A Type of the Priesthood

Readings for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time were from Is 45:1, 4-6; Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10; 1 Thes 1:1-5b; and Mt 22:15-21

"I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not."

My brothers, I am convinced that Cyrus is a type of our call to the priesthood. In the midst of the frustrations and busy-ness of these mid-term weeks, we must not allow ourselves to forget that it is the Lord who has brought us here, "though we knew him not."

Consider our lives in formation… where would we be if not here? I don't mean on the level of profession or educational track, married or not… these are not the truly important questions. The real question is, "Would I be on the path to holiness God even leveled for me, or down in the ditch with the devil?" "Would I be walking down the path of 'open doors and unbarred gates'—the path of the sacraments, of spiritual direction, of holy trial and self-discipline—or beating my head against the walls of regret, mediocrity, uncertainty, and the status quo?" I can certainly look back on my own life before I was a seminarian and see the possibilities, things I could have done… things I might would have liked to do… but that's all I see, only possibilities, only mere dreams and shadows of what I have actually done so far.

What was I before I was a seminarian? Well, St. Francis of Assisi liked to say, "What a man is in God's eyes, that he is and nothing more." So again, we must ask the question, "What would I be in God's eyes had I said 'no' to his call on my life to come to seminary?" "Would I be a useful servant?" "Whom would I be serving?" He is the Lord, and there is no other!

But we object, don't we?! We experience failures, we see our shortcomings, we come face to face with our utter unworthiness to be anything at all in God's eyes… and we 'praise' Jesus tongue-in-cheek like the Pharisees of this Sunday's gospel. "Jesus, you are truthful."—Yet you must have been trying to make me feel good about myself when you called me… "Jesus, you teach the way of God."—But I already know that I'm a useless pupil, a dunce, and unable to learn anything at all… "Jesus, you are not driven by human respect."—So you must have ignored all those people who remember just how selfish I used to be, how immoral, how ignorant… Jesus, are you sure you consulted enough before you called me? "Jesus, you take no notice of status."—Hmph. Obviously. All of this, brothers, is to forget the purpose of our call.

Our call is not for ourselves, it is for the People of God. Look back to Cyrus… why does God call him, a non-Jew? "So that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me." Our formation for the priesthood is meant to be a wonder to behold, a miraculous feat of transformation from sinner to saint, from selfishness to self-sacrifice. God has called us—precisely—to demonstrate his power so that when the course of our lives is considered, all will truly say to the Lord, "You are God and there is no other… There is none other who grasps us by the hand."

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!

~J