Mass of Remembrance
Deceased Priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore
St. Joseph Parish, Cockeysville
November 18, 2024
No More Characters?
They say that there aren’t any more characters in our presbyterate, that they’ve all gone home to the Lord, and that we who remain are bland as milquetoast. If our deceased brother priests could speak their mind, they’d tell us otherwise. They’d tell us that we are all characters, each of us in our own way. St. John Paul said it better: we are, he said, “unrepeatable realities”.
How true that is. We profess the same faith, exercise the same priesthood, some of us even come from the same parishes and neighborhoods. Yet each of us is a unique reflection of Christ the great high priest. For the priesthood is not just a professional function, not a mere skill set. Rather, it is a mystery. Unworthy as we are, the Spirit of the Lord takes our humanity – and fashions it into a sacramental sign by which and through which the saving words and deeds of the Savior are reproduced. And just as in the Incarnation, the humanity of Jesus was not absorbed but assumed, so too our humanity. In its uniqueness, it does not fade away on ordination day. If anything, it is seen more widely and prominently than we may wish.
A Mosaic Fashioned by the Spirit
Given our uniqueness, our brotherhood is less like a homogenized milkshake and more like a mosaic – unique pieces of glass that form an image – the image of the Christ who loved us and gave his life for us. The artist who fashions this mosaic is the Holy Spirit. He cuts and shapes the pieces and fits them in, exactly where they should be, lest the image of Christ be incomplete or disfigured. Unlike inert pieces of glass, however, we have intellect and free will. Thus, in ways big and small, we resist when the Holy Spirit cuts and shapes us, fitting us into this mysterious mosaic in unexpected places. Often the Spirit uses the people & events we encounter in ministry to shape us: those that affirm us, those that don’t, and those that are indifferent. The cutting and shaping process is not always easy or pretty.
So it is, that like every Christian baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection, we too have our spiritual and emotional struggles. With the help of a spiritual director or a Jesus Caritas group we readily recognize that we are a work-in-progress, that the Lord is not finished with us yet, as we navigate the narrow straits between discouragement and despair on the one hand and complacency and presumption on the other. St. Thomas was right. In medio stat virtus. Virtue stands in the middle.
Before Us in Faith
This is why we pray for our brothers who precede us in death. Just as we stand in continual need of course correction, purification, & mercy, so too we should “be there” for our deceased brothers. For they are in the hand of God, and his hand may still be purifying and perfecting them. The words of the Book of Wisdom apply: “Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed.” Just as we strive to support one another in the challenges of priestly life, so too let us continue support our deceased brothers – by offering for them the same Mass they once offered, by praying for them the same Divine Office they once prayed, by offering to God for them the same kinds of sacrifices they too offered in the course of their ministry. And let us not forget that they are praying for us. It’s reciprocal.
Just as loving families keep alive the memory of those who have died, let us continue to cherish the memory of these our deceased brothers – remembering gratefully what the Lord enabled them to accomplish, remembering that we build on what they have left us, thanking God for their lives and their priesthood. And let’s keep telling the stories – they’re a big part of who we are.
Confident in God’s Mercy
We remember the dead with the greatest of confidence. After all, we heard Jesus say to us in the Gospel that he had come to do, not his own will, but the will of the Father of Mercies, and that the will of the heavenly Father is that no one of us be lost. Put another way, through his Incarnation, Death, and Resurrection, the Lord is on our side—he is with us and for us, he loves us and our deceased brothers beyond all telling. And as St. Paul wrote, “If God is with us, who can be against us?”
A New Chapter
Now, as if to prove that God is with us, something is about to happen that will rejoice the hearts of all us priests, past and present. Today it is official that Fritz Gollery is received back into our presbyterate! After prayer, discernment, further preparation (and a little wrangling in Rome), Fritz is again numbered among the priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Dear brothers, let us welcome him! Fritz, or should I say, Father Fritz, I couldn’t be happier! And I am very grateful to Bishop Adam Parker for helping you pursue this and in bringing the process of re-admission to a successful conclusion. Through the highways and byways of life you have been faithful to the Lord and what now transpires is a further chapter in your faithful service, and evidence that the Lord is very much at work in your life and in our midst!
Along the pathways of life, nothing good escapes God’s notice: your call to the priesthood, your formation, your ordination – and your love for your late wife, Marcie, and your care for her in her final years. All that you cherish, we cherish, and all that we cherish, God cherishes.
As the years have gone by, you have remained young in heart, young in spirit, open to whatever the Lord is asking. Your openness to the Lord and your resumption of priestly ministry encourages all of us, You are bearing witness to the beauty of our priestly vocation! Thank you, Fritz, for saying yes: again and again and again! Celebrating your resumption of priestly ministry, let us now proceed . . . .