Wednesday of the 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
September 7, 2022
National Conference of Vocations Directors
Basilica of the Assumption
A Word about the Basilica
Last evening, I had the pleasure of welcoming you to Baltimore and today it is my joy to welcome you to this historic church, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But since that’s not the catchiest title, we refer to it simply as “America’s First Cathedral” – the first Cathedral constructed in the new republic.
Please allow me to say a word or two about this uniquely important church. Bishop John Carroll broke ground for this Cathedral in 1806 and enlisted the services of Benjamin Henry Latrobe to design it. As you know, Latrobe was the principal architect of the U.S. Capitol. At first, he proposed a Gothic church, but Carroll and the trustees wisely concluded that a church that looked like old Europe would not be well received on this hill. Instead, they opted for a neo-classical design, more in the spirit of the new republic, and what we have here is not unlike a first cousin to the Pantheon. A most prominent feature is the massive dome with its Holy Spirit oculus. Ingenious inverted arches in the undercroft support the dome, which also features “skylights” designed to let in as much light as possible. It is said that Thomas Jefferson took a personal interest in the design of this project. He was fond of domes!
It was here that most of the Provincial Councils of Baltimore convened, and here that the three Plenary Councils of Baltimore took place. As the country expanded westward, many bishops were ordained here and sent on mission to establish new dioceses in diverse situations. Finally, it is here that the Bishops of the United States gather each autumn. When gathered here for Mass, it is something like a homecoming for our episcopate. I hope you will also feel a special kinship with this historic basilica.
Discipleship and Configuration
In the Collect for the Votive Mass for Vocations to Holy Orders, we ask the Lord “to raise up worthy ministers for [his] altars, and [to] make them ardent yet gentle heralds of the Gospel.” In the Prayer over the Offertory, we pray “that the stewards of [the Lord’s] mysteries may grow in number and persevere always through [his] love.” Similarly, in the Prayer after Communion, we ask the Lord ‘to bring to maturity’ ‘the seeds he sows with great abundance in the field of his Church’ –
These are sentiments with which we all heartily agree. We are looking for mature candidates for the priesthood. For a sufficient number to meet the pastoral needs of our dioceses. For candidates who promise to exercise the priesthood worthily and engage zealously in the Church’s mission of evangelization and sanctification.
The language of the Ratio Fundamentalis and the new PPF is different but essentially, it pulls in the same direction. In the Propaedeutic Year, we seek to help candidates grow towards maturity as they prepare themselves humanly and spiritually for formation. Formation itself consists in growing towards authentic discipleship and in attaining through God’s grace an ever closer configuration to Christ. All the while, we, together with the seminary formation team, pay close attention to all the dimensions of formation: human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral, while the individual seminarian must, with the help of God’s grace, put it all together, attaining a synthesis of all that went into his formation, a synthesis on which he is to build throughout his priesthood. Condensing the process into a short paragraph doesn’t make it seem any easier, does it? Indeed, there is no shortage of critics of seminary formation on the right and on the left. For differing reasons, both are saying that the Church is asking the impossible.
The Beatitudes
Yet as we turn our attention to today’s Scripture readings, a different picture emerges. The Gospel offers us a partial proclamation of the Beatitudes according to St. Luke and the reading from Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians has been described as the “magna carta” for celibacy and consecrated virginity…so we’re in luck!
The Beatitudes are not rigid moral rules cloaked in kinder, gentler language. Rather, they are above all a portrait of Christ whose coming into the world ushered in the Kingdom of God with reversed views and values, very different from the world all around us. The fortunate ones are the poor, those who mourn, those who hunger, those who are persecuted for the sake of the Name. The unfortunate ones are those who attain an evanescent worldly success that fails to bring true and lasting happiness.
A good priest must be a man of the Beatitudes. He must live them. And he lives them not because he possesses super-human willpower, but because he has encountered Christ: he has opened his heart to Christ, and has become his disciple, his follower, even unto the Cross. The disciple – the follower and the learner –will want to be like the Master, and so a good priest will want to be a true son of the heavenly Father. He will want the Father to see in love in him what he sees and loves in Christ. Thus, he will breathe in the Beatitudes so as to be progressively configured to Christ. We could say that we seek to ordain priestly candidates who are on a life-long path of absorbing and living the Beatitudes.
And it seems to me that this is the right context for formation in celibacy. It is a particular form of discipleship and a particular way of one’s being configured to the Lord and his style of life. It does not deny any dimension of one’s humanity but recognizes the shortness of life and its transitory nature. Amid the almost incessant demands of a healthy pastoral life, it provides the freedom to point to the Risen Lord and to his coming in glory while at the same time affirming and supporting those who have been called to marriage and family life … for they too are to reflect in the rough and tumble of family life the mystical marriage of Christ and the Church as consummated in heaven. If celibacy is presented as a merely a rule or as a denial of our humanity, it is deadly. But if it is a life-giving way of following Christ and bearing him witness, it is beautiful.
It Is Christ Who Lives in Me
As for the other dimensions of priestly formation, I’ll leave that up to you. For now, let me close with a beautiful quote from Jean Jacques Olier, the founder of the Society of San Sulpice: “To live supremely for God in Christ Jesus our Lord, so much so that the inner life of His only Son should penetrate to the inmost depth of our heart and to such an extent that everyone should be able to say, ‘It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.’
Thank you for your all-important ministry. Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Priests, may God bless you and keep you always in his love!