Our calling is to proclaim him who is the ‘reflection of God’s glory’, so we are to be known as women and men living lives of great and deep thankfulness, who, at the end of our days, will come before him who is our friend, brother, judge and saviour. We’ll be delving further into this later on.
At the end of our days
Priests, of all people, need to keep their eyes fixed on the goal they desire, as the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us (12.2). There are people who can exercise many important ministries but, as we’ve noted, the priest’s attention needs to be focused on God to whom we’ll be called to render account at the end of our days. So in a real way, we must set one foot on this side of eternity and one foot on the other. Called to live in the poverty of Christ who emptied himself of himself, abandoning his life to death, we need to hold lightly to the things of this earth and seek to store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. This is what we must keep in mind (Phil. 2.5): our deepest security, the foundation on which all else is built, is to be found in that awareness of being the beloved of God.
All this is disclosed most fully in the Eucharist. As stewards of that great Mystery, priests have the tremendous privilege of standing where Christ is ‘at the right hand of God’ (Heb. 8.1). Called also to show forth his glory in the ‘here and now of life’, they inhabit the role of the One who presides at the Supper of the Lamb, that eternal Liturgy which is not ours to celebrate but his.
Are you in charge of a parish? If so, do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself. (St Charles Borromeo 1538–84)
So we’re to live out of thankfulness – (eucharistia) – until our lives become one hymn of praise. I was privileged to know a great Franciscan brother, Bill Lash,9 who, on his deathbed, simply said: ‘Rejoice’ before dying. When he was nearing death, St Francis said to his brothers, ‘I have done what was mine to do; may Christ teach you what you are to do.’ We place great emphasis on the start of a ministry; we are prepared for it, trained for it, and the Induction or Licensing service in the Church of England is usually lengthy, solemn and rich in meaning. But isn’t it striking that, even after decades of liturgical revision, no liturgies have been created for the close of a ministry? So as no formal service has been produced, a Liturgy for Praying Our Farewells is included in Appendix 2. In my beginning is my end.
It’s natural that every priest hopes to look back on a ministry and see signs of fruitfulness, hoping their role will be recognized and, maybe, celebrated. But regardless of that we should never forget how ‘success’ in these terms is not quite what Jesus had in mind. Nor that when he died only his mother, one disciple and a couple of friends remained at his side. His declaration ‘It is accomplished!’ invites us to consider what we wish to ‘accomplish’? We can do no better than turn to the Great High Priestly (Farewell) Prayer of Jesus (John 17.1–26) to realize what he gave thanks for as we meditate on his declaration that the ‘hour has come’ (17.1), that ‘hour’ which was prophesied in his very first Sign at Cana which foreshadowed that Supper when he revealed the new wine of the age to come. In his book, Markings, Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations until his untimely death in 1961, records some simple words with a profoundly Eucharistic undertone, which many would take for their own: ‘For all that has been, thanks. For all that shall be, yes.’
‘In my beginning is my end … in my end is my beginning.’ Even as a ministry begins, it is our end that needs to inform us. Ministers of the Gospel need to remember and hold on to St Paul’s striking assertion: ‘If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied’ (1 Cor. 15.19). Wherever we’re on the path to God, we should never forget that we’re called to seek union with him whose loving desire for us never ceases (Lam. 3.23).
Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love,
for they enkindle and melt the soul.
(St Teresa of Avila)
Questions for reflection
How am I responding to God’s invitation to sit in His compassionate gaze? In what ways might I need to give that greater attention?
What gives meaning and life to my vocation? What was it about Jesus that attracted me? What image of him might now emerge in my heart? Is there any other person in Scripture or among the saints who resonates with my sense of vocation?
For what am I thankful? What do I sense I am called to ‘accomplish’? How does this relate to the gospel? To what, as a priest, do I ‘look forward’?
Notes
1 Edward Schillebeeckx, Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God, Rowman & Littlefield, 1963, p. 13.
2 Vocation – Do You Have a Calling?, https://churchsupporthub.org/vocations/about-vocations/exploring-your-vocation.
3 Herbert Alphonso, Discovering Your Personal Vocation: The Search for Meaning through the Spiritual Exercises, Paulist Press, 2001.
4 The Poems of Fr. Andrew SDC, Mowbray, 1950.
5 ‘Frère, tu dois faire ta stabilité dans le Coeur de Jésus’, spoken in1975 by Dom Nathanaël Carron de La Morinais OSB at the Sacro Speco of Subiaco Abbey, Italy, to Dom Mark Daniel Kirby OSB.
6 Homily on Jubilee of Mercy for Priests, 3 June 206, https://w2. vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2016/documents/papa- francesco_20160603_omelia-giubileo-sacerdoti.html (© Libreria Editrice Vaticana).
7 The author.
8 First Rule of St Francis, 1221.
9 Bill Lash (1905–86) had, along with Fr Jack Winslow and Fr Algy SSF, been a member of the first Anglo-Indian ashram, the Christa Prema Seva (Community of the Servants of Christ), in Pune, India, before moving to the UK where he lived at Hilfield Friary.
2. Still I Rise
Confession, Absolution and Reconciliation
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Formed by the word, they are to call their hearers to repentance and to declare in Christ’s name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins. (Ordination of Priests: The Declarations)
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Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your merciful love;
according to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me completely from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
(Psalm
