9:18-23]  And in the tradition of Elijah, he anointed them with the pleasing prophecy that times of refreshing [cf. Acts 3:19-20]  were as near as the messiah  (Heb. anointed one)  of fire whose sandals he was unworthy to carry. As a sign of contradiction, the baptizer reluctantly casts water on the divine fire to fulfill all righteousness:  He baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River.  [cf. Mt 3:14-15]  In a scene contemplated by holy priests who ponder their judgment before God, the heavens opened above Jesus and the Spirit of peace descended upon the Son of God.

SIGN AND BLESSING

18.  To the sign of water was added the divine benediction from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."  [Mt 3:17]  Thus the ritual of sign and blessing was completed by Jesus as an example of holiness for the people and the empowerment of his ministry. Christ showed his faithfulness in smaller things for the sake of the salvation of many: into this Sacred Vessel of incomparable beauty and faithfulness, emptied of its divine prerogatives and equality with God  [Phi 2:5-11], the Father in heaven poured grace upon grace--resurrection from the dead on the third day and ascension to his right hand in glory. Greater than the act of personal surrender, then, is the divine love of God by which a young priest is configured to the high priesthood of Christ. More efficacious, also, than the priest's humble submission to obedience, is the divine life that God pours through him to slake his people's spiritual thirst. There is, therefore, much for the priest of God to contemplate in humility.

19.  When offered for the sake of the Name, a priest's imperfect love and deeds are united to Christ in whom liberality is perfect and infinite. Hence, the Catholic priest's ministry of selfless charity and mercy is established as a sublime oblation of cosmic proportions. Recall how Jesus fed the hungry multitudes that gathered to hear him teach on the Galilean hillsides. Often subordinated to the miracles of loaves and fishes is the miracle of the reserved bread. Seven and twelve baskets--the numeric signs of perfection and totality--were left over after thousands ate and were satisfied. [cf. Mk 6:42] The quantity bread left over is unmistakably a sign of comprehensiveness, that is to say, the universal scope of Christ's ministry and its simultaneity.

"NOT BY MEASURE" 

20.  The sacrifice of Christ's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity is at once international and cosmic, contemporaneous and eternal, consonant and contradictory. Jesus is bread for all of Galilee and Israel, for the Near East and the entire world, today and forever! His is the True Presence abiding in the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacles of Catholic Churches all over the world--reverently safeguarded to nourish the sick and homebound and war-weary. As the Gospel makes clear, one person is not offered bread from heaven  [cf. Jn 6:32-35]  at the cost of another's suffering. So it is with the Spirit of Fire that consecrated the Lord at his baptism. The Father and the Son do not send forth a portion but rather the fullness of the Holy Spirit to set the world ablaze.  [Lk 12:49; cf. Isa 55:10-11] 

21.  The Spirit of God apportions his gifts to believer as Christ wills, but the Spirit himself is not rationed: "...for it is not by measure that (God) gives the Spirit".  [Jn 3:34]  The priest, baptized, confirmed and ordained consents to receive the fullness of the Spirit in whom he is continuously being renewed and made new after the image of his Creator:  "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations."  [Isa 42:1]  As a condition of accepting the ministry of righteousness in the name of Jesus Christ, a priest must regard all else as matter for renunciation. The priest, a visible sign of the unseen spiritual order, grows in the knowledge of the Divine, proclaims the concerns of God, and by the extravagance of his personal sacrifice and unselfish ministry, bears witness to all that he a new creation in righteousness and holiness of Christ.  [cf. Eph 4:24] 

JOY OF THE MASTER

22.  Whereas the natural or earthly man rations his enthusiasm and his material gifts to a privileged few, the spiritual man openhandedly shares the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (and) self-control. [cf. Gal 5:22]  Hence, the priest of Christ is the credible witness that man's trust in and love for the heavenly Father will not go unrewarded. Unquestionably, he becomes a powerful example for the good in the presence of the Father's humble ones; to him is entrusted the salvation and care of their souls. As the servant of God's children clothed in the new nature, the man consecrated in the Sacrament of Holy Orders offers both heart and hands to his bishop who admonishes him to safely shepherd God's people to the threshold of the parousia (Gk. coming or presence). May the priest of God never fail to protect the little souls entrusted to his care. May he never fail to provide them a constant and unremitting example of the true priesthood. By so doing, he will have been faithful over a little, and Christ will set him over much: the joy of the master is the reward of his priests.  [cf. Mt 25:21]  

23.  The old year comes to an end; a new one commences. Utterly untouched by human chronology, the procession of time continues uninterrupted until Christ's return in glory. The days and seasons drift by and man is left to reflect on the fact of his mortality and his life's meaning. If he is wise, man will interpret lessons and experiences in a fruitful way, and he will contemplate the purpose of that which has ended or continues to unfold.^[2] The passing of a year helps one to thresh accomplishments and regrets, to winnow promises fulfilled and unfulfilled, and to store in the barn a harvest against future uncertainty. The evocative ballad Everything Must Change urges mortal man to contemplate the mystery he cannot master:  "Everything must change; nothing stays the same. The young become the old, and mysteries do unfold, for that's the way of time: no one and nothing goes unchanged."^[3]

 WE ARE TO REJOICE

24.  Jesus replies mysteriously to the baptizer's hierarchical expectation:  "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."  [Mt 3:15]  Give in for now is an idea utterly foreign to in the consciousness of the present generation, for the men of flesh cling to their hardened hearts and intractable pride. They cannot see a life governed by charity and mercy as anything but a crushing burden. But Christ has given us the Spirit to guide us into all truth, has he not? [cf. Jn 16:13]  Christians must turn away from the contradictory spirit of alternating obedience and rebellion before God, for self-reproach is of little value for those who have forgotten their covenant with Christ and his Church.  In Sacred Scripture we read, "Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more."  [Lk 12:48] 

25.  It is time, therefore, for all members of the Church to make a thank-offering of praise and gratitude to God for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Seven Great Graces. In this, the priest should be the leader in propriety and admonish the contentious spirits. There are as many ways of letting go as there are leaves on a tree. In the past year, each of us has bid farewell to something or someone, and in many instances, not without great sorrow. We detach and say goodbye, this sometimes against our will. We are compelled to accept the inevitability that time and space will separate those who sail away on the unseen wind and those who come to rest firmly in the earth. Yet we are to rejoice! For as the apostle writes, "For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death."  [Phi 1:19-20]  

"TIMES OF REFRESHING" 

26.  Nevertheless, many persons are yoked to harsh or sorrowful conditions from which they cannot escape, circumstances in which the hope of liberation seems is a forgotten dream. We are bound to pray for these souls. My heart goes out to you who persevere in faith, to you who love Christ, who worship the Father wholeheartedly, and walk in the Spirit. And I implore our heavenly Father with all my heart that this new year of grace will bring times of refreshing for the Church and his faithful people. I pray, too, that when your self-assurance is a bruised reed and your strength of will is a dimly burning wick  [cf. Isa 42:3], you will behold the "Spirit of God descending like a dove"  [Mt 3:16]  to bring you peace and contentment. May you realize in the depths of your soul, as God's beloved children of faith, that Christ the Light of the World has purchased your salvation at a great price  [cf. 1Cor 6:20, 7:23]  and that every good gift comes from God. For He who was baptized in the fire of his holy passion, death and resurrection  [cf. Lk 12:49-50]  has won for his Church the fatherhood of the God of mercy and clothed us with the glorious garment of his abiding pleasure.