the priesthood at silver

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph which we cannot celebrate on the nineteenth, a Holy Wednesday. The feast of the saint to whom the whole church is placed under his protection is just too important to miss, so the church allows us to celebrate it on this day.

By sheer coincidence, a coincidence which happens every few hundred years, we celebrate an anniversary to the priesthood which falls exactly on this day, on the very day to which is transferred the feast of St. Joseph. For one who finds a reason for everything, one of whom is naturally the homilist, this is not just a stroke of luck but an ingenious God-given opportunity to reflect on the vocation and life of Joseph and the vocation and life of a priest.


What can you say then about St. Joseph who never said a word, who remained consistently at the background, and who was only mentioned several times in scriptures doing secondary roles with no speaking lines?

Perhaps, we can say nothing at all. And that is also exactly how I feel when I come up here in the pulpit to reflect about the priesthood. I can’t find anything worthwhile talking about. But perhaps this is exactly how and the way things should be in this anniversary celebrated on the feast of St. Joseph. We don’t have to “say” anything at all!

This is not an introduction to an upcoming excuse for not having prepared a homily. I am seriously considering the call of St. Joseph to what I would like to call "the ministry of the future". After all, 25 years in the ministry is not just taking stock of what was, but it is also taking stock of what will be in the days and years to come in our ministry.
I would like to propose two things.

First, probably the call of the future is for us priests to take our leave from center stage and move on to do secondary supporting roles.

Even when we were only starting to dream our priesthood in our seminary days we were already bombarded early on with methods of directing, controlling, judging, leading, ordering and managing. Our priesthood is even taught in terms of powers of the ordained and methods of governance. Even our role models were really good in commanding, instructing, supervising and presiding over. If we were told to listen back then, it was for the purpose of hearing well the never ending dictating. No wonder we ended up really good at this.

I am not in anyway proposing to relinquish the inherent duty of a priest. I am merely reflecting on a method of governing which we romantically but only theoretically refer to as "service".
Probably it’s time to leave the limelight and move on to the real empowerment of people. Probably it’s time to listen more and talk less. Probably it’s time to provide the spirit rather than provide the detailed instructions. Probably it is through inspiring and firing up with our lives rather than talking with our lips.

If the life of St. Joseph, proclaimed guardian of the Church is permitted to speak to our priesthood today, I believe it would lead us to these thoughts.

The second proposal is connected with the first – our vocation should recover once more its “hiddenness,” our instrumentality, our proper place in the scheme of things.

So many things we do in our life as priests are really directed to ourselves rather than to Jesus. Where do our conflicts come from? Looking at them more closely under the microscope, one will find that they are not really quarrels in our search for truth, but about egos, bloated egos – too self-serving egos. We have become too self-important even beyond our talents. All these because for many years we have called our life “the most sublime of all vocations”, fueled by stories that says: “when a seminarian walks up to the altar for his ordination, two angels would lead him, but when he leaves the altar after his ordination the two angels meekly, humbly follow behind.” These thoughts did not just remain in our hearts, they went up instead to our heads which bloated these up with really nothing but air.

St. Joseph, proclaimed guardian of the church teaches us differently – silent, humble, unassuming, lowly. Why, because Jesus has to shine through, and Jesus will, when we have begun building real monuments to God in the people rather than monuments of grandeur to our deluded selves.

There was once a holy priest who had worked so hard for God. One day God decided to reward him. So he sent an angel to the holy priest who said, “Because of your generosity and selflessness God decided to reward you. Ask God whatever you want and he will grant you your wish. Do you want the power to heal the sick, the angel asked.

But the holy priest answered, “Only God heals."

So the angel asked, “Do you want the power to convert even the most hardened of sinners?”
And the holy priest answered, "Only God can convert sinners."
But the angel insisted saying, “At least, you have to ask something!”
And so the holy priest replied, “If you insist, then I ask that goodness will flow through me without me knowing about it.”

And so it happened. Wherever his shadow fell the sick were healed, lands became productive, those who have problems were made stronger. The priest did not know, and he never came to know that all these goodness became possible through him. Even the people’s attention were all directed to his shadow and not to him.

His prayer was answered.

Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood. Today by providence we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph. St. Joseph has a lot to teach us about our priesthood. For one, I have already talked too much.