Thursday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time
Mass of the Holy Spirit
St. Mary’s Seminary and University
August 30, 2023
Introduction
It is a joy to celebrate this Mass of the Holy Spirit as we begin a new year of priestly formation here at St. Mary’s Seminary. To those who are new, I offer you a warm welcome and to those who are returning, welcome back.
St. Paul wrote to Timothy to the effect that all Scripture is useful for teaching and instruction. That is certainly true of the daily readings the Church has chosen for us. They illuminate the formative process offered here at St. Mary’s; they clarify what your response to this process ought to be; and they point out the greatest pitfall you must avoid at all cost.
And Now, A Word from Your Formators!
So first, a word from those responsible for your priestly formation. Far be it from me to put words in the mouth of your faculty and formators, but I think I can get away with it if what I say comes directly from St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Thessalonians, our first reading for today. St. Paul reminds the Church at Thessolonika how he labored to form them into a community of faith – he labored with the community as a whole and with each member individually to form a community of disciples who would know and love the Lord and follow him unreservedly, come what may.
What did Paul do to form such a community and such individual disciples? Working hard and dealing with the Thessalonians with utter sincerity and devotion, St. Paul exhorted and encouraged them, individually and collectively, insisting that they walk in a manner worthy of the God who called them to share in heavenly glory, to share in the glory of the Risen and Exalted Christ.
Isn’t that what those responsible for your formation are doing? They are striving to create what Jean Jacques Olier called a “communauté éducatrice”, a community of priest and future priests, sharing the same life in preparation for receiving or renewing the apostolic Spirit into their hearts. Or, as we would say more commonly today, a house in which missionary disciples are formed who, God willing, one day will be priests.
Those responsible for your formation will strive to this just like St. Paul. They will exhort you, encourage, on occasion cajole you, all the while insisting that you walk in the footsteps of Christ, becoming not only competent in ministry but a true disciple of the Lord … indeed a community of disciples preparing for the holy priesthood.
Your Response
Today’s Scripture readings map out your response to what is being offered, namely, receiving what it taught, proclaimed, and witnessed by your formators, “not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the Word of God, now at work in you who believe.” This is not to say that every utterance from a member of the faculty is divine oracle. It is to say that whole thrust of the priestly formation program, offered at this seminary, is to lead you deeply into the truth, beauty, and goodness found only in the revealed Word and shining on the face of the Risen Christ. In a word, you are to accept the formation that will be offered to you with a pure and open heart, a heart that is utterly sincere, thirsting for righteousness.
How do you know that you have such a heart? To address that question, let us turn to our Responsorial Psalm: “You have searched me and you know me Lord!” As we sang Psalm 139, it must have occurred to us that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and that the discernment that is part and parcel of priestly formation consists in allowing God to gaze deeply into the recesses of our hearts, a gaze we sometimes try to avoid even though it is the gaze of a lover, indeed the One who loves our souls like no other.
There is nothing we can hide from the searching eyes of ‘this tremendous Lover’. If we try to do so, we are only deluding ourselves, to our detriment and sorrow. When we allow the Lord to gaze into depths, we are cleansed, purified, redeemed at the very root of our existence, made fit to glorify the Lord, to proclaim the Word, celebrate the Sacraments, and serve those in need … indeed, to advance the Church’s mission of evangelization.
The Great Pitfall
Every chosen path of life has its pitfalls, it’s occupational hazards, as it were. In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus points out the great pitfall for those who are called to any form of ministry, including priestly ministry – and it’s this: hypocrisy – the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. Pope Francis calls it “spiritual worldliness” and in the seminary world it is known as “submarining”.
It’s fine to “submarine” if you’re in the Navy, but not if you’re in the seminary. To “submarine” is to say or do whatever you need to say or do in order to get through the seminary and to get ordained – all the while submerging ideological reservations about what is being taught or concealing something personal that should be addressed before ordination. It’s a way of trying to project an image of being better than we are, rather than engaging the formation of the seminary with sincerity, even when it involves a measure of struggle, sacrifice, and pain.
Come, Spirit of the Eucharistic Lord!
The work of formation is ongoing and demanding, yet it is always an adventure of grace. That is why we have begun the new year of formation by celebrating the Holy Eucharist and invoking the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit of God be upon you – individually and collectively – so that this house of formation may be deeply rooted in the Eucharist, so that Christ may be formed in you, the Christ who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen!