Priestly Vocations
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Fr. Richard Neilson
From the May/Jun 2010 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine

(When Fr. Neilson gave this homily at a CUF holy hour in Scarsdale, New York, in 1986, the Church in America was already experiencing the effects of a diminishing number of priests. Today, we continue to experience that shortage, yet we also see even greater signs of the revival that Fr. Neilson notes at the close of his homily. Regardless of the current numbers, vocations come from God, and Fr. Neilson points to our duty as a community to nourish those vocations.)

All of you are aware of the growing shortage of priests. For nearly twenty years there has been a decline in the number of men entering seminaries and the result of this—the last years of this century and the first of the next—will be dramatic as God gathers to Himself the last survivors of the large ordination classes of the post–World War II years, 1945–65. So the Church is in trouble, not only here in the U.S. but also in many other parts of the world, for the priesthood is indispensable to the Church's mission and this by God's will.

The Second Vatican Council stressed that the duty of promoting vocations belongs to the whole of Christian community. Indeed, the problem of awakening vocations is part of the implementation of Vatican II. Priestly vocations area a proof of and, at the same time, a condition of the vitality of the Church. This vitality finds its constant source in the Eucharist, so it is particularly appropriate for us to consider the question of vocations and of our and CUF's responsibilities in the matter as we spend this holy hour in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament exposed.

Three or four years ago the Holy Father [Pope John Paul II] said that the problem of priestly vocations is the fundamental problem of the Church. "I appeal to the people of God," he said, "to be mindful of the great need to encourage vocations." No one of us, before God, can say, "Let other see to it" and let it go at that. Priests and religious, of course, have an especial responsibility for vocations: For them it is an act of fidelity, a proof of the authenticity of their own vocations. But we are all responsible for the Church, and the Church, according to God's disposition, cannot exist without the priestly ministry. You've heard it said often enough and truly, "No priest, no Eucharist." The priesthood then is necessary for mankind because Christ is necessary. No Christian community can be built up unless its basis and center is the Eucharist, which is the source and apex of the whole work of preaching the Gospel. Thus we read in Vatican II's decree On the Ministry and Life of Priests, "Let all the Christian people be taught it is their duty to cooperate by prayer and other means that the Church will always have a sufficient number of priests to carry out her divine mission." An ecclesial community gives proof of strength and maturity by the vocations which flourish in it. The Church depends on the apostolate of the laity, of which you of CUF are an important part, in the exercise of the common priesthood: In turn, it manifests its own authenticity by succeeding in causing new vocations to bud within it.

Vocations Come from Christ

Vocations in their early stages are very tender things, frail and unsure, merely swelling seeds in the nursery of the family. (Let us be sure not to stand in God's way.) The young, and the not so young, need encouragement to follow Christ with ever-greater fidelity and attachment. The older among us must give them the example of vibrant Eucharist-centered faith, a faith manifested in daily living. We are all asked to believe in the priesthood as we believe in Baptism and the Eucharist: Thus we shall proclaim by our attitudes, behavior, and actions that a priest is not a man like other men, and we shall not be tempted to draw a veil over the sacred indelible character imprinted on his soul by the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Let us review together three points. What precisely is the nature and purpose of the priesthood of the New Covenant? How do men achieve this office? What does God expect from an individual invested with this office? Clearly, the three points are interrelated, with no strict delineation among them. We shall look at the second point first.

There can be no serious dispute about the origin of a vocation: It is never self-initiated but is rather a call from Jesus Christ to follow Him in a specially intimate way to share in His salvific mission as His instrument. "You have not chosen me: I have chosen you to go forth and bear fruit," Jesus told His Apostles in St. John's Gospel (15:16). In the Letter to the Hebrews we read, "Every high priest is taken from among men . . . to make sin offerings for himself and for the people. One does not take this honor on one's own initiative but only when called by God" (5:14). A priest, then, is called from and of the community for its sake, but not by it. Priesthood is not bestowed in any way as a reward or accolade for personal virtue or holiness, for brilliance of intellect or largeness of heart: No one merits it, no one has a right to it. It is all God's. He alone created it, sustains it, and defines its purposes, its scope, its membership. And that purpose is to spread over all the earth to every generation the redemptive fire of Christ's divine love and mercy and peace won for us on Calvary—the Good News. The redeeming graces the priest transmits through the ministries of Word and Sacrament, particularly and preeminently through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the sacramental re-presentation of the one Sacrament of Calvary, and through the Sacrament of Penance, Reconciliation, the forgiveness of sins. A priest is called to victimize himself, to self-donation to the Lord, to spend and even exhaust himself in His service becoming "another Christ," attending to His concerns before his own. Only thus will his apostolate be fruitful. Sacred Scripture says, "Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains a grain of wheat. But if it dies it produces much fruit" (Jn. 12:24). Sharing in the unique priesthood of the Crucified, every priest must realize that his own priesthood will be marked by the sign of the Cross. He must embrace gladly the pain, the misery, the sin of the world, making a gift of himself to his flock as did Christ the Good Shepherd, bringing the joy and the light of Jesus to the world.

