Year V, Number 6

Here I would repeat to all priests what I said to so many of them on another occasion: “The priestly vocation is essentially a call to holiness in the form which derives from the sacrament of orders. Holiness is intimacy with God; it is the imitation of Christ, who was poor, chaste and humble; it is unreserved love for souls and a giving of oneself on their behalf and for their true good; it is love for the Church which is holy and wants us to be holy, because this is the mission that Christ entrusted to her. Each one of you should also be holy in order to help your brothers and sisters to pursue their vocation to holiness.

“How can we fail to reflect on...the essential role that the Holy Spirit carries out in this particular call to holiness which is proper to the priestly ministry? Let us remember the words of the rite of priestly ordination which are considered to be central in the sacramental formula: ‘Almighty Father, give these your sons the dignity of the priesthood. Renew in them the outpouring of your Spirit of holiness. O Lord, may they fulfill the ministry of the second degree of priesthood received from you, and by their example may they lead all to upright conduct of life.’

“Beloved, through ordination, you have received the same Spirit of Christ, who makes you like him, so that you can act in his name and so that his very mind and heart might live in you. This intimate communion with the Spirit of Christ – while guaranteeing the efficacy of the sacramental actions which you perform in persona Christi – seeks to be expressed in fervent prayer, in integrity of life, in the pastoral charity of a ministry tirelessly spending itself for the salvation of the brethren. In a word, it calls for your personal sanctification.”

Q. Dear Fr Anthony,

What if God calls you to the priesthood, or at least it seems that he may be calling you to the priesthood, and you say “no,” opting for marriage instead? I ardently want to be a husband, and I am both repulsed and depressed by the thought of rejecting this forever. Am I endangering my eternal salvation – or at least inviting dire consequences in this life – by choosing my will over God’s, if this does in fact turn out to be the case? Please help!

- Samuel

A. Dear Samuel,

If you are both repulsed and depressed at the thought of rejecting marriage forever, and at the same time are sincerely trying to live your Christian life, in all probability God has not (yet) given you the gift of a vocation. When he does, the thought of giving up marriage forever may still seem daunting, may not seem like your own personal first choice, but there will be something else there too that makes it a sacrifice you are willing to make out of love.

So it doesn’t seem in your case that you would be preferring your will to God’s.

God bless.

- Fr Anthony

Q. At the moment I am a 23 year old women working in a full time job... my dream is to join a religious order and to give my life fully to God. I am hoping that in January next year that I will stay with the Missionaries of Charity-for a 'come and see' and take God will from there. In the mean time I feel I am struggling with trying not to get caught up in this world and go back to a lifestyle that I once had. I am weak and I would like some advice in how I can detach myself from the secularism that surrounds me on a daily basis.

Thank you kindly for your time and God bless.

A. Dear Anne,

We are all weak, and always weak. The only strength we have is in God's grace. That means that you have to bring his grace into your life actively, depend absolutely on it, and then not be afraid since Christ is the first one to want you to be faithful. This means that you have to make prayer a constant part of your life. Set times aside for it each day, try to go to Mass as frequently as you can and receive Holy Communion. Find a good confessor so you can use the sacrament frequently in order to grow in your life of grace and virtue. Keep close to Mary by praying the rosary each day. Once you take care of prayer, examine the other things you fill your day with. Eliminate the trivial (TV, pointless socializing, any time-wasters you detect) and have some time each day for substantial reading and study of your faith. Then see what you can do for others. Bring the corporal works of charity into your life. (Remember Mother Theresa's phrase, 'do it now'). You should especially make sure to develop good friendships. Look for some other young women who give priority to their faith, and that you can do things together with.

Hope this helps. God bless. - Fr Anthony

Christ’s Cross is an eternal paradox. A life brutally cut down in the fullness of maturity. A failed, naked and abandoned man, his life ebbing in the death rattle of a slow and horrible agony ... Everything about the Cross beckons us to the pit of despair; and yet there, precisely in the densest and bitterest darkness, Christ realizes the most luminous and meaningful act open to a man, offering himself to his Father and each one of us in an act of perfect love. “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (see John 15:13).

His executioners could nail his body to the wood, but they could not chain his freedom: “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (see John 10:18). Christ crucified is the freest man that ever lived; nothing and no one could stifle his heart nor stop him loving his Father and men. His love for me was stronger than death itself (see Canticles 8:6).

Such a death cannot be improvised. That last, heroic act of self-giving was the fulfillment of a Plan of salvation, the end result of a host of little acts of giving throughout his life. After Christ’s death there is no circumstance in our lives, no matter how painful or difficult it might seem, to which our love cannot give the value of redemption. We all carry our personal cross. For some this is only an instrument of suffering and the cause of perdition because they do not know how to love; for others, however, their cross is a cause of deliverance and happiness because they fix their gaze on Christ and offer themselves with him out of love: "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (see Luke 23:43). What really dehumanizes man is to bear a cross without Christ - to live, suffer and die without love.

Gospel: Luke 6:17,20-26

And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. “Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. “Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. “Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. “Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

Introductory Prayer: Lord, you want to give me the best, the all-satisfying happiness of Heaven. You do not forbid me to enjoy the things of this earthly life, so long as I use them intelligently and rightly. What you do not want is my inordinate love for what is wrong and unworthy of my human dignity. Grant me a love for your wisdom, and give me the strength to follow your will at all times and in all circumstances. You alone can give me the perfect happiness that will fill my soul with eternal joy. Help me to find my joy only in you, O Lord. Amen.

Petition: Lord, grant me the grace to understand that you created me for you and I will only find true happiness by doing your will and not mine.

1. “He lifted up his eyes on his disciples”

What is it that man is ultimately searching for? What is man created for? Man is created for God, to be with him forever in total happiness. And where can happiness be found? It can be found only in God because the fullness of happiness is in union with God in the beatific vision. Here on earth I can also have happiness to a certain degree.

Jesus looks at me. He hasn’t forgotten me; he thinks of me and loves me. In the Gospel we see the people going to Christ to find healing for their diseases. The reason why the people go to Jesus is to find what they desperately need, which is peace of heart. They seek happiness. Jesus knows human nature. He knows what I want, and what my needs are. “He lifted up his eyes to his disciples…” He knows that my heart is ultimately searching for happiness. Because he loves me so much he tells me what the secret of happiness is. It is love for God and the detachment from self.

2. “Blessed are you.”

Here is the paradox. Christ is saying “Blessed are you when you hunger, weep, and are hated by men.” How is it possible that I can find happiness in what is contrary to the desires of my heart? Here Christ is not talking of hunger, weeping, or being hated by men for their own sake. Happiness is found in God. In order to be united with God, I need to be humble. I am his creature, and he is my creator, my God. Therefore I need to empty myself of myself and of creatures and let myself be filled with Christ. Only the humble will enter the Kingdom of Christ. Usually man turns to God when he is in need, when he is suffering or when he thirsts. God allows trials, difficulties and sufferings because he loves. Only the pure can see God and be with him. All these difficulties are allowed so that I can be purified and become detached from myself and totally devoted to God.

3. “But woe to you.”

But woe to me if I am rich of myself, if I am full of myself, if I laugh for myself, and if I search to be well spoken of! This is what caused the fall of the proud. Pride is the backhoe that empties one’s soul of the happiness given by God.

Many people say: “See how well that man lives, how rich and great he is, how powerful and mighty.” But I must lift up my eyes to the riches of heaven and realize that the material goods of which they speak are nothing. These things are uncertain and very burdensome because they are never possessed without anxiety and fear. “Man’s happiness does not consist in the possession of abundant goods; a very little is enough.” (Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis, Bk 1, Ch. 22)

Conversation: Lord Jesus, I often seek my happiness in a selfish manner. Help me to understand that “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:34). Help me to empty myself so I may be full of you, full of joy and truly happy.

Questionnaire:

1. Am I searching for happiness in God alone, or am I still searching for it secretly in earthly glory, honor and fame? Where do I seek happiness and why there?

2. Does my happiness and joy irradiate in my whole person? How do I show it? Can people actually say about me, “This person is truly happy”?

3. How often do I pray for true happiness, which is only found in the fulfillment of the will of God? How much time do I spend with Christ in prayer, trying to know him better and to love him more?

A man who is preparing for priesthood, or is already a priest or religious, likewise has to maintain a personal discipline in line with his vocation. For example, if you want to live in priestly celibacy or take the vow of chastity you need the discipline in your life-style that will enable you to be faithful to that commitment. Not to know this would mean operating outside of a healthy concept of man – not just on the Christian but even on the merely human level.

I do not believe in discipline for discipline’s sake, but do I believe that man, wounded by original sin, has tendencies that can lead him to evil. The Council of Trent, borrowing an expression of Saint Paul’s, calls this concupiscence. In Romans 7 Saint Paul vividly describes the inner battle waged in the theater of the human heart: “I cannot understand my own behavior. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself doing the very things I hate … with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want. In my inmost self I dearly love God’s Law, but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15, 19, 22-24).

We all have to wage this battle against our passions. This is undeniable. Discipline, motivated by love for God, helps us to come out on top in this battle. All the elements of discipline that we use are there for a higher goal and motivated by love. This produces free and mature men, not men with complexes, stunted in their faculties or unfulfilled. Just take some time to observe the seminarians and priests who live the classical elements of Church discipline (the only kind that we demand), and see if they give you the impression of not living life fully. Quite the opposite: This discipline, lived in the balance given by faith and the harmony of the nobler faculties, helps them live what Saint Augustine called libertas maior. They radiate freedom, composure and self-mastery. They radiate freedom – be they Legionaries of Christ, regular Christians, or members of any other religious congregation or new community. When you practice discipline out of love and in an atmosphere of personal and community balance it does not enslave but liberate.

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 women

Spiritual Exercises. Rye, New York. February 13 - 15. For women ages 16 to 30. For more information contact Gloria Darbellay

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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