Dear Friends,

Holy Church graces us this Sunday, on which I am being installed as the sixth pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Parish, with the exhortation of St. Paul to Timothy and to all to whom the ministry of the Gospel has been entrusted: “I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord … but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.” (2 Tim 1:6-8, 13-14) Allow me to share with you a reflection on the Priest, written by Fr. Karl Rahner, S.J. 55 years ago, that have been often been the source of great inspiration and tremendous consolation. He writes:

When Paul, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of the priest, the first thing he says is that he is taken from among men. So much so that even the eternal high priest Jesus Christ wanted to be born of a woman, subject to the Law, a pilgrim through the valley of this transitory world, the Son of Man, a man, making himself like us in everything. The priest is a man. He is not made from another kind of clay than the rest of us. He is your brother. He continues to share the lot of man after the hand of God has rested on him in the form of the bishop’s hand. The lot of the weak and the weary, the lot of the discouraged, the unsuccessful, and the sinner. But men are offended when someone appears to do God’s business and still is only a man. They want messengers who speak more brilliantly, heralds who preach more persuasively, hearts that burn with a hotter flame. They would gladly receive God’s representative, provided he always had the upper hand, had an answer for everything, and could handle every problem. But what is the terrible and happy truth? Those who come are weak men, who live in fear and trembling, men who themselves must pray over and over, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!” men who themselves must keep beating their breast, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!” And still they preach the faith that conquers the world and bring the grace that makes redeemed saints out of lost sinners. God sends men. …

The priest is a man, a messenger of God’s truth, dispenser of the divine mysteries, one who makes Christ's single sacrifice present again. What great good fortune! Of course, every man has his calling from God … But the reality of God, which for most men appears almost exclusively in the depths of their inmost conscience and in the silent secrecy of their private life; that reality, under the call of God to the priest, forces its way up out of the depths and floods every reach of his life. All of it must be consumed by God or pressed into His own glorious, but demanding service. This is the life of a priest: to dwell completely in the explicit nearness of God. A life at once happy and terrifying. Happy, because God alone is happiness; terrifying, because man finds it difficult to survive in the midst of this frightening splendor of God. No wonder that the high calling conceals within it the danger of the greatest falls—the danger that the priest will think that he does not need to be a man anymore, the danger of being unsympathetic towards others, …the danger of flight away from God into the more familiar company of men, the danger of the pitiful compromise of the attempt to meet the superhuman demands of the priestly life by cheap mediocrity. When someone dares to take up the happy and terrifying life of a priest; then the happy occasion can strike us speechless with fear, because here is the beginning of something that no human being can finish. But we comfort ourselves with the grace of God; not we, but that grace will finish what it has begun. For He who called the priest is true to His word, and His graces are given.

My friends, accept us as we are: the priest is not an angel sent from heaven. He is a man chosen from among men, a member of the Church, a Christian. Remaining a man and a Christian, he begins to speak to you the Word of God. This word is not his own. No, it comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s word. Perhaps, he has not entirely understood it himself. Perhaps he adulterates it. But, he believes, and despite his fears, he knows that he must communicate God’s word to you. For must not some one of us say something about God, about eternal life, about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being; must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgment and mercy of God? SO, MY DEAR FRIENDS, PRAY FOR US, carry us so that we might be able to sustain others by bringing to them the mystery of God’s Love revealed in Christ Jesus.

Be of good cheer and have a blessed week!

Msgr. Grous