The Priest at Prayer, June 20

The Priestly Ministry

Preaching

First Meditation - Aim and Scope of Preaching

I. The excellence of this ministerial duty is shown by the fact that the Apostles renounced corporal works of mercy when these became a hindrance to their task of evangelisation:

"It is too much that we should have to forgo preaching God's word, and bestow our care upon tables." (Acts vi, 2)

And ,the sacred Council of Trent considers preaching the chief office of bishops: praecipuum Episcoporum munus (Sess. V. de Reformat., c. 2).

The Church deems it so essential to the priesthood that, in Christ's Name, She says to the newly-ordained: "Receive the Holy Ghost. Teach all nations. A priest must needs preach."

Do I possess an abiding conviction of the greatness of this mission? And do I consider it an essential and a very personal one?

II. What truths have I to announce to the world? Verbum Dei - the eternal and august teaching of the Word of God; the treasures of the Divine Mind hidden since the world began - a constitutione mundi - so profoundly enshrined within the Divine Essence, so beyond the reach of any created intelligence, that the very Hierarchies of Heaven had to learn them from the Church to whose loyal breast her Bridegroom entrusted them:

"The principalities and powers of heaven are to see, now, made manifest in the Church, the subtlety of God's wisdom." (Eph. iii, 10)

Like the Angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem, we are the divinely commissioned messengers whose task it is to scatter over the face of the earth and to instill into every ear and heart the sole Good News, the Gospel of great joy.

Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. (Luke ii, 10.)

A messenger of good news has a right to a reward;­ what reward might we not expect to receive from mankind to whom we are "Angels" sent by God on the ambassadorship of eternal joy?

III. What should be the purpose of our preaching? The mere enlightening of the intellect or the burdening of the memory? The infiltrating of culture down to the lowest social stratum? No; the guiding of souls to their eternal destiny, the Sovereign Good.

"Rid yourselves of all defilement, of all ill-will that remains in you; be patient, and cherish the word implanted in you which can bring salvation to your souls.

Only you must be honest with yourselves; you are to live by the word, not content merely to listen to it." (James i, 21-22)

The God of all Wisdom and Power was pleased to harness the eternal salvation of redeemed mankind to our priestly teaching:

"and now God would use a foolish thing, our preaching, to save those who will believe in it." (1 Cor. i, 21)

Creator and Saviour of souls! To think that Thou hast staked their everlasting happiness and the infinite price of their ransom on sounds articulated by my lips, on the fleeting words of man - and a man like me!

Resolutions
1. I shall greatly esteem this power which God has placed in my poor words: the power to penetrate con­sciences, to illumine and move them towards good, and to keep them on the road to heaven; for this is the loftiest use of human speech.

Never is the tongue of man put to higher service: neither when it arouses whole nations to give their blood in the service of home and country, nor when it enters into subtle disquisitions about the essence and deepest causes of things and their mutual relationships, nor when it in­ebriates the senses with torrential harmonies.

God was pleased to use a foolish thing, our preaching, to save those who are willing to believe in it.

2. This shall be my first thought when preparing to preach, even the most rudimentary exhortation to little children.

What unction and gravity this simple idea would communicate to my priestly word!
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!