by Msgr. Rey Manuel Monsanto
I. ON THE PARTICIPATING PRIESTS:
-Touching to see so many priests – secular and religious – gathered together to reflect together for two days (June 9-10) before the official closure of the year-long celebration to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the pious death of ST. JOHN MARIE VIANNEY, THE HOLY CURE D’ARS, who was proclaimed the PATRON OF ALL THE PRIESTS.
-The number of participants went beyond the expectation. Thus, the kits were not sufficient, more had to be added: many did not have the very simple official logo of the gathering anymore; and instead of just having one venue, there were two: 1) the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls (which was originally the only venue; we were in this basilica since the English-speaking groups were here, although the talks were still not in English); 2) the Basilica of St. Mary Major. And the number even became greater (15,000 according to reported estimate) during the final Mass (June 11) at St. Peter’s Square in front of the Basilica of St. Peter.
II. THE ACTIVITIES OF THE TWO-DAY ENCOUNTER (JUNE 9-10) AND THE FINAL MASS ON THE THIRD DAY (JUNE 11):
- THE ACTIVITIES CONSISTED MAINLY OF:
• Reflections on the meaning of and challenges to the priesthood in the light of present circumstances:
■ “Conversion and Mission”
■ “The Cenacle: Invocation of the Holy Spirit with Mary, in Fraternal Communion”
• Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction
• Celebration of the Eucharist
• Confessions
• On the second night there was the encounter with the Holy Father at the Piazza di San Pietro. Some priests coming from different continents of the worlds asked questions which the Holy Father answered.
• The afternoons were free. The Opera Romana that took care of the running of the encounter offered paid tours to religious places around Rome. (We, the Cagayan group, had our own organized tour, most notably the tour of the Vatican Museum and the Basilica of St. Peter including the visit to the tombs of St. Peter and of the Popes.)
IMPRESSIONS:
• It was really moving to see how the priests, despite the inconvenience of language and not so clear sound system, tried to follow the talks and activities in respectful silence. The attendance in reflective spirit and silence was just impressive. And the long lines for confessions very touching. The priests were even at St. Peter’s Square for that evening with the Holy Father. In short, priests were there to reflect!
III. THE FINAL MASS ON THE THIRD DAY (JUNE 11 – SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART):
-This was the time when according to estimate there were approximately 15,000 priests concelebrating with the Holy Father for an outdoor Mass at the Piazza. That was because many priests who were in Rome even if they did not join the two-day encounter joined the concelebration. Because the sun was really shining, the priests, while dutifully following the Mass in Latin, used all their ingenuity to cover themselves from the hot and biting rays of the sun. Vatican gave out bottles of water to the priests during the Mass. It was for me sort of a minor miracle that nobody collapsed because of the heat. The Mass that began at 9:00 a.m. finished at noontime.
CLOSING HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER:
The Mass presided by the Holy Father to formally put a closure to the yearlong celebration was: MASS FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE SACRED HEART
a. It is to be remembered that he also formally opened the special year for priests on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart last year (2009): intentionally to put the Sacred Heart of Jesus as the source and summit of the holiness of the priest as St. John Vianney made it in his own quest for sanctity. Thus, the theme of the celebration: “FAITHFULNESS OF CHRIST, FAITHFULNESS OF PRIESTS”. The wounded yet perseveringly and lovingly faithful Heart of Jesus to do the will of the Father for the salvation of humanity whatever it costs should be the pattern for the heart of a priest in his own journey to obey the Father in shepherding the faithful. St. John Vianney offered everything he was and had in imitating the Sacred Heart.
b. Thus the homily of the Holy Father (which I can term the summation of the reflections of the whole year and of the reflections during the encounter) was focused on two points: 1) St. John Vianney and the Priesthood; and, 2) what I term, the “Shepherd’s Heart of Jesus”.
i. The first part of the homily was more a meditation with the life of Vianney in mind:
1. “We have to let the Cure of Ars guide us to a renewed application of the grandeur and beauty of the priestly ministry. The priest is not a mere office-holder… he does something which no human being can do of his own power.”
a. “In Christ’s name he speaks the words which absolve us of our sins…”
b. “Over the offerings of bread and wine he speaks Christ’s words of thanksgiving, which are words of transubstantiation.”
