A
ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH
THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE PRIEST IN SANCTIFYING THE CHURCH
Address
by George Weigel in Charleston, South Carolina
CHARLESTON,
South Carolina, 17 May 2003 (ZENIT.org).
The
following is an address by George Weigel to a diocesan luncheon in Charleston,
South Carolina, following that local Church's Chrism Mass on April 15. His
topic was the importance of the priesthood in a reformed and renewed Church
today.
***
THE PRIEST: ICON OF CHRIST, ENABLER OF SANCTITY By George Weigel
By
teaching the truths of Catholic faith, by sanctifying his people through the
sacraments, and by governing justly that portion of God's people entrusted to
his pastoral authority, the Catholic priest enables men and women to become
saints to become the kind of people who can live with God forever.
For
some 16 months now, we have become accustomed to speaking in terms of a Church
in crisis. The crisis caused by clergy sexual abuse and episcopal misgovernance
is, in my judgment as a student of U.S. Catholic history, the greatest crisis
in the history of the Church in America. It is that because it touches truths
that are the very "constitution" of the Church, as that
"constitution" was given to us by Christ himself.
That
is why it is very important to remember that, in the thought world of the
Bible, the word "crisis" has two meanings. The first is the familiar
sense of the word: a "crisis" is a cataclysmic upheaval, a
breaking-up of what had seemed fixed and sure. And we have certainly experienced
"crisis" in that sense, these past 16 months. But the world of the
Bible also thinks of "crisis" as opportunity: a moment ripe with the
potential for deeper conversion. If crisis-as-cataclysm is to become
crisis-as-opportunity in the Catholic Church in America, then we must recognize
that, at the bottom of the bottom line, today's crisis is a crisis of
discipleship; a crisis of fidelity. And the only remedy for a crisis of
fidelity is ... fidelity.
Every
crisis in Catholic history is a crisis caused by an insufficiency of saints, by
a deficit in sanctity. Because sanctity is every Christian's baptismal
vocation, this dimension of the crisis touches all of us in the community of
the baptized. All of us have a responsibility for helping turn
crisis-as-cataclysm into crisis-as-opportunity. Exercising that responsibility
requires all of us, in whatever Christian state of life we live, to examine our
consciences and reflect on whether we are leading thoroughly, intentionally,
radically Christian lives of discipleship, staking all on the Lord, reminding
ourselves every day that it is his kingdom for whose coming we pray, and his
Church in which we serve.
The
Gospel scene of Jesus and Peter on the Lake of Galilee can help us here. When
Peter keeps his eyes fixed on the Lord, he can do what seems impossible, he can
walk on water. When he averts his gaze from Christ and begins looking elsewhere
for his security, he sinks. We, too, can do the seemingly impossible if we keep
our gaze fixed on Christ. When we look elsewhere, we sink. That is as true of
the Church as it is of individual Christians. And that is why sanctity is the
answer to today's Catholic crisis.
What
is sanctity? Sanctity is living in the truth living in the truth about the
human condition revealed by Christ. Living in that truth, we become the kind of
people who can live with God forever. That is why the Holy Father, speaking to
the cardinals of the United States just a year ago this week, said that today's
crisis grew out of a failure to live and teach the fullness of Catholic truth.
When we fail to teach the truth and live the truth, when we substitute what we
imagine to be our truths for what Christ has revealed as the truth, the way,
and the life, we do not live as the saints we are called to be—the saints
we must be, if we are to live forever, happily with God.
That,
in turn, means that there can be no reform of the Church without reference to
form. And the "form" of the Church is established by Christ, not by
us. The Church is Christ's, not ours. We do not create the Church; nor did our
Christian ancestors; nor do theologians, pastoral consultants, or even the
donors to the diocesan annual fund. The Church was, is, and always will be
created by Christ who rather underscored the point when he told his disciples, "You
did not choose me, but I chose you" [John 15:16].
On
the day of the Chrism Mass, it has been customary for centuries to reflect on
that distinctive part of the Christ-given form of the Church that is the
ministerial priesthood. And so permit me a few thoughts on priests and
priesthood.
As
wave after wave of clerical scandal broke over the Catholic Church in the
United States in the early months of 2002, it was frequently said, if not
always heard or reported, that there are tens of thousands of good and faithful
priests in America men who have kept the promises they solemnly swore on the
day of their ordination and are spending out their lives in service to Christ
and the Church. That is correct. To note this fact of Catholic life today is
not, as some have suggested, an evasion of hard truths that must be faced and
dealt with; at least it need not be an evasion.
