Below is Fr. Greg Markey’s sermon preached on the occasion of his 10th anniversary as a priest on May 24 at St. Mary Church, Norwalk. We have also posted pictures from the Mass: link
I. Introduction
Now that Our Blessed Lord has ascended to heaven, the Apostles are left with the question, “How will the mission continue?” They reflect on the words of today’s Gospel understanding that the mission would continue when the Advocate comes at Pentecost; there would be a hierarchical Church, and men would be called to the priesthood.
One of the best descriptions of the priesthood comes from the book of Hebrews:
“For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is bound to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. And one does not take the honor upon himself, but he is called by God” (Hebrews 5:1-4).
A priest is a man called by God to offer sacrifices for the sins, offering the Mass. This Sunday’s Mass, the Sunday after the Ascension, is a time for us to give thanks for the gift of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, that men are called by God to this sacred ministry.
II. The call to the Priesthood
I think the best description of the call to the priesthood is Pope John Paul II’s phrase: “gift and mystery”. It is a mystery, something hard to understand, yet at the same time, the most valuable of gifts; so valuable that it is like the fine pearl which Our Blessed Lord describes as selling all that one has to possess it (Matthew 13:46); and as the finest of pearls, I do think one needs to be careful not to expose it to too much discussion less it loses its unique value.
Yet I have thought much over the past few months about how I arrived here to this point in my life. While the seed must have been present at my baptism, it seems that the vocation began to germinate in a secular college, in a room by myself praying to Our Lady. Within a few years after college I entered seminary. When I look back I am still confused how a vocation to the priesthood could emerge out of thoroughly secular atmosphere.
For me, the invitation to be a priest did not come from a particular priest or person, but almost completely from a life of prayer and study. More and more time spent in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, reading books on Catholic spirituality or lives of the saints gave me such sense of fulfillment that all other things in life seemed less important. When I entered seminary and read Aristotle who wrote that “Happiness is the contemplation of truth”, I knew exactly what he meant.
The writings of the late Pope John Paul II exercised greater influence on my thought more than any other author. He woke me up out of my secularist slumber, and gave me the vocabulary to explain the faith, while repeatedly enkindling in my heart the burning desire to serve Christ and His Church. Many a late night was spent combing through his writings, excited at the prospect of being a Catholic priest.
Yet it was the current Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who refined my understanding of the Church. Shortly after my ordination I read his book the Ratzinger Report, which was a dramatic paradigm shift on how I perceived the Church. Suddenly the Catholic Church no longer looked same, and my understanding of what it meant to be “faithful” to Mother Church was something very different. The then-Cardinal Ratzinger was able to articulate the internal struggles of the Church, and the liturgy, in a way that resonated with my experience as a newly ordained priest. I continued to study his writings for years until he was elected as the Holy Pontiff in 2004, as if the Holy Spirit was slowly preparing me to understand the mind and heart of the man who would be Pope.
During my discernment I learned to appreciate St. Therese of Lisieux’s desire to be every member of the Body of Christ. I have given serious consideration to being a missionary, a Benedictine monk, a Franciscan, or a scholar. At one point or another I pursued each of these particular vocations, yet in God’s providence I always seemed to be directed back to the life of a parish priest, and so I stand here today, the Pastor of St. Mary Church.
III. Anniversary Mass
Certainly this anniversary Mass is not about me. It is about Christ. We are here to thank Him today for the gift of the priesthood that he has freely given. Although my faith is weak, I do believe that Christ is present in the Blessed Sacrament, and I do believe that we have a Mother in heaven who is praying for us, and I do believe that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ. I do not know why I believe, but I do, and I think the reason I believe has much to do with this second point – the Blessed Virgin Mary. That a man in the current cultural atmosphere believes these truths is something for which we can all be grateful.
To be honest, I am not exactly sure why we celebrate priestly anniversaries. I am grateful for all the expressions of congratulations, and I know that you mean well. However, I must say that the words of congratulations are a bit premature. The real test for every priest is if he can persevere until death. If I have taken my last breