This week in the Catholic Church is national vocations awareness week, a time when I would
normally post a video encouraging discernment, inviting people to apply to the friars, maybe
even promoting my book, Called: What Happens After Saying Yes to God, available on Amazon
and Franciscan Media…
Yes, in normal years, that is what I would be doing.
But not this year.
Instead, I have an important, maybe slightly unorthodox message to share:
Don’t become a priest.
Probably didn’t see that one coming!
Unless you read the title, then that’s probably why you clicked on the video, but still, probably
not the sort of message you would expect to hear from a priest.
Especially in a time of priest shortages, many are absolutely desperate for anyone they
can get, not turning able-bodied men away.
And yet, I stand by it.
This video is not clickbait.
The purpose of this video, really and truly, is to discourage some people from being priests.
You see, I was in a seminary class a few years ago when our professor broke from his lesson
to exhort the men in the room.
He said, “Gentlemen, if by the time you are ready to be ordained a priest you still
do not have a strong prayer life, if Jesus Christ is not the foundation for everything
you are and everything you do…
I need to you leave the seminary.
We do not need you.
We have enough bad priests already who do not pray, live by human values, and lead people astray.
Unless you are completely devoted to being a man of prayer, you need to find another profession.”
It. Was. Awesome.
I could feel the chill throughout the room.
Just utter silence.
Here was this normally upbeat priest, always with a smile on his face, giving one of the
harshest speeches we would ever hear in seminary.
We don’t need you.
I can’t say that it was a “wakeup call” for me per se, as being a part of a religious
order, this is already emphasized a lot, but it was definitely a good reminder, certainly
shocked a lot of people in the room, and it absolutely needed to be said.
Because, really, there are a lot of reasons that people think that they want to be a priest.
There are many latent motivations for entering seminary, and they are not always the best
or most lasting.
When we look to the problems that are caused by some priests in our Church today, my guess
is that they didn’t pop up out of nowhere.
They developed, over a long period of time, from a poor foundation in the discernment
and seminary process.
It was with this little speech in mind that I decided, this National Vocation Awareness
week, that I was going to add to my professor’s words.
Surely a poor prayer life is a major problem, but it is not the only one.
So for instance, if you think that being a priest is a 9-5 job in which you can clock
in and clock out, turning off your phone and ignoring the needs of the sheep because it’s
the middle of the night, your day off, or simply inconvenient… we don’t need you.
We already have plenty of priests like that.
What we need are men who are so deeply committed to the mission of Christ, so connected to
their flock, that the people they serve are as important to them as their own families.
We need priests who are true fathers, sacrificing for their kids, attending to their needs,
not because it is their job, but because they love them.
Similarly, if you think that you, as a priest of the Church, are the arbiter of God’s
grace, the gatekeeper and protector of the sacraments, always looking for flaws in your
parishioners and concerned more with rules and regulations than mercy and grace… we
don’t need you.
We already have plenty of priests like that too.
What we need are men who understand that they themselves are sinners, they they rely on
the same grace as everyone else, and so minister from their own brokenness.
We need priests who see themselves as reconcilers, not prosecutors, who will go out of their
way to bring people back to God.
If you think that just because the Church is low on priests that it needs you, that
you are somehow indispensable, that your preaching or administration is what is going to save
the Church and so you are doing the Church a favor… we don’t need you.
We already have plenty of priests like that.
What we need are instruments, not saviors, servants, not kings.
Christ is the savior of the world and truly he could raise up descendants of Abraham from rocks.
It is not my Church and it is not yours, but Christ’s, and as much as we may, in very
particular situations act in the person of Christ, it is still him that is glorified, not us.
If you want to become a priest because you are looking for a safe haven to hide, from
a world that is just too difficult or scary or lifeless, from yourself who just couldn’t
cut it in anything else… we don’t need you.
We already have plenty of priests like that.
What we need are men who are so in love with all that God has created that they want to
use their gifts and talents to make it better.
Being a priest is not about hiding from the world, about being a safe-haven for people
with no talents for anything else, but rather a vocation in which gifted men are equipped
to go out into it.
Finally, if you think that you know more than the pope, your local bishop, or the 2000 year
tradition of the Church, so much so that you are going to make up your own rules and live
by your own standard without obedience to anyone else… we don’t need to you.
We have more priests like this than we know what to do with.
What we need are men who think critically and grapple with their own consciences, but
also know that they are public representatives of something more than themselves.
As ministers of the needs of others, standing in a role of authority, personal opinions,
preferences, or dissents must take a backseat lest they do damage to the ones they serve.
Because, really, at the heart of each of these non-negotiables is the same thing: being a
priest is about humble service before our Lord.
We do not operate on our own power or authority.
We are neither judges nor kings.
We do not get to choose who or when or how we serve.
As a priest, we leave behind our own wants and desires to take on Christ’s, becoming
his hands and feet on earth.
Unless that is what you want with all your heart, to be a servant in the image of Christ—teaching
and leading, yes, but also suffering and dying for his people—then the priesthood may not
be for you.
Please, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the people of God, find another profession.
But if it is, if you do feel called to lay down your life for others, to devote your
entire existence here on earth to making Christ known to the farthest ends of the earth through
your generosity, patience, hope, love, and humility… then you are just what we’re looking for.
We have some extraordinary men like this already, and we have for centuries,
but the next generation doesn’t.
That is, at least not yet.
God has sent out his call, he’s no doubt speaking to someone watching right now.
Will you answer?