By Father Rich Tomkosky
Picking up from last week’s column —
The Sorrowful Mysteries
This is where the rubber meets the road, the nitty gritty of the priesthood, especially in the parish priesthood in our time and culture and diocese.
The Agony in the Garden: You hopefully discover soon after you are ordained a priest a holy realism in God that the priesthood involves much suffering – and much of it of an interior type. The challenges of our time are numerous in regard to the faith.
In our Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which is mostly rural there isn’t currently a great overt outward hostility to the faith – not that I’ve experienced in various parishes, although the clergy sex abuse scandals, earlier in this century, have brought some of that on; but the main challenge here in many parishes, with many individuals, is a spiritual indifferentism or mediocrity that pervades the local ecclesial culture; and if you are a priest who is serious about the faith and the life of devotion, it will be a cause of great interior suffering: trying to patiently bear this Cross and not to become bitter or to give up on trying to bring people to a great love for the faith and the life of devotion – ultimately you hopefully see: that only the Lord can bring the Spiritual Fruit in His time and way.
The Scourging at the Pillar: Another aspect of sharing in this sorrowful mystery is that living the priesthood involves physical suffering: stress and age take their toll on your body as a priest, but in a noble way if united with Christ, as this suffering becomes a redemptive Cross to help save souls, as Our Lady of Fatima asks all to do daily and through meditating on and praying her 7 Sorrows Rosary.
The Crowning with Thorns: Being a priest today means being a sign of contradiction in our feel-good secular world, as Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen (Those Mysterious Priests) and St. John Paul II (Sign of Contradiction) pointed out back in the 1970’s. Pope Benedict in his famous work Introduction to Christianity in the late 60’s even compared the priest to a clown in a circus (who is seen as sadly amusing), or to a man running into town and telling the people a fire is coming which will destroy their town, and instead of heeding his true message of warning, the people laugh and mock him. How much more this non-religious mentality is true today. Again, as priests, and hopefully some future priests, we can’t be afraid to stand out for the Catholic vision of the purpose of life because remember some will be drawn to this truth by the Holy Spirit which Jesus promises in His Last Supper discourse in Saint John’s Gospel, even if we don’t always see these good fruits of conversion of souls. God’s ways are not our ways! We’re not to play a numbers game, but to be faithful to our charge from God.
The Carrying of the Cross: At various times the Cross of the priesthood can be heavy, but also sweet as there is nothing better than working for Jesus in the noblest mission of all: the salvation of souls! We must never forget Jesus will help us carry our priestly Cross, and our Lady and our favorite saints will be there as well to help us carry the load.
The Crucifixion: I will never forget the sage teaching of my late spiritual director, the Passionist Priest, Father Silvan Rouse, C.P., in Bedford at the Passionist House of Solitude – which sadly went by the wayside after he left in 2013. He was the holiest priest I have ever met, and I probably would not have become a priest if it wasn’t for his example and spiritual direction of me over 16 and half years. Father Silvan over and over again told me the priesthood is also a call to share in the victimhood of Christ. He bemoaned the fact that this is rarely taught in seminaries today, as we are all influenced by our feel-good culture. What he meant was: all the beautiful things we do as priests in preaching, and celebrating the Sacraments, and administering the Parish – all important for sure, but must be rooted in the interior participation the mystery of the Cross (the Mystical understanding of the Passion). We priests can’t forget to unite ourselves daily with Jesus ON HIS CROSS, hopefully suffering ever more faithfully over the years (through the natural ups and downs of the spiritual life) in union with Christ, all the trials and tribulations permitted and ordained by God in His Holy Providence, as well as taking on voluntary sacrifices for sinners – only then – will we ultimately fulfill our mission as ordained priests, to be both a priest and a victim with Jesus for souls. Father Silvan, pray for us current priests and future priests to live this truth as you did so well in your priesthood.
The Glorious Mysteries
Finally, once we receive and respond to our priestly call, and then get to work, and are willing to suffer with Jesus for the salvation of souls, the Lord is NEVER outdone in generosity. Jesus has Ascended into Heaven to prepare a place for his faithful followers and his faithful priests.
Jesus promises the Apostles, his first priests that He will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit (Pentecost) to give them strength and consolation and inner peace for their noble but difficult mission as His priests.
An essential aid for us priests is the company and intercession and motherly protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary (The Assumption and the Coronation). May we priests and future priests always stay close to her and strive to pray at least one set of the mysteries of her Rosary every day as well as consecrating our priesthood and life to her, as both Saint Louis de Montfort and Saint John Paul II recommend in the strongest terms. With our Lady’s help we will win the good fight as priests of her Divine Son and come to inherit the reward beyond imagining: in the Resurrection of our weak frail human nature.
After carrying this treasure of the priesthood in our earthen vessels during this life, we will be transformed and be welcomed at the end of our spiritual journey through this earthly vale of tears, hopefully as a priestly saint and if not quite yet then thru the reality of Purgatory to the place Jesus has prepared for us priests in Our Father’s house in Heaven, where eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it dawned on the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corth 2:9).
May God bless all the priests of the Church and inspire more priestly vocations, especially in our diocese, and may God bless all of the married and lay faithful for promoting and cherishing priestly vocations in our young guys instead of dissuading them. And someday may the Blessed Trinity welcome us all into the Heavenly Kingdom in company with our Blessed Mother Mary and all of the Angels and Saints. Amen. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
