Joy of Our Youth

Easter continues its celebration of the Great Fifty Days of new life and baptismal rebirthing. Not only do the newly baptized and confirmed come to life in Christ and are reborn in him through water and Spirit, but the whole community is rejuvenated in Christ risen from the dead.

This past Sunday we prayed in the opening prayer of the Eucharist “…you have made us your sons and daughters, and restored the joy of our youth.” With the passing of my own years, perhaps I am more aware of comments about being young. I thought to myself about the numerous Easters which I have celebrated as a priest. A smile quickly came as I thought about how less agile I am in the ups and downs and the carrying out of the ritual!

The Easter mysteries, however, continue to bring new life and hope to all of us within the community. It is obvious in the newly baptized and confirmed. We see the vibrancy in the tears and smiles of those coming to the Lord’s Table for the first time. The believing community is refreshed and made sweet smelling as the new believers are washed in baptismal water and anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit.

This new life has continued in the many babies that have been brought to the baptismal font during this Easter Season. Life will continue to overflow with our upcoming First Communions and further confirmations of adults within our community. Life overflows in the sacramental life of the Church.

Ever Young
Sunday’s prayer recalled to my mind my days as an altar server. Some few men may share the same memory of the prayers at the very beginning of the “old” Mass: “Introibo ad altare Dei… I will go to the altar of God.” The server was quick to respond “Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem mean…To God who gives joy to my youth.” Although the “foot prayers” have vanished in the new rite, the steps remains and I find myself a bit slow in the ascent.

Yet the Word of God and the rituals of the Eucharist continue to allow the rediscovery of Christ among us as for the first time. A long time ago at my graduation from the high school seminary, and I still remember, the preacher Father David Gannon, one of the friars, began his sermon with the words of John Cardinal Newman: “The heart of a priest is ever young…” Father David remarked about how our youth was contagious even for a priest as old as himself. (I now know that at the time he was three years younger than my present age!)

Easter is a time usually of thinking of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist. It is, nonetheless, a good time to think of how the Church is made new in all of the sacraments. This Easter Season presses toward two anniversaries in our community. Two of the priests, Father Bill and Father Howard celebrate fifty years of God’s grace in their life. Older people like to tell stories, so allow this story to speak to this occasion of grace.

It was a very rainy day in September 1959, when a young high school freshman began his journey to the priesthood. That day his parents brought him to live with the Friars for the first time and begin his high school days. They drove up the very long drive and became more nervous as they got closer. After climbing up the stairs to a very large door, they pressed the doorbell. A young priest opened the door in welcome and brought them in. They were later to find not only did he appear young, but was a newly ordained priest of four months. The lives of the young boy and the new priest intertwined often in the years of high school, college, and theological training. They even came to share ministry together.

This June, Father Bill marks his fiftieth anniversary of priesthood and Father Howard his fiftieth anniversary of coming to the Friars. Anniversaries, of course, are a bit nostalgic as we prepare to celebrate God’s action in our lives. The occasions, however, mark a continuing Easter in the life of the Church and the great gift which priesthood is to the community. I guess Father David was right about the heart of a priest being forever young.

As we gather throughout this Easter Season and share Word and Sacrament together, we might be grateful for the priesthood which continues to call us together in our communities. The Word of God continues to renew us in its proclamation and in its being preached. The food of the Lord’s Table continues to feed us as Jesus did after his resurrection.

Priesthood, as part of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, is the encounter with the Risen Christ among us. The blessing of the priest is to call people to that encounter and to allow that to happen in their service to the Church. Your parish priests are much grayer and thinner on the top. They move a bit slower these days. Christ in these Easter mysteries continues to be the joy of our youth, not only of the priests themselves, but of the community coming to new life.

CDH