It is often said that behind every great man, there always is a great woman. This certainly has come true in Jesus and our Blessed Lady. Just like a mother is always crucial for the kind of person a child becomes, Mary is vital for the kind of priest a man becomes. As we continue to reflect on a “Year with Mary, our Mother” as a Diocese that Bishop Tobin, it is fitting to ask: what can she teach priests?
She teaches the newly ordained priest that trusting in God’s plan is rational. Mary clearly did not know the ins and outs of what she gave her fiat to, yet in hindsight, who would say she had made a mistake? She put her hands in God’s hands and simply let Him lead her. As a result of that choice, she is referred to today as the “highest honor of our race, the Mediatrix, and Co-Redemptoris of our salvation.” No small feats! In just the same way, if the newly ordained priest embraces his ministry with deep devotion, intense love, and unwavering trust, he has nothing to fear; God may accomplish unutterable feats through him. Deep down, everyone has a natural desire to accomplish something magnificent, and extraordinary with his life. Our Blessed Lady shows us that this is possible when we accept God’s plan and follow it intensely.
Mary teaches the priest how to be a father to her children. We learn from her how to accompany, serve, know and love the children she already knows and loves. Just as biological fathers learn how best to treat their children from their wives, Mary teaches the priest how to minister to people as their spiritual father. It is beautiful to observe how Mary dealt with Jesus when she found Jesus in the temple; she did not scold him; rather she said: “Son, why have you treated us this way” (Luke 2:48)? Her gentleness, motherly kindness, patience, and tolerance toward Jesus must have been a teaching moment for Joseph. We men don’t handle things that way. So, in dealing with the foibles and scruples of daily ministry, her abiding presence, “feminine touch”, inner sweetness are necessary if we are to be as fatherly, caring, gentle, and uplifting as possible in every situation. She teaches us that unassuming authority, asking questions, attentive listening go a long way. It is no surprise that the best and most effective priests around have a deep devotion to her.
She is the avatar of the beatitudes and a model for all priests striving to become “pastors of the Beatitudes”. As “the handmaid of the Lord”, she accepted to live only as God saw fit. The priest needs that in order to jettison every part of his ministry to God’s will. She stood beside Jesus not only in his hours of successes, but also in the hour of seeming defeat. The priest needs that grace to stand with all in festive moments as well as in trying times. As the immaculate virgin mother who kept her purity before, during, and after giving birth, the priest needs her burning charity in order not to waver in chastity. She embraced her vocation with clarity of purpose; the priest needs this model when the path of priestly ministry becomes steep. In Mary’s exemplary life, the priest finds everything he needs to be all for all. Oh! How I want her beside me in every person I meet, every soul I touch, every Mass I celebrate, and every homily I give!
When they fall away from grace, they are reconciled with God in the sacrament of penance through the hands of the priest. Called to found a family, the priest is there to receive and bless this unitive and procreative love. The priest stands by them in the best and worst periods of their lives—new life, fears, doubts, concerns, sadness, troubles, or celebrations. He coaches them about how to win the race and fix their eyes fixed on Jesus, the goal of human history, the focal point of the longings of history and of civilization, the center of the human race, the joy of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings (Gaudium Spes 45). Most importantly, behind the scene, in supplications, fasting, penances, study, hours on his knees, he prepares himself daily to live up to the lofty promises he made at ordination before God and his people. So, Out of gratitude and love the faithful come out in droves to celebrate and welcome the new priests as a way to tell them: “welcome them to our lives. We are glad you are here. Show us the way.” That’s what the ordination meant to me.
Do you want to understand who you are? Do you want to know your own story even before you live it? Do you want to see the human race in his beauty and ugliness and foibles, at his best and worst, acting like an angel today and behaving like a beast tomorrow? Then read scripture. There you will meet David — a man to whom God gives everything — pleasure, power, honor and wealth, yet he took a poor man’s wife and murdered him (2 Sam. 11-12:1-14). There you will learn the story of the Israelites — taken out of Egypt by God’s strong arm. Yet during 40 days without Moses to remind them of the word of God, they turned to idols (Ex. 32-34). There you will see what happens when people abuse their God-given power in the story of Naboth, Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kings 21). There you can meditate on the consequences of associating with those who cultivate no fear of God (1 Kings 11), discover the towering power of an unwavering faith in Susanna (Dan. 13), and ponder the depths of God’s mercy in the story of the prodigal son and the woman caught in adultery (Luke 15: 11-32; John 8:1-11). Scripture is our personal story. In it, we find ourselves.
