Some Thoughts For A Special Year - II
Poems
In my view one of the most interesting women in the last century was
Catherine Kolyschkine, the Baroness de Hueck, also known as Catherine
Doherty. She was a very fascinating convert to our Catholic Faith, and her
work involving the Madonna Homes and Friendship Homes in our country and
elsewhere, as well as in dozens of other enterprises and undertakings, makes
her already wonderfully stirring biography even more edifying to read. Her
deep and personal concern for the Catholic priesthood too can serve for fine
reading, especially as we draw to the conclusion of the Year for Priests
(Year of the Priest). She said, “I wish I could tell every priest that I
share his pain and joy, whatever it may be, because I love the priesthood so
passionately.”
One day many years ago, her husband Eddie Doherty came into her office where
she was typing and told her that he had received a communication asking
“What is a Catholic priest?” He asked what he should say to reply. Without a
word she picked up a pencil and wrote the following on a piece of scrap
paper. It seemed to Eddie at first to be something superficial, but, as time
went on, he, and many others, especially many priests, have treasured her
words:
“A priest is lover of God. A priest is lover of men. A priest is a holy man
because he walks before the face of the All-Holy. A priest understands all
things. A priest forgives all things. A priest encompasses all things. The
heart of a priest is pierced like Christ’s with a lance of love. The heart
of a priest is open, like Christ’s, for the whole world to walk through. The
heart of a priest is a vessel School of compassion. The heart of a priest is
a chalice of love. The heart of a priest is the trysting place of human and
divine love. A priest is a man whose goal is to be another Christ. A priest
is a man who lives to serve. A priest is a man who has crucified himself so
that he too may be lifted up and draw all things to Christ. A priest is a
man in love with God. A priest is a gift of God to man and of man to God. A
priest is a symbol of the Word made flesh. A priest is the naked sword of
God’s justice. A priest is the hand of God’s mercy. A priest is the
reflection of God’s love. Nothing can be greater in the world than a priest,
nothing but God Himself.”
Writing once to a seminarian about his future priesthood, she said, “You
will pray and heaven will listen, hell will tremble, and death will hear. At
your word a child of sin will become a child of God, a youth will become a
soldier of Christ, a sinner a saint. Hungry men will be filled and dying
ones sped homeward in peace. You will open your mouth and teach and the
fullness of truth will come out of it. The Word will take flesh again and
walk among men and many shall arise and follow Him.”
Bishop Grady
Bishop Thomas Grady, who died in 2002, as the retired Bishop of Orlando,
Florida, once wrote what he entitled “The Priest”: “Like Jonah by God’s will
spilled up on the shore from the belly of a whale to convert Nineveh, by the
providence of God the priest is spilled up from the bosom of the community
to preach the truth and call for repentance. Like Jonah he is an imperfect
messenger, a mere man with a message of infinite authority, to govern with
humility and gentleness, to walk with his fellow pilgrims on the journey of
life, feeding them with the divine and priceless food that looks like Bread
and Wine.”
“He is celibate and so he needs a friend like Jesus and a mother like Mary,
as well as the response and affirmation of the people he serves. At the
altar, conscious of his unworthiness, he stands in the Person of Christ, the
Head of the Mystical Body, gathering around him the great choirs of heaven,
the souls in purgatory, the people present and all the people of the world
with all their tears and cries, first leading and then joining them in their
worship, giving voice to all creation - to the silent mountains, the
restless sea, the elephants and mice, the flowers and birds, and all of
God’s creatures. By Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, he says Amen to the glory of God the Father. Chosen not
choosing, he is forged a priest in the infinite fires of the Holy Spirit, an
ordinary man, walking ordinary streets among ordinary people, but always
remembering and always strengthened by the call he has heard” Come follow
Me.”
From the Pope
Earlier in this month of May, Pope Benedict XVI, speaking to lay people
said, “Dear friends, be conscious of the great gift that priests are for the
Church and for the world. Through their ministry the Lord continues saving
men, making Himself present, sanctifying. Know how to thank God, and, above
all, be close to your priests with your prayer and your support, especially
in difficulties, so that they will be increasingly shepherds according to
the Heart of God.” The Pope reiterates what the Second Vatican Council said
was the threefold mission of every priest: to teach, to sanctify, and to
govern.
Speaking of the priest’s mission to sanctify, the Holy Father notes, “To
sanctify a man means to put him in contact with God, Who is absolute Truth,
Love, Beauty, Pure Light. No man on his own, by his own strength, can put
another in contact with God. An essential part of the grace of the
priesthood is the gift, the task to create this contact. This is done in the
proclamation of the word of God, in which He comes to meet us. It is done in
a particularly profound way in the sacraments. Immersion in the paschal
mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ happens in Baptism, is
reinforced in Confirmation and Reconciliation, and is nourished in the
Eucharist, the sacrament that builds up the Church as the People of God, the
Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit.”
“It is Christ Himself Who can and does make us saints. But, in an act of His
infinite mercy, He calls some to be with Him in this work (Mark 3:14), and
to become, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, participants in His one
priesthood, to become ministers of sanctification, dispensers of His
mysteries, bridges of the encounter with Him, and sharers in His one and
only mediation between God and men and between men and God ( 1 Timothy
2:5).”
Archbishop Fulton Sheen observed, “Jesus knew the extent of His Father’s
power, but He was also one with His Father’s divine plan to sanctify men by
human means. In the prolongation of His incarnation, He uses priests as His
instruments. Though He could reap the harvest without men, He will not.”