The
fact of priestly fidelity is every bit as much part of the story of the
Catholic Church today as are the facts of clergy sexual abuse and episcopal
irresponsibility. The fidelity of so many priests is a great grace. It is also
a tremendous resource for the reform of the priesthood that is imperative if
today's crisis is to become an opportunity for genuinely Catholic reform. That reform cannot
mean turning the Catholic priesthood into an imitation of the various types of
ministry found in other Christian communities. The reform of the
Catholic priesthood cannot mean making Catholic priests more like Anglican,
Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregationalist, or Unitarian clergy. It
can only mean a reform in which Catholic priests become more intensely,
intentionally and manifestly Catholic.
While
clerical sexual misconduct has as many explanations as there are complex human
personalities, the fundamental reality of clerical sexual abuse is infidelity.
A man who truly believes himself to be what the Catholic Church
teaches—that a priest is a living icon, a re-presentation of the eternal
priesthood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God—does not behave as a sexual
predator. He cannot behave that way. Yes, he sins. Yes, he is an earthen vessel
holding a great supernatural treasure. He may give an uninspiring sermon. His
choice of music for Sunday Mass may be dreadful. He may be inept in some of his
counseling. But he does not use his office to seduce and sexually abuse minors.
Nor does he engage in any other form of sexual misconduct.
The
Catholic Church has long taught that what a priest is makes possible what he
does at the altar, in the confessional, in the pulpit, at the bedside of a
dying parishioner. In an ironic, even paradoxical way, the truth of that
teaching has been clarified by the scandal of clergy sexual abuse. If a man
does not believe that what he is, by virtue of his ordination, makes the
eternal priesthood of Christ present in the world, his desires may overwhelm
his personality and a life intended to be a radical gift of self can turn into
a perverse assertion of self, in which his priestly office becomes a tool of
seduction.
Priests
are made, not born. Although his discipleship must deepen during the course of
his ministry, a man must be a thoroughly converted Christian disciple before he
can be a priest. Discipleship is the prerequisite for priesthood. A Christian
disciple is someone whose life is formed by the conviction that, in looking on
the cross of Christ, one is looking at the central truth of human history:
God's love for the world, which was so great that God gave his son for its
redemption. Convinced of that, a man ordained a priest becomes another Christ,
an "alter Christus," another witness to the truth that God intends
for humanity a destiny beyond our imagining: eternal life within the light and
love of the Holy Trinity.
That
is why Pope John Paul II has insisted throughout his pontificate that the
priesthood is about service, not power; the ministerial priesthood fosters the
participation and collaboration of all the members of Christ's mystical body in
the life and work of the Church. To put it another way, the priest must be
convinced that the story the Church tells is not just the Church's story. It is
the world's story read in its true amplitude.
A
priest must believe that what Catholicism offers the world is not another
brand-name product in a supermarket of "spiritualities," but the
truth about itself, its origins and its destiny; not a truth that's true
"for Christians," or a truth that's true "for Catholics,"
but the truth. The Catholic priest who is a genuinely converted Christian fully
understands that truth in this world emerges from many sources, including other
Christian communities, other world religions, and the worlds of science and
culture. The genuinely converted Catholic priest also understands that all
those other truths tend toward the one Truth, who is the God and Father of
Jesus Christ. That is what he bears witness to the world.
By
his ordination and his vow of celibacy, the Catholic priest is set apart from
the world for the world's sake. In a culture like ours, his life is a sign of
contradiction to much of what the world imagines to be true. The priest is not
a contrarian, however. His being-different is not an end in itself, an
indulgence in idiosyncrasy. The priest is a sign of contradiction so that the
world can learn the truth about itself and can be converted. The radical
openness to serve others that should be manifest in a happy, holy priest's life
is a living lesson to the world that self-giving, not self-assertion, is the
royal road to human flourishing.
The
priest's obedience to the truths of faith, and the liberating power that
unleashes in him to be a man for others, reminds the world that truth binds and
frees at the same time. Lived in integrity, the priest's celibacy is a powerful
witness to the truth that there are things worth dying for including
dying-to-self for. The priest's renunciation of the good of marital communion
and the good of physical paternity is a reminder that those two things are, in
fact, good, and should make possible in him a genuine and generous spiritual
paternity.