Would you like a complete guide for the 3 fundamental relationships that form the basis of life — God, neighbor, and ourselves? Look no further than the Bible. It provides the wisest and most prudent way to act with the wealthy when you are poor, with the young when you are old, and with authorities when you are a subject. What should we look for in a spouse? What is the regiment for a blessed and fruitful marriage? We only have to read the Books of Sirach and Proverbs to find out. Who am I? What am I afraid of? What should one do to attain eternal bliss? Only scripture tells us. How does one win friends and influence people to the right course of actions? That’s in scripture too. It is no doubt that the Bible is a library. Everything is in there. Read it in family, and among friends; treasure it; memorize it. That’s the recipe for a happy life.
We forget easily. Interestingly, one of the most common phrases in the book of Deuteronomy is, “Remember O Israel, do not forget.” The human mind is darkened as a result of Original sin; our ability to remember God’s word is a perpetual struggle, and our desire to submit to it is weakened (cf. Rom. 7: 18-19). The remedy against this is to turn it into a habit. Constantly going back to scripture, analyzing it, mediating on it and contemplating allows it to sink in and become part of the very fabric of our inner being. Once it becomes ingrained in us, it starts becoming part of our thoughts, words, actions, habits and character. Character is our destiny; our destiny is heaven. Scripture tells us how to get there and the Church empowers us through the sacraments to help us on our journey.
He maintains that Luther had written 95 theses to show Christianity’s wretchedness, but today only one is necessary— honestly. When we juxtapose the way we are living the Christian life with the one preached in the New Testament, they almost have nothing in common. Official Christianity does not even dare to make clear the requirement of Jesus’ teachings in the new testament because that would bring to light how far removed the two are. We, Christians, live and love in the ordinary human way and so fail to live the extraordinary life that Christianity requires of us. Diognetus had written a letter to Christian in the third century. in it, he remarked that although are similar to other men by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, they are distinct by the way they lived. This is no longer true unfortunately. and the consequent is dire.
Today, that standard is lost because we’ve gotten too comfortable over the years. the world has re-conquered the low standard in which it was living before Christianity blossomed. They are winning big time and the powerful force that is Christianity is sleeping. Until we wake up, Kierkegaard’s voice will keep on echoing on our cathedrals, churches, chapels, seminaries, schools, and workplaces. Until then, his voice will continue to resound in our deepest conscience that this Christianity is too far removed from the one preached in the Bible.
Charity ennobles the act of the human person. Because he was acting in charity, even those who had no particular interest in the movement joined him. Charity moves the heart of others. So, because of his choice and vision and the principle of gratuity from which he acted, his dream of seeing black and white forming one community was realized. Had he chosen to do otherwise would his dream ever become true? Where would America be today? Would America ever rule the world? While we will never know, what we do know is that he will remain a model to follow for generations.
Hiding behind the Holy face of Christ was a mean to console those through whom Christ is suffering. First, through the Holy Face, she associates the suffering of her father, who was mentally ill, by extension all sufferings, to the passion of Christ. She thus received permission to add to her religious name ‘of the Holy face’. Thus, her complete name became “St. Therese of Lisieux of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face”. It was the mirror through which she conceived Christ.
Therese seems to intuit that method from God. After the Fall, God called Abraham, an unknown and powerless man to leave his country and move to an unknown land (Gen. 12), and made a great nation out of him. Out of all the powerful nations of the world, God chose a small and insignificant country for the savior of the world to be born; what’s more, while under the occupation of the most powerful nation on earth—Rome. In the midst of a wide world full of kingdoms with their mighty events and dramas, he devoted himself to little things, to individual men and women, and on “little people”. In a country where there were popular movements to overthrow the Romans, our Lord devoted many hours to one Samaritan woman, the one Nicodemus, the one Martha, the one Mary Magdalene, the one Lazarus, the one Simon Peter. That tells us the infinite value of the one (the little) is the key to the Christian understanding of the many (the great). God’s greatness is magnified more evidentially in small things.
Joebricereview 