Our monthly recollections must provide us with thoughts and reflections that spur us on to renewed fervor and generosity. One rich mine of such considerations is Pius Xl's Encyclical on the Catholic Priesthood (1935). All papal encyclicals are most valuable sources of sure doctrine and authoritative guidance; but this one is of paramount importance for us. If Pius XI could write, a little before his death, that he considered this encyclical as "the most important document of his Pontificate", we should treasure it up as a precious legacy, and revert now and then to its salutary lessons. Let us do so in this and in the next few recollections...
Today we shall dwell on the main idea of the whole encyclical, developed at length in its opening pages: the necessity of holiness in the priest because of his sublime dignity.
DIGNITY OF THE PRIESTHOOD
"Sic nos existimet homo ut ministros Christi et dispensatores mysteriorum Dei." These telling words of St Paul open for us an endless vista on the dignity of the priest. He is chosen by Christ to be His representative and instrument, to act in His name and by His power, to continue the work of His Redemption by administering the Sacraments which He has instituted, by bringing to individual souls the graces He merited for them on the Cross.
See the priest's power over the real Body of Christ: 'Hoc est corpus meum'; over Christ's Mystical Body: from the baptismal font to the 'In paradisum deducant te . . . ' in the pulpit, at the Communion-rails, and - most strikingly - in the confessional: "Ego te absolvo. . . ". Truly then the priest is an alter Christus !
And for this sublime mission the priest is set apart, consecrated by holy Church: that, in her name, he may give to God the supreme cult of adoration, praise and expiation, by the holy Sacrifice of the Mass and by assiduous participation in her liturgical prayer; that he may intercede with God for all her children, those yet outside her fold too, to obtain for them graces of salvation and sanctification...Truly, again, like Christ, a mediator between God and man!
* Such is the priest's dignity, such is my dignity. Do I live in the habitual consciousness of this?CORRESPONDING NEED OF HOLINESS
First, in a profound sense of gratitude and happiness. What greater gift, what nobler vocation could God have given me ?
Whenever I think of my priesthood, the "Magnificat" ought to well up from my heart; and it should be my answer to all temptations of discouragement, of weariness, of dissatisfaction.
Secondly, in a spirit of sincere humility. Pride may easily come to men of high position in the world; but to a priest, who has a sense of realities, his sublime elevation can only evoke proportionately deep feelings of humility. Let me never forget from what abyss of unworthiness God's mercy has raised me on high: "De stercore erigens pauperem."
Thirdly, in a never-relaxed solicitude to avoid in my conduct anything unworthy of so high a call: "Non inferamus crimen gloriae nostrae", and to spread, at all times and in all places, "the good odor of Christ" whose ambassador I am.
"So holy an office demands holiness of life in him who holds it." This is the theme which Pius XI develops and stresses as the obvious corollary of the dignity of the priesthood. Testimonies from Scripture, the Fathers, St Thomas, Canon Law and the Ritual, all echo God's injunction to the chosen tribe of Priests and Levites: "sancti estote".
Those ideas are familiar to us from the dawn of one's priesthood. They stimulated us to fervor then. Do they now? In the course of time have we not come to look upon them as a mere theoretical ideal, which no doubt still commands our assent but is now quite beyond the practical scope of our daily life? ...
Many causes may bring this about: discouragement at the difficulties of sustained fervor; the growing pressure of external works to the detriment of our interior life; contamination by the world's spirit of false freedom; a falling off in piety, which saps our loftier aspirations and sets us coldly calculating the extent of our strict obligations...
Whatever the cause, alas for the priest who loses sight of the holiness required of him and gets embedded in the rut of spiritual mediocrity! What an anomaly and a tragedy: he does not show forth the Christ whom he represents; he shares the sacerdotal powers of Christ but not the feelings of His Sacred Heart; the dispenser, the almoner, of God's graces, he himself is sadly deficient in them; a preacher of divine truths, by his life at variance with his teaching he "pulls down with one hand what he builds up with the other"; light of the world and salt of the earth by vocation, in reality no vivifying power radiates from his person, perhaps he is a deterrent rather than a help to the faith of his flock...
May such priests be stirred to renewed fervor: "Admoneo te ut resuscites gratiam Dei quae in te est per impositionem manuum... ""You are the salt of the earth":
* How do I stand in my desire and pursuit of holiness?
Am I sincerely bent upon it and striving earnestly after it, renewing my determination every night in my examen of conscience?
Do I pray every day, explicitly, for priestly holiness? And do I ask the laity to pray for all priest and religious?
Do I reflect seriously at times, in meditations and spiritual readings, on my strict obligation to tend to perfection?
Do I keep up courage and confidence, even in the midst of my weakness, by the intimate conviction of God's special graces for His chosen ones: "Fidelis Deus per quem vocati estis"?
Do I seek for holiness at its source, in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who so longs to communicate His sacerdotal sanctity to His priest: "I" (cf. John 17:6-19) ?
Woe to the salt if it become insipid. . .
"You are the light of the world. . .
So let your light shine that men...may glorify your Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 5:13-16)
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Adapted from Alter Christus, Meditations for Priests by F.X. L'Hoir, S.J. (1958)
Meditation 2.
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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood.
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