Year of the Priest

With dwindling numbers of seminarians and growing headlines of South Beach pictures, some good news finally came about priests in the Roman Catholic Church this past week. The news didn’t catch the news pundits, nor the news headlines, nor was there anything dramatic over the various forms of the media. Benedict XVI has set out plans for “The Year of the Priest”.

Beginning this past week on the Feast of the Sacred Heart and going more public on the weekend of August second with the Feast of St. John Vianney, Cure of Ars, and then continuing for an entire year, Benedict has invited the Church throughout the world to celebrate the place of priesthood within the community of faith.

If one digs into past encounters with the lives of the Saints, you might remember that the Cure of Ars is a famous confessor and, later, was declared the patron of diocesan priests. That hagiographical sketch might give us something of what Benedict proposes as his image of priesthood – a holy priest with deep and intimate involvement with God’s people.

To begin the year on the Feast of the Sacred Heart sets out for us a point of departure in Christ himself. Perhaps a bit removed from nineteenth century piety, the challenge might be to journey in the image of Christ’s heart as the font of mercy and compassion. A not-too-far journey might well take us to the lasting presence of Christ within the Church in the ministry and life of the priest.

Local Church
Throughout the year, scripture will be explored and no small theologizing about priesthood will be put forward. On another popularized level, all kinds of models of priestly service, or lack thereof, will be set out in critique of the priesthood. Perhaps a more fruitful path in regard to the priesthood is a localized look to the “good fathers” in our parish communities.

As usual the liturgy will provide us with a learning environment about what we believe, how we pray, and how we become Church. In the person of the priest, both in our present and past experience, we encounter Christ present among us. Each Sunday the priest calls the community together and gathers them around the Table of God’s Word and the Table of the Eucharist. There we see the priest, as we see ourselves, as most Church and at the “source and summit” of Christian life.

The priest’s presence on those Sunday mornings and other festivals shows forth his call to preach, to teach, and to sanctify as Christ did in his life and ministry. This is the ministry which he shares with the local bishop and is sent by that bishop to gather the parish community of faith.

Rituals Speak
The rituals of the Eucharist speak loudly of the meaning and purpose of priesthood in our tradition. The priest brings the life and mission of the parish community with him as he gathers the community. The joys and sadness of the

community are brought together in God’s presence. The first thing the priest-presider does is to invite the people to pray. He is the leader of prayer. He articulates the diversity and depth of the community’s search for God.

Following our Sunday memory, it is the priest who presides at the Liturgy of the Word, where God’s Word is proclaimed, heard, preached, and celebrated. After the first two scriptures, the priest proclaims the Gospel, the very presence of Christ among his People. In the priest’s words and actions Christ becomes present within the worshiping Assembly. The Word of God lives in the drawing of the scriptural word into the lived reality of our world in the homily.

The bridge of the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist are the General Intercessions lead by the priest and then prayed by the community in the person of the cantor and congregation. The spoken and unspoken prayers of the community are summarized and articulated by the priest. He draws the community into the person of Christ before the Father.

The Lord's Table
The priest, having preached and taught in the Liturgy of the Word, moves the community into the holiness of God himself in Christ. The priest in sharing and signing the sanctifying ministry of Christ before the Father initiates a dialogue of prayer between the Father and the praying community. How familiar but invitational are the words…”Lift up your hearts to the Lord… we have lifted them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God… It is right and just.” Then as presider the priest leads the community in the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, in which in the person and name of Christ he prays before the Father. It is here where he ministers as sharer in the sanctifying ministry of Christ himself by the power of the Spirit.

The Institution Account in the center of the Eucharistic Prayer is the transforming moment not only of the Bread and Wine, but of the whole community into the Body of Christ, the Church. The role of the priest within the community is actualized in these Eucharistic words and actions. Christ becomes present to his People.

Having prayed the Lord’s Prayer, the People of God are invited by the priest to communion with the Father in Christ. The purpose of our coming together, the mission of the priesthood and our identity come together as the People of God.

Missioned
Fed at the Lord’s Table, the priest prays for God’s People. He blesses them and sends them on mission into the world. He as priest and the Assembly as People of God are sent to do and be what they have celebrated. They become food for the journey. They are sent to preach, teach, and serve. The priest and people sign to one another who they are and what they are called to. Some might like to speak of the difference between priest and people, but their mission and life is to live and be Christ for one another and for the world.

CDH