By teaching the truths of Catholic faith, by sanctifying his people through the sacraments, and by governing justly that portion of God's people entrusted to his pastoral authority, the Catholic priest enables men and women to become saints to become the kind of people who can live with God forever.
All
of this is intended to prepare men and women for eternal life in perfect
communion with each other and with God. It is intended to make saints better,
to cooperate with God in God's making of saints. That is what a Catholic priest
is for. That is why and how the ordained priesthood lifts up and ennobles the
priestly people of God. And that is why a Catholic priest must understand
himself to be what he is: a living icon of the eternal priesthood of Christ and
order his life, in all its facets, according to that awesome truth.
More
than six decades ago, Father Karl Rahner, one of the theological architects of
the Second Vatican Council, addressed a gathering of priests on the day they
renewed their vows to Christ and the Church. Father Rahner's words are as
appropriate today as they were then.
Here
they are, in a slight paraphrase, as if he, a fellow priest, were addressing
you, priests who have today renewed the vows of your ordination day; as if he,
through his fellow-priests, were addressing all of us, calling us to support
these brothers ordained to the service of the Church:
"Dear
Fathers: This renewal of our ordination is God's work in you. ... The Spirit
which was poured out on you on the day of your ordination is here with you, in
this hour of the renewal of your ordination. He wants to give himself even more
intimately to you, wants to fill all the hidden chambers of your hearts, wants
to live the whole extent of your life.
"This
is the Spirit of the Father and the Son: the Spirit of rebirth and the divine
sonship of men; the Spirit who is also Lord of this age; the Spirit who
transforms the world into a great sacrifice of praise to the Father, just as
you by his power change bread and wine into the body and blood of the one holy
victim; this is the Spirit of witness to Christ, the Spirit who convicts the
world of sin, justice and judgment; the Spirit of strength and comfort; the
Spirit who pours the love of God into your hearts and who is the pledge and
first fruits of eternal life; the Spirit who awakens new life out of sin and
darkness, and who includes even sin in his mercifulness; the Spirit whose gifts
are love, joy, peace, patience, mildness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and chastity; the Spirit of freedom and of courageous confidence; the Spirit
who changes everything and leads everything into death, because he is the
infinity of life and can never rest in the frozen form of a finite life that is
not going to advance any further; the Spirit who, amidst change and decay,
remains eternally and restfully the same; the Spirit of the priesthood of Jesus
Christ, who transforms the helpless words of human preaching into the word and
act of God; the Spirit who lets forgiveness on earth become reconciliation in
heaven; the Spirit who turns your acts into Christ's sacraments.
"This
Spirit is the spirit of your ordination day; this same Spirit is the spirit of
the renewal of your vows and your priesthood. If you allow him to come fully
into your life, everything that you are, and do and suffer will be consecrated
into a priestly life. For this same Spirit saw and loved everything on the day
of your ordination; therefore, nothing can withstand the transforming fire of
the Spirit's love in your life, if only you give it room, if only you say: Do
You, O God, ordain me anew today."
In
the mid-'30s, as totalitarian shadows lengthened across Europe, Pope Pius XI
memorably said, "Let us thank God that he makes us live among the present
problems. It is no longer permitted to anyone to be mediocre." That
saying, a favorite of Dorothy Day, might also be our watchword in the months
and years ahead, as we work together in the great cause of authentic Catholic
reform. Catholic Lite is Catholic mediocrity. Rediscovering and embracing the
adventure of orthodoxy, the high adventure of Christian fidelity is the path
from crisis to authentically Catholic reform.
We
all fail, sometimes grievously. That is no reason to lower the bar of
expectation. We seek forgiveness and reconciliation, and try again. Lowering
the bar of spiritual and moral expectation demeans the faith and demeans us.
Catholics today are capable of spiritual and moral grandeur, and indeed want to
be called to that greatness. That is what Vatican II meant by the
"universal call to holiness," and that is what is available to all of
us in the Church, whatever missteps the institution of the Church makes.
Sanctity
is available. And sanctity is what will transform crisis-as-cataclysm into
crisis-as-opportunity. In the universal call to holiness, and in the generous
response to it that can be forthcoming, lies the future of genuinely Catholic
reform. So, once again: "Let us thank God that he makes us live among the
present problems. It is no longer permitted to anyone to be mediocre." ZE03051702
This
article has been selected from the ZENIT Daily Dispatch
©
Innovative Media, Inc.
ZENIT
International News Agency
Via
della Stazione di Ottavia, 95
00165
Rome, Italy
www.zenit.org