Take the Long Way Home

This is an exerpt from a question and answer session between Pope Benedict XVI and some priests.  It’s just one example of why I love this guy!  If only all the parish priests and bishops in America were listening to him…

I am Fr Mauro. Your Holiness, in exercising our pastoral ministry we are increasingly burdened by many duties. Our tasks in the management and administration of parishes, pastoral organization and assistance to people in difficulty are piling up. I ask you, what are the priorities we should aim for in our ministry as priests and parish priests to avoid fragmentation on the one hand and on the other, dispersion? Thank you.

Benedict XVI: That is a very realistic question, is it not? I am also somewhat familiar with this problem, with all the daily procedures, with all the necessary audiences, with all that there is to do. Yet, it is necessary to determine the right priorities and not to forget the essential: the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. On hearing your question, I remembered the Gospel of two weeks ago on the mission of the 70 disciples. For this first important mission which Jesus had them undertake, the Lord gave them three orders which on the whole I think express the great priorities in the work of a disciple of Christ, a priest, in our day too. The three imperatives are: to pray, to provide care, to preach. I think we should find the balance between these three basic imperatives and keep them ever present as the heart of our work. Prayer: which is to say, without a personal relationship with God nothing else can function, for we cannot truly bring God, the divine reality or true human life to people unless we ourselves live them in a deep, true relationship of friendship with God in Jesus Christ. Hence, the daily celebration of the Holy Eucharist is a fundamental encounter where the Lord speaks to me and I speak to the Lord who gives himself through my hands. Without the prayer of the Hours, in which we join in the great prayer of the entire People of God beginning with the Psalms of the ancient people who are renewed in the faith of the Church, and without personal prayer, we cannot be good priests for we would lose the essence of our ministry. The first imperative is to be a man of God, in the sense of a man in friendship with Christ and with his Saints. Then comes the second command. Jesus said: tend the sick, seek those who have strayed, those who are in need. This is the Church’s love for the marginalized and the suffering. Rich people can also be inwardly marginalized and suffering. “To take care of” refers to all human needs, which are always profoundly oriented to God. Thus, as has been said, it is necessary for us to know our sheep, to be on good terms with the people entrusted to us, to have human contact and not to lose our humanity, because God was made man and consequently strengthened all dimensions of our being as humans. However, as I said, the human and the divine always go hand in hand. To my mind, the sacramental ministry is also part of this “tending” in its multiple forms. The ministry of Reconciliation is an act of extraordinary caring which the person needs in order to be perfectly healthy. Thus, this sacramental care begins with Baptism, which is the fundamental renewal of our life, and extends to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick. Of course, all the other sacraments and also the Eucharist involve great care for souls. We have to care for people but above all - this is our mandate - for their souls. We must think of the many illnesses and moral and spiritual needs that exist today and that we must face, guiding people to the encounter with Christ in the sacrament, helping them to discover prayer and meditation, being silently recollected in church with this presence of God. And then, preaching. What do we preach? We proclaim the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is not a distant utopia in a better world which may be achieved in 50 years’ time, or who knows when. The Kingdom of God is God himself, God close to us who became very close in Christ. This is the Kingdom of God: God himself is near to us and we must draw close to this God who is close for he was made man, remains man and is always with us in his Word, in the Most Holy Eucharist and in all believers. Therefore, proclaiming the Kingdom of God means speaking of God today, making present God’s words, the Gospel which is God’s presence and, of course, making present the God who made himself present in the Holy Eucharist. By interweaving these three priorities and, naturally, taking into account all the human aspects, including our own limitations that we must recognize, we can properly fulfil our priesthood. This humility that recognizes the limitations of our own strength is important as well. All that we cannot do, the Lord must do. And there is also the ability to delegate and to collaborate. All this must always go with the fundamental imperatives of praying, tending and preaching.

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/july/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20070724_clero-cadore_en.html

“There are three important passages in his gospel where John uses the word remember and so gives us the key to understanding what he means by “memory”.  In John’s account of the cleansing of the Temple, we read:  ‘His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for thy house will consume me’  (Psalm 69:10)

The event that is taking place calls to mind a passage of Scripture and so the event becomes intelligible at a level beyong the merely factual.  Memory sheds light on the sense of the act, which then acquires a deeper meaning.  It apears as an act in which Logos is present, an act that comes from the Logos and leads into it.  The link connecting Jesus’ acting and suffering with God’s word comes into view, and so the mystery of Jesus himself becomes intelligible.

In the account of the cleansing of the temple there then follows Jesus’ prophecy that he will raise up the destroyed Temple again in three days.  The Evangelist then comments:     ‘When therefore he was reaised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.’  (John 2:22)

The Resurrection evokes remembrance, and remembrance in light of the Resurrection brings out the sense of this hitherto puzzling saying and reconnects it to the overall context of Scripture.  The unity of Logos and act is the goal at which the Gospel is aiming.

The word remember occurs once again, this time in the description of the events of Palm Sunday.  John recounts that Jesus found a young ass and sat down on it: ’s it is written, Fear not daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on an ass’s colt!’ (John 12:14; cf Zach 9:9).   The Evangelist then observes: ‘His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him’ (John 12:16).  Once again an event is reported that at first seems simply factual.  And once again the Evangelist tells us that after the resurrection the disciples’ eyes were opened and they were able to understand what happened.  Now they “remember”.  A scriptural text that had previously meant nothing to them now becomes intelligible, in the sense foreseen by God, which gives the external action it’s meaning.

The Resurrection teaches us a new way of seeing; it uncovers the connection between the words of the Prophets and the destiny of Jesus.  It evokes “rememberence”, that is it makes it possible to inter into the interiority of the events, into the intrinsic coherence of God’s speaking and acting. 

                                 - Pope Benedict XVI,  Jesus of Nazareth

When reading through this passage I couldn’t help but think of how we are told by Paul to “remember” Jesus’ death through the Eucharist.  I haven’t thought it through as of yet, but the thought process here is very intriguing.  Just throwing it out there for you to ruminate on as well.