Dear Folks,
Our Gospel today is about the servants who were given talents and sent to invest them. It is
a reminder that to be a Christian is to see oneself as a servant of God, entrusted with
resources of various kinds
Here at St. Charles and St. Joseph – St. Mary, we are adjusting to having one priest instead
of two. The people at Our Lady of Consolation in Rockford are having a similar
adjustment. For years we had a full-time vocation director, but now he is also assigned to a
parish. There are still two slots that are empty, and priests are driving back and forth to fill
in temporarily. We have just received word that one of our colleagues is going on a leave
of absence. Things are tight. What comes next? If you look at our seminarian poster, we
see that if all the men currently in theology become priests (God willing), we can have nine
priestly ordinations in the next four years. According to my calculations, there are nine
priests currently running parishes who will turn seventy in that time and be eligible to retire
(go to senior status). How many will retire? Some have already shared their plans to do so,
but we shall have to see. We also have seven priests who are currently running parishes
who are already over seventy. How long will they continue? We shall see. In any case, the
priest situation promises to be interesting for the next several years.
Do I have your attention?
Whenever we are faced with a challenging situation, there are two questions that are worth
asking: “What is God trying to teach me here?” and “What sort of response is God calling
me to make?”
Our community, of course, can rejoice that a man who grew up here was recently ordained
a priest, and we have another man in theology. This does not mean that we can sit back,
however. The issue is larger than this.
There are two things that we can do: We can learn how to be a stronger Church with less
priest power, and we can be a Church that better nurtures vocations to the priesthood. When
people think of nurturing vocations to the priesthood, many start and end with cornering a
young man and saying, “Have you considered becoming a priest? You’d make a good
one.” (By the way, no one in church said that to me. I wasn’t really looking like priest
material when I was growing up.)
We should first recognize how many young people are not excited about Church in
general. If they are not excited about Church, why would they consider the priesthood, no
matter how much people suggest they consider it. If they believe that what priests do is
really important, really worth doing and makes a difference in the world. We can all
contribute to that. I believe the most important thing I can do in this regard is to be a
healthy, happy, effective priest who is living a life worth living. Everyone else can help by
treating as important the things that priests are about. The more a young man is surrounded
by adults, especially men, who are excited about the liturgy and most especially the
Eucharist, the more they can believe the priesthood is worth doing. The more they are
surrounded by adults, especially men, who are excited about learning more of the Catholic
faith, the more they can believe that priesthood is worth doing. The more they see adults,
especially men, who are zealous for the mission of the Church, the more they can believe
this is worth doing. The more they see men dedicated to growing in holiness, the more…
You see the pattern?
As we consider the talents that God has given us, and how He is calling us to invest them,
this is something we might keep in mind.
We are not helpless. We can build a glorious future.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim