In March of 2009 I was serving as the associate pastor of my community’s parish in Portland, Oregon. Our Holy Week liturgies were all bi-lingual, and I don’t speak Spanish, so my pastor offered me some time away from the parish, so that I could offer my services to a mission diocese that has an insufficient number of priests to serve the needs of its people.
I contacted the Diocese of Fairbanks, Alaska, which has only twelve diocesan priests, and about fifteen religious priests, serving approximately 18,000 Catholics spread across the northern half of our nation’s largest state. They gratefully accepted my offer, and asked me to serve St. Joseph’s Parish in Nome, Alaska for all of Holy Week.
Now I had a fabulous adventure, seeing a very different part of the country, and taking time to drive a dog sled, go snowmobiling, and eat moose stew and reindeer sausage. But the real purpose of my visit was also what most made the trip such a wonderful experience: each day I said Mass and heard Confessions; I presided and preached all the Triduum Liturgies; I visited the faithful who were imprisoned and hospitalized; and on Easter I performed several Baptisms.
Throughout the week, I was so moved by the deep hunger that the faithful in Nome had for the Sacraments of the Church, and for the presence of priests who could bring them the sacraments. People were so glad to have daily Mass and to have someone to hear their Confessions. Even the three Little Sisters of Jesus who live in Nome year-round were so grateful to have a priest amongst them, to bring them the Sacraments, and to compliment their own wonderful ministry of presence, prayer, and catechesis.
In our first reading, St. Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit stands in the Temple before all Israel and fearlessly proclaims that Jesus the crucified is indeed the Messiah and Christ. And rather than scold or admonish the people for having put Jesus to death, Peter calls them to repentance, encourages them to “save themselves from this corrupt generation,” and gives them hope, by promising: “you will receive the Holy Spirit, for the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off whomever the Lord calls.”
And in today’s Gospel, Jesus describes Himself as a shepherd, and as the sheep-gate through which the sheep pass in order to find the rich pasture of eternal life. In the very last line of tonight’s Gospel, Jesus sums up His whole mission by proclaiming: “I came so that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”
Friends, this is what the people in Nome, Alaska were longing for and why they were so grateful to have a priest to serve them. They did not need or want to have Stephen Koeth visit them for a week of vacation – and they did not need a fundraiser, or a manager, or a trained counselor.
They needed and wanted a priest to confirm them in the faith that Peter boldly professed in the Acts of the Apostles. They needed and wanted a priest to nourish them with the Eucharist and to cleanse them from sin in Baptism and Reconciliation. They needed and wanted a priest to be in the very person of Jesus Christ, to serve them as He did, and to continue His mission in their lives so that they too might come to have life, and have it to the full.
Each year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter we hear a section of the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel, in which Jesus uses these pastoral analogies to describe His mission. Therefore the Fourth Sunday of Easter is referred to as Good Shepherd Sunday.
It also therefore marks World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood, because we recall today that God has promised, through the Prophet Jeremiah, to always provide His people with shepherds after His own heart. We pray in a special way, this day, that the Good Shepherd may send all of us, the priests we need and want to shepherd, guide, and serve the Church.
Not long after the Second Vatican Council, the great theologian, Karl Rahner asked: “Why would a modern man want to become or to remain a priest today?” In one way or another, this is the central question that people ask me about my own vocation to the priesthood.
And though I can give all sorts of answers from my own vocation story, I think that Rahner’s answer is simple and direct, yet profound. He said: “the deepest and most enduring reason why a man wants to become and remain a priest is the person of Jesus Christ … If our love for Jesus Christ is truly genuine, then there must stir within us the desire to be like Him. As St. Augustine said, the essence of religion is to imitate Him whom we adore, because to love, is to be like.”
To be a priest is therefore to be a shepherd in the model of Jesus Christ – to defend the people of God from the attacks of the Evil One, to offer prayer and intercede with God on the people’s behalf, to lead the people of God to the rich pasture of everlasting life, to bring them the fullness of life and joy.
But in order to do that – in order to truly be a shepherd like Jesus, the priest must also be a lamb of sacrifice, just like Christ – laying down his life in sacrifice for the bride, the spouse, whom he loves: the Church. Unfortunately, as a society we don’t like to think or talk much about sacrifice. The very word seems somehow dirty or unhealthy.
We would much rather think that fortune, success, and self-fulfillment are the highest ideals of life and the source of our greatest happiness. Perhaps that is why parents and grandparents are less likely than in days gone by to suggest to their sons, grandsons, and nephews that they might be called to be priests. We are, all of us, very much aware of the sacrifices that are involved in priestly life and maybe we would like to spare our children from demands that seem too onerous.
Indeed, since I entered formation for priesthood nearly twelve years ago, I’ve had the chance to talk with and mentor many young men who were also discerning a vocation to the priesthood – and one of the most common struggles these men have faced is that their families often fail to support their discernment because they cannot imagine that their son or brother could ever truly be happy as a priest.
So, then, allow me to be abundantly clear: the life of a priest, even with the sacrifices it demands, is a life of tremendous joy because it is a life lived in the person of Jesus Christ, who came to bring us life to the full!
I can’t begin to tell you what a wonderful gift the priesthood is and how much joy comes along with whatever sacrifices we may be required to make. In that regard, as in so many others, it’s really not all that dissimilar from the vocation to marriage – and it is definitely the witness of loving and faithful parents that is so crucial in nurturing the vocations of holy priests.
Aware as I am of my own weakness, I find it really humbling to be a priest, and even to speak of the priesthood in this way – but my week of ministry in Nome and so many other experiences over the last four years, have convinced me of the amazing need and desire that people have for good and holy priests.
And so that is reason enough to feel absolutely compelled to speak of the dignity of the priesthood, and the joy of the priesthood, precisely so that more of you young men will listen for and answer God’s call in your lives …
... So that all of us may never take for granted the fact that the Church here is so abundantly blessed with priests and religious – and that we will pray for vocations to the priesthood . . .
... And so that all of us, and especially all parents, will have the courage and wisdom to ask their sons, and the young men of our parish who you think exhibit the qualities that you most admire in priests: “have ever thought of being a priest – you’d make a good one, and here’s why” …
... And to do all of this in hopes that the people of God may always have the service of the holy priests that they need and want in order to experience the Lord who brings us life, life to the full.
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