Year V, Number 3

Referring to the evangelical counsels, the Council states that “preeminent among these counsels is that precious gift of divine grace given to some by the Father (see Matthew 19:11; 1 Corinthians 7:7) in order more easily to devote themselves to God alone with an undivided heart (see 1 Corinthians 7:32-34) in virginity or celibacy. This perfect continence for love of the kingdom of heaven has always been held in high esteem by the Church as a sign and stimulus of love, and as a singular source of spiritual fertility in the world.” In virginity and celibacy, chastity retains its original meaning, that is, of human sexuality lived as a genuine sign of and precious service to the love of communion and gift of self to others. This meaning is fully found in virginity which makes evident, even in the renunciation of marriage, the “nuptial meaning” of the body through a communion and a personal gift to Jesus Christ and his Church which prefigures and anticipates the perfect and final communion and self - giving of the world to come: “In virginity or celibacy, the human being is awaiting, also in a bodily way, the eschatological marriage of Christ with the Church, giving himself or herself completely to the Church in the hope that Christ may give himself to the Church in the full truth of eternal life.”

In this light one can more easily understand and appreciate the reasons behind the centuries-old choice which the Western Church has made and maintained – despite all the difficulties and objections raised down the centuries – of conferring the order of presbyter only on men who have given proof that they have been called by God to the gift of chastity in absolute and perpetual celibacy.

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

I feel I have a call from God to enter the priesthood and am very enthusiastic about joining. However, I am only 18. Is this too young for me to be allowed join?

- Eoin

A. Dear Eoin,

Your age would not be a problem. Physical age, however, is only one element of several that point to a vocation.

First, your interest must be personal and free (no one forcing you) for a spiritual motive, and that would seem to apply in your case (you know a vocation comes from God, you want it, you can’t wait to start...).

Another important element that tells if there is a vocation is a man’s maturity. People sometimes confuse age and maturity, and that is a mistake. I know men of 50 who are irresponsible and can’t control their passions, and young men of 18 and younger who understand what a commitment is and can keep their word. You tell me which is maturity.

The final element is health, both physical and psychological.

So in theory, 18 is not too young as long as the other elements are present.

Now, there are some seminaries that will simply not accept candidates who have not received a degree, while others do. You will have to search. But as you do there is an important question you should ask Christ every time you pray and especially after receiving him in Communion: does he want you to serve him in your home diocese or in a religious order? The answer will tell you if you should pursue this with your diocesan vocation director or the one from the order you are interested in.

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Q Dear Fr Anthony,

Thank you for the wonderful and helpful advice you have given us. I pray that you may have a blessed and joyful Christmas!

Father, there is a young man I would like to speak to you about. He is only in his twenties, and I am 18. He has always pointed to Christ and helped me a lot with his wisdom and love for God. He taught me that it was not too late to forgive someone that I had harbored bitterness for. Because of him, I was able to ask for this person’s forgiveness and we reconciled. I fell deeply in love with him. The problem is that I have been discerning a vocation to the consecrated life for three years now, and he is both a seminarian and my catechist.

I knew that the attraction between us was mutual. Also, he knew that I loved him and I felt that in a way he loved me, too. When these feelings became stronger than an attraction, I decided never to pursue it, though it broke my heart to not let him know how I felt or express the deep affection I had for him. I avoided speaking personally with him and decided never to pursue these feelings in any way.

A few months ago, he returned to seminary. ... Since he left, I have missed him deeply and have been tempted to think that I need the affection of a boy to compensate for this longing for him. This Christmas especially, I miss him and am feeling even weaker. There are these other boys who are attracted to me, but I don’t love them. I feel, however, that I might use them for their affection.

I know that God is calling me to defend and protect my virginity and vocation. I have thought that perhaps God took away this boy that I love not only because God may be calling Him, but that God is calling me, too. He is calling me to detach from this boy that I love in order to focus on a more perfect love, Jesus Christ. I still pray to God that he is doing well and wonder if God can ever let me see him again. I have his email address and I would really like to email him. I have never contacted him before. But I think that it might be a bad idea to write to him since it might spur old feelings. What do you think? Also, I would appreciate it if you give me some encouragement because the temptations that I have mentioned above are strong, and I am weak. I have not spoken about this young man to my presbyter because he is the rector of the seminary. Please pray for me. Thank you very much and may the peace of Christ be with you.

- Jessica

A. Dear Jessica,

Your reactions are first of all very understandable: you are searching for spiritual values, and therefore you find this young man attractive since he is so different than the others you know. Your attachment grows, but you respect him and have been discreet in the way you dealt with him; the heart, however, is very strong and insistent and thus your difficulty in letting go of him even though your head and soul tell you that you should. I agree that what you have done by not writing to him was the correct thing to do, even though it was and is the more difficult choice. The fact that you did the right thing says a lot about you.

Here are two things you may find of help.

One is to look forward and not back, but in a way that builds on what is past and not on false hopes for the future. You have to take the correct decision you made and turn it into the starting point for your future; thinking and wondering about him is just going to pull you into the past. In that sense your letting go has to be decisive.

The second has to do with your own call. Take the sacrifice you are making as a step towards a deeper relationship with Christ; when you go to him in prayer and receive him in the Eucharist you are receiving the one you have chosen above everything else. He will not hold back.

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

As a friend and as an older brother, my advice to you is that you dedicate your life to something truly worth the effort, that you choose God before everyone and everything else, and that you let Christ find you. He is looking for you, and he wants to be a companion for you in the adventure of life. He awaits from you a response as admirable as his own response was. He is hoping that you will offer him authentic, solid options, a courageous response, and decisive action. My wish is that you, too, come to find in him the meaning of your life and the fulfillment of your most deep-seated aspirations. I hope that you come to consider your life as a mission whose urgency burns you interiorly: the task of sharing with others the faith and love for Christ our Redeemer, whether as single men or women, or in marriage, or in the context of consecrated life.

Today Christ, the Church, the Holy Father, and the whole of humanity need your youth and all that youth entail: generosity and daring, vitality and energy. There is a great deal of work to do in the Church. Many people have yet to be evangelized, the spiritually poor must be enriched, those who mourn have to be consoled, sinners have to be saved. Our neighbor calls out to us for help. We can’t go through life insensitive to the needs of so many, to their hunger for God. Consider your life as a mission. Give a transcendental focus to your entire existence. Break the chains of trivial self-interest. Go beyond your own self to rediscover yourself in God. The world has need of young people who opt for clear and transparent positions perfectly in consonance with the magisterium of the Pope and the Church. The world needs clear-thinking minds which know how to distinguish truth from falsehood, firm and energetic wills that strive for what is good, and strong hearts that know how to love with passion. Christ looks at you with love, even as he looked at the young man in the Gospel, and he awaits your response. Your freedom holds the key to the answer – yes or no – generosity or miserliness. You can open your hands to help others or you can selfishly close them for fear of commitment. Christ invites you; he respects your freedom and waits with hope for your response. Should that response be a generous one, the Church will end up being strengthened for her mission to preach the Gospel to the whole world.

Gospel: LK 6:39-45

He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man guide a blind man? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Introductory Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus Christ, to see clearly I need to recognize the log in my own eye. To do this, I need to be enlightened by you, and I need your grace to be sincere. I humbly ask you to give me the grace of self-knowledge so that by knowing myself I may be more able to conquer myself for you. Then, when I am filled with your light, may I reflect your light to others.

Petition: Grant, Lord, that I may not only come to know the bad things in me, so I may reject them, but also the good things in me, so I may thank you for them.

1. A Sincere and Merciless Self – Examination

Man is the only being on earth capable of examining himself, taking a step back to look at himself. Rocks, flowers and animals cannot do this. This makes man superior to animals, but if he does not use it to improve himself he can be exposed to many disorders and problems. When he refuses to use this human prerogative of examining himself and his acts, man slips down to the level of an animal.

Many times other people know our faults and weaknesses while we do not see them, for we find it easy to turn a blind eye towards our own actions. Often we know the faults of our neighbor and easily see through his masks while being blind to our own. It stings to have blame directed towards ourselves, even when we secretly suspect it is well founded. Yes, it takes courage to see the log in our own eye.

It is very profitable to know our dominant fault or passion, that tendency we have that affects many of our bad actions. Is it arrogance, pride, vanity, laziness, sensuality, materialism or anger? If we could name the tendency and which of these root sins it is that bothers me the most, we would go far in self-knowledge.

This is not easy to do because our self-love does not tolerate humiliation; it takes drastic sincerity with God, ourselves and with others to own up to our faults. It’s difficult but necessary. Christ wants us to do this so we may fill our lives and hearts with his light. Once filled with his light, “then you will see clearly”, as our Lord tells us. This is why we need confession and a good spiritual director we trust, to whom we can open ourselves and speak about our faults. Christ knows that it costs us to humiliate ourselves, which is why he first humiliated himself for us, dying for our sins, and taking our sins upon himself, though he was sinless and all-holy. By contemplating Christ often, his Love will move us to humiliate ourselves too out of love.

2. Christian Self-Knowledge Inspires Confidence, Joy and Peace.

If someone needs to set his watch at the right time, he needs to find a good watch to compare it to. Christ is like that other good watch. He gives us the perfect image of how we should be. To do a self-examination without Christ would be little more than psycho-analysis or would merely cause discouragement.

Self-knowledge is never discouraging for someone who knows the power of God. Like a patient who is not afraid of exposing his sickness to a doctor, because he knows that by doing so the doctor can heal him, we too should never be afraid to expose ourselves to the one who is the divine physician, our Savior and Redeemer! “For a Christian, self-examination is digging a foundation. The deeper the foundation, the more superbly the building will stand; the greater the humility of a soul, the greater the exaltation of that soul when God touches him.” (Fulton J. Sheen)

Self-knowledge offers many advantages to the one who knows how to recognize God. He no longer feels alone or isolated. He no longer needs to find excuses to defend his egotism, which, in the end, is indefensible. He no longer fears being recognized for who he is. He has a peace inside which comes from a deep knowledge of why he lives and where his life is going. He is at peace with himself since he knows he is sincere and coherent. His joy rests on his relationship with God and not in exterior things. He is so rooted in God that he becomes like the ocean, calm and serene in its depths, regardless of the fury of the waves at the surface.

3. The log in your own eye

Christ has clearly told us that we need to discover the log that is in our own eye. What do we do after we have discovered it? Is it possible to take it out as soon as we have found it? No. In fact, it is a battle that lasts a lifetime. For some mysterious reason Christ has permitted us to be left with these tendencies to pride, sensuality, egotism, etc. He could have freed us from them when he redeemed us, but he didn’t. Why? The reason may be that he wants us to learn humility, the hardest virtue to acquire.

We must resolve to accept our reality, to trust in God and go forward. We must never be surprised at our faults and, especially, never be discouraged by them. To do this, we must never become focused exclusively on our own sins. We need to look instead to the mercy of God and the grace that Christ has won for us, for God brings good out of evil. Like a farmer that uses manure to make his fields fruitful, so God can use our very faults to produce in our souls fruits of virtue and goodness. We can see this throughout salvation history as well: the liturgy of the Easter Vigil Mass, in the Exultet, speaks of this when it declares, “O happy fault that merited for us such a Redeemer!”

God wants to use everything for our advantage, even our own imperfections and falls. Through our imperfections we learn humility, increasing our dependence on God and a healthy distrust in our own strength.

Conversation:

Lord Jesus, may I know myself, may I know you, and may I desire nothing else but you! May I hate myself; may I love you and do all things for you! May I humble myself, may I glorify you, and may I have no other thoughts than You! May I flee myself and find refuge only in you, and so merit to be defended only by You. (St. Augustine)

Questionnaire:

1. How and how often do I examine my conscience to gain a greater self-knowledge, an indispensable virtue, which allows me to grow in other virtues, too? When and how often do I ask the Lord for the grace to enlighten me, and to show me his will for my daily life?

2. What do I believe to be my dominant fault or root sin that keeps me from fulfilling God’s will with the perfection Christ is asking from a true Christian?

3. What do I learn from my own sins and imperfections? In which way does this knowledge and awareness influence my behavior throughout the day, and, especially, my personal spiritual work?

It is here that I reach the end of the battle. I was arrested almost eight months ago for defending the Christian faith; the last feast of the Sacred Heart they informed me of my death sentence.

I have toiled only with one objective: that men freely reach their eternal salvation. I have defended the faith with my words and with my actions. The moment has come for me to do so with my entire life.

Today the sentence will come into effect. At seven o’clock I will present myself before my good Savior whom I have always loved ardently. Do not grieve for me. Everything passes, only heaven remains.

I have lived, without a doubt, very bitter moments since my arrest.

I have spent days sunken in the most obscure sadness; but I have had the opportunity to prepare myself better for my death. To shed my blood for Christ and his Church has become my greatest yearning.

After having fought long against myself, I have come to consider this day the most beautiful of my life. Today the priesthood appears more clear and attractive.

When you have abandoned all the things that captivate and pervade the human heart; when human hopes do not attract you and you have forgotten yourself, saying good-bye to your own name; when you disdain all things of this world and you dismiss your very existence; when you seek only Him, having Him at your side from morning to sundown; when in the different paths that Christ leads you, you always look to the skies and have Him as the sole guide of your heart; when all things are in Him and for Him; then you can say to yourself:

I am a priest.

Upcoming Events & Retreats

(( Listed here are retreats directed by the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi members. For a listing of diocesan activities and other events, click here to go to the vocation.com website ))

LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST

Rome, Italy. March 18, 2004 - March 25, 2004. Pilgrimage for college-aged men and high school seniors. Price: $399 + airfare. Chaplains are the Legionaries of Christ. Contact Karolee Stauduhar at kstauduhar@msn.com or (407) 869-8263.

"Spring break at the Seminary" Program Take a look at seminary life from the inside and "try it on." Participate in the session taking place during your spring break. The program includes vocation discernment Q&A with a vocation director, conferences on the priesthood, opportunities to meet seminarians already on the path toward the priesthood, a full day retreat and more. Contact Br Branigan Sherman at vocation@legionaries.org or at (800) 420-5409.

REGNUM CHRISTI consecrated men

Call Tony MacDonnell for more information, (301) 365-3205. amacdonnell@arcol.org.

ShoreLines welcomes your questions and comments at questions@shorelines.org. If you do not specify otherwise, your question may be posted in the Vocations Q&A section.

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Copyright 2004, Legion of Christ.

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