Our third point—What does God expect from those called to the priesthood?—is answered in one word, holiness, i.e., conformity to Christ. The priesthood is God's gift to mankind, an invention of His love, and it must be all love, all giving, nothing of self, a way of the Cross. More than others, a priest must seek holiness, to be emptied of self so that Christ may possess his very being until he may say with St. Paul, "Now I live, not I but Christ lives in me" (cf. Gal. 2:20). Priests act not just in Christ's name but in His Person, continuing through the ages His work of reconciling man with God. The greater a priest's union with the Lord, the more he renders himself open to Jesus as a willing instrument in the spreading of His Gospel, whose source and apex, the Eucharistic Sacrifice, is the root and center of the whole life of a priest; it is the very reason for the priestly order which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. The Eucharist is the summit of priestly spirituality. In the ordination ceremony, a priest is enjoined to take example from that which he handles: hence his especial call to holiness. Pope Paul VI, when Archbishop of Milan, wrote in a letter to his priests, "Priests must feel the attraction of perfection, of the urgently needed and never fully attained ideal, sanctity." On a later occasion, when pope, Paul VI wrote, "The Catholic priesthood is not a substitute for Christ: It personifies Him." The priest is the express image of Christ. In every way a priest must seek holiness, burying self—the sepulcher of obedience following the example of Jesus' total obedience to the Father, heeding the injunction of St. Peter, "Be holy in every aspect of your conduct after the likeness of the holy one who called you" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:15). The Eucharist is the fountain of all holiness. Priests must be at home on their knees before the tabernacle. They must be models and teachers of Eucharistic prayer: They must be seen to pray. The greater a priest's holiness, the more the light of Christ will shine through him on the people's hearts. He serves Christ best who serves His people most faithfully, whose zeal for souls is unquenchable.

Helping Vocations Grow

This, then, is an obviously incomplete outline of the priesthood and what it demands, what Christ demands, of those answering His call. Here indeed is a challenge, and the young are generous in responding to challenges fairly presented. We may be certain that in any age God calls sufficient men for the Church's need and when we fall on lean times, as now, we can be sure, in many instances, God's call is going unheard or unheeded—the noise of the contemporary world, rampant laicism and secular humanism drown out God's still, small voice: Sometimes the lack of a sympathetic mentor hinders a young person's discernment of vocation, causing it to wither. God's call is rejected in favor of the phantom of worldly success and status. A generation has grown up more attuned to the standards of this world than to those of the next. Worst of all, sometimes the bad words and example of a misguided, even unfaithful, priest cause the young to turn away in disinterest, even disgust, from what in reality is a false view of the priesthood. If today we are short of priests, the fault, at least in part, is ours. We have not understood enough, cared and loved enough, prayed enough. A generation has grown up uncatechized in the faith, with ideas deficient, if not erroneous. For example, understanding of the Mass as sacrifice, and of the Real Presence, are at a low ebb among many of the young through a fault not theirs. Each of us older ones bears some responsibility for that.

Let us bestir ourselves, you of CUF especially, to cooperate with Our Lord by putting before qualified men the possibility of their being called to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ. Let us encourage those who show signs of interest in religion and religious things, e.g., a more-than-average-for-his-age interest in prayer, or a delight in serving at the altar, frequent attendance at weekday Mass, love for the Eucharist, fascination for the lives of the saints. A simple question such as, "Did you ever think of being a priest?" may plant a seed, start a vocation growing. Lack of posing such a question may cause some vocations to pass unnoticed. Let us encourage the young to follow Christ with ever-greater intensity. Speak to them of His love and the joy of His service. Let your love of Christ of the Eucharist show in your lives. The young have a right to good example. The family is the nursery of vocations, and parents must be attentive to signs of possible priestly vocations in their sons; as they grow up and some marry, assist them to create in their own homes the climate of faith, hope, and love, of prayer and peace in which vocations may develop. All must be alert and make it their Christian duty to assist any prospect not to harden his heart against Christ's call. Prayers that the Lord of the harvest will send laborers into the vineyard are needed—and so is the example of our faith-filled, faithful lives.

Thanks to John Paul II, whose profound faith and deep love, whose personal charism is so influential with the young, signs of a revival of vocations are appearing here and there in the world. May you of CUF from headquarters down to the smallest chapter make the cultivation of priestly vocations among the chief works of your apostolate. No priest, no Mass, no Holy Communion, no Presence, no Sacrament of Penance; our churches would quickly grow cold, empty, and dead with no lamp flickering before the tabernacle. It has happened elsewhere in the past. But for your prayers, endeavors, and God's grace, it could happen here.

Let us ask Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of priests, to obtain for us many and holy vocations.

From the March 1986 issue of Lay Witness.