2. “The priesthood… is not simply ‘office’ but sacrament: God makes us poor men in order to be, through us, present to all men and women, and to act on their behalf.”
“…this audacity of God is the true grandeur concealed in the word ‘priesthood’… this is what we wanted to reflect upon and appreciate anew over the course of the past year”.
3. “…God is indeed waiting for us to say “yes”. (then his short exhortation to pray for more vocations)
4. Then his thoughts turned to the “sex scandals” of today. Here I would like to quote his words to show the perspective of these sad events, the pains the Church experiences and what we have to do about them.
a. The Perspective:
“It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the “enemy”; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.
b. The Sorrow and Contrition:
“We… insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again…” (Here I think of the promise of the Holy Father that the sins or “crimes” of the priests will have to be seriously dealt with. Thus, the Pope came out with instructions on even imposing the heaviest canonical penalty of dismissal from the priesthood on three grounds; and very recently revised and updated the canonical rules on the so-called “de graviorbus delicitis”, especially on child abuse.)
c. The Actions to be Taken:
“in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along the journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.” (Here I remember the instruction on admitting to the seminary and to ordination those with very strong inclinations to active homosexuality. And the helps now for priests, like the CBCP’s “Assist Program”.)
d. The Humble Reflection:
“Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in “earthen vessels” which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world.”
e. The Call:
“So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of the liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be priests: ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt. 11:29)
ii. The second part of the homily (which I will just briefly touch) focused on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and its connection with the priesthood:
“The liturgy interprets for us the language of Jesus’ heart, which tells us above all that God is the shepherd of mankind, and so it reveals to us Jesus’ priesthood, which is rooted deep within his heart, so too it shows us the perennial foundation and the effective criterion of all priestly ministry, which must always be anchored in the heart of Jesus and lived out from that starting-point.”
Then, the Holy Father meditated on some salient points the Psalm of the Mass: Psalm 23: “The Lord is My Shepherd”, always referring the points to the meaning and challenges of our priesthood.
1. “The Lord is my shepherd.”
“God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share his concern about people… take care of them and provide them with a concrete evidence of God’s concern.”
2. “He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.”
“By walking with Christ, we experience the joy of Revelation, and as priests we need to communicate to others our own joy at the fact that we have been shown the right way of life.”
3. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me.”
“Help us priests, so that we can remain beside the persons entrusted to us in these dark nights, so that we can show them your own light.”
4. “Your rod and your staff – they comfort me.”
“Today we can see that it has nothing to do with love when conduct unworthy of the priestly life is tolerated. Nor does it have to do with love if heresy is allowed to spread and the faith twisted and chipped away… once again (the need for) the shepherd’s staff – a staff which helps men and women to tread difficult paths and follow the Lord.”
5. “You set a table before me… You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
“How can we not rejoice at the fact that he has enabled us to set God’s table for men and women, to give them his Body and Blood, to offer them the precious gift of his very presence?
iii. Concluding Reflection of the Holy Father:
The Holy Father ended his homily saying that we, priests, like any other Christian and even more than the others, should be the “wellspring”, “sources” of life:
“Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (cf. Jn 7:37ff). In faith we drink, so to speak, of the living water of God’s Word. In this way the believer himself becomes a wellspring which gives living water to the parched earth of history. We see this in the saints. We see this in Mary, this great woman of faith and love who has become in every generation a wellspring of faith, love and life. Every Christian and every priest should become, starting from Christ, a wellspring which gives life to others. We ought to be offering life-giving water to a parched and thirsty world. Lord, we thank you because for our sake you opened your heart; because in your death and in your resurrection you became the source of life. Give us life, make us live from you as our source, and grant that we too may be sources, wellsprings capable of bestowing the water of life in our time. We thank you for the grace of the priestly ministry. Lord, bless us, and bless all those who in our time are thirsty and continue to seek. Amen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment