Mass at Theological College

Title: Mass at Theological College

Date: March 14, 1988 - Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Readings: Isaiah 65:17-21 / Psalm 30:2,4,5-6,11-13 / John 4:43-54

I recall when I was a seminarian here how funny I used to think it was when men would come back after only a year or two as priests and speak as if they knew all the ropes. Well, I tell you, I do not know them, indeed, sometimes I get tangled up inside of them. I must be honest with you, being a priest has been harder than I thought it would be. Nothing, I mean that, nothing comes easy. If you think things are hard now, just wait. I tell you this not to discourage you but to warn you to be prepared. Right now many of you might view homilies and the celebration of the Mass as the most stressful; but I have not found that to ultimately the case. It is everything else.

It is only when you deal with your people that the real struggles begin. You find yourself trying to discern how close to get to people, when to love and when not to love too much, when to challenge and when to wait for the storm to pass. You don't always set up the right boundaries and you make mistakes. You find that it is 10:30 at night and you are still doing parish work. You begin to let things eat away at your day off. When you do take time out for yourself, you feel guilty.

Some of the things I thought might be a lot of fun are often a great deal of work. Take marriage preparation for instance. I used to think only a few might be living a life that the Church would not be happy about. I exaggerate only a little bit when I tell you that they are all living together. And what's worse, once you get them married, they don't want to live together anymore. I also do baptismal preparation, I have never even seen these people before. Many of them have not been in a church since their marriage, and that is if they were married in the Church. You cannot presume anything. Many people quite literally see the sacrament as a form of magic. And even though I am very conservative, as half of you probably well recall, I still very much believe that these parents must have the faith alive in their hearts if the grace of baptism is to ever have a chance of growing in their children. I often admonish them that there are a lot of strange cults and philosophies out there after their children. There is no guarantee that even if we do all the right things for the children that they will not stray away for awhile. However, if we give them a firm foundation now then they will have a home to which to come back after facing the storm of life. But, as I said before, you have to start at the beginning, even for adults. People are so ill prepared these days that even in Confession you can't often give a few simple prayers to say because they do not know them. The Hail Mary and The Act of Contrition which are rudimentary prayers for us might be unknown to them. And then, you have to help them to learn to pray and talk to God in their hearts. People don't even understand the formal prayers of the Church which we use at worship. Take the term Paschal Mystery. Death and Cross they understand. Paschal Mystery, what is that? Although I know that we were all taught that there is a difference between a homily which is a proclamation and catechetical teaching, more and more I am having to offer instruction in my homilies as well. People just do not understand what is being said otherwise.

There is so much to do. Alone you and I are unable to do it. The job ahead of us is so immense that we are going to need all the help we can get. We need it from other priests, deacons, religious, and the lay people -- especially the lay people.

There may not be much knowledge of the teachings of the Church; however, I do not want to give the impression that there is a shortage of faith. It is there. But, it is starving to be nurtured and informed. In our Gospel today a royal official, who probably knew very little about this Jesus, besides his being a loving and caring man, goes to him and asks for him to heal his son. Jesus does something which he also does elsewhere in the Scriptures, he heals from afar. Remember the case of the soldier, in that story too, there was faith that Jesus could bring healing. After the miracle, we are told that the entire household became believers. That is how things are today. There is faith out there, but these people need desperately to see God's love, care, and healing in us. One of the greatest burdens I have felt is from the responsibility of just being as a priest, a special living symbol of Christ in the community. Because of this, we cannot be so judgmental of people that we slam our fists on the pulpits and condemn people who are in the plight of serious weakness and/or sin. Even in seminary I came to the understanding that things would not always be black and white. The trouble is that they are not necessarily grey either. The people we serve represent a whole mosaic of patterns which are largely undecipherable. In my parish we have a homosexual couple for instance. In they eyes of God and the Church, I really believe that their relationship is wrong. But, here is the irony. They come to the church every day. They pray. They believe. What do you say to them? What do you say and do in all the cases I mentioned this evening? Sometimes you will be unsure. However, I would urge you to be like the figure in our Gospel today who "put his trust in the word Jesus spoke to him." First and foremost, the Word has to live in us. We cannot allow ourselves to get into the way of the ministry which Christ wants to perform in us. Sometimes it will be easy; often it will be difficult. But never should our eyes turn away from Christ or his Church.

I crammed so much of my work here in seminary that there is little I remember. Nevertheless, one thing which I do recall is from Rahner. He said that before we do anything else we need to be humble. We are nothing without God. And yet, in God, nothing is impossible.