Challenges to the Common and Ministerial Priesthood
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” These very powerful words, spoken by Jesus in our Gospel from Luke this (evening) morning remind us of something very, very important. If God calls us to be humble in the conduct of our faith, then at the heart of all faith is service, putting God and others first.
Service to God and others of course takes many forms. But to be successful in loving and serving our communities, the call to humility rather than exaltation means that we are called to give more than we get. We are called, as the Book of Sirach points out this morning, to answer God’s call to our brothers and sisters who need our help, regardless of their station in life.
In the almost 2000 years since Jesus gave Peter the authority to build his Church, many types of service and many types of service ministries have arisen. But there is only one ministry shared by everyone. You might be surprised to learn that that one shared ministry is priest.
Now you don’t have to take my word for it. In the Catholic faith we profess and try to practice, we are anointed as priests from the very moment of our baptism. Shortly after blessed water is poured on us, the priest or deacon anoints the baptized with sacred chrism and says the following words: “As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.”
The Dogmatic Constitution of the Catholic Church (Lumen Gentium,) comments as follows on our common ordination:
“Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men, made the new people “a kingdom of priests to God his Father. The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, that through all the works of Christian men (and women) they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the perfection of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
So the next time you are in touch with your non-Catholic friends, you might tell them that there are about a billion priests in the Catholic Church. Better yet, next time your favorite priest gets uppity, remind him that you are a priest too.
Why am I bothering with this line of thought? Because today is World Priests Day. Here we speak not of the billion or so common priests, but the much smaller number of ministerial priests in our Church. But we can never fully appreciate the meaning of World Priests Day, and serve our ordained fellow priests well unless we understand that as common priests we must be in loving solidarity with them. Lumen Gentium again notes: “Though they differ essentially and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are none the less ordered one to another: each in its own proper way shares in the one priesthood of Christ.”
American secular values in the last 40 years have sadly made their presence felt in our Church. As common priests, we have been generally unprepared for the effects of such values on the ministerial priesthood. For example from 1970 to the present, the total number of ministerial priests fell by 20,000, or about one-third of the total number of priests in that year. Yet while almost all Catholics say they are aware of fewer ministerial priests, only one in four reports that this has affected them.
The workload of the ministerial priesthood has also grown enormously. The one-third drop in ordained priests since 1970 has been accompanied by a more than 25 percent increase in the size of the Catholic population in the United States. Only one in twenty active diocesan priests is under the age of 35. According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, of the more than 19,000 Catholic parishes, a little over 4,000 have more than one priest. There are now in the United States 2,386 pastors serving multiple parishes, and 2,334 parishes without a pastor. This is a development touching 56% of American dioceses, and is expected to reach 60% by the year 2010. In addition, there are another 437 parishes entrusted to someone other than a priest, a condition well known to long-time parishioners here at St. Hubert’s.
Aside from demographics are quality of life issues for ministerial priests. The realities of fewer priests, the pressures and headaches of administration, and the just plain ordinary struggles that have always characterized the human side of the Church are not easy and are especially challenging today. More than 90% of diocesan priests are on call 24/7. Today most diocesan priests live alone, and life can indeed be lonely. The scandal in the ministerial priesthood concerning sexual abuse has reduced respect for priests in our society. This is true even though the vast majority of ordained priests love God and love others in faithful and inspirational ways.
So it is clear there are fewer priests today, particularly if we subtract out retired priests. And yet Mass is celebrated, the Eucharist is shared, and parish life goes on. Many don’t notice much change. Why? Because ministerial priests are remarkable people. They continue to respond generously to serve the common priesthood, often at a great personal cost and a sense that the job can be thankless. Priests can often feel like St. Paul in our second reading today from the second letter to Timothy; that they being poured out like a libation.
But like St. Paul in that reading, nearly all have kept the faith. Remarkably, in a survey conducted for the Los Angeles Times, only seven percent of priests in the United States would change their decision to become a ministerial priest if they had the chance. Many, many members of any Catholic parish, including this one, have stories to tell about how their lives have been changed for the better by a priest.
Ministerial priests baptize us and our children. They listen to and absolve our sins. They provide loving examples for us and our children. They provide counsel in times of trouble, and their wisdom at key moments of our lives often keeps us out of trouble. They marry us and marry our children. They inspire new vocations. They supervise social justice ministries that serve tens of millions in our parishes and communities.
And when our time on this earth is over, priests commend us to Our Lord and comfort those we have left behind. Ministerial priests, with the wonderful graces given to them by God through ordination to service to all of us, provide through the sacraments comprehensive, cradle-to grave life insurance for the soul. And they do not reject us for preexisting conditions or charge big premiums for their service.
In our own parish, our pastor Fr. Rick is an inspiration to all of us. For he not only touches us with his priestly and sacramental abilities. He has overcome great obstacles to be a loving priest to us all. He was the first hearing-impaired person to be ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of Seattle. He collaborates with many, many common priests in this parish, those in specialized ministries like usher, lector, acolyte, sacristan, and Eucharistic minister. He works with the Knights of Columbus, the Women of St. Hubert’s and Parish Outreach. He assists in religious education organization and classes, and adult education through the support of many prayer groups. He has welcomed a deacon from thousands of miles away in active collaboration in liturgy and parish service.
The challenge to us as common priests is to prayerfully and concretely consider what more we can do for our brother ministerial priests. We might consider digging deeper to contribute to the life of the parish through time, talent, and treasure. Perhaps there is a ministry we have been thinking about participating in that we could now join in an effort to help our pastor.
We also need to reach out to our pastor at a human level. Tomorrow (this) afternoon you are welcome to join Lois and I at our home for a reception in honor of Fr. Rick. Flyers with all the details were in the parish bulletin last week and are also on the table in the back of the church. If you cannot make it (tomorrow) this afternoon, you might send Fr. Rick a card telling him what he means to you. Tell the archbishop too. If you have not done so, introduce yourself to him and tell him how much you appreciate his ministry. Invite him to dinner. Have your kids color him a picture. Go out together on an outing.
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will attend to the big things of our Church. For us common priests, the challenge is to take care of the little things, particularly serving our ministerial priests with the same excellence and quality with which they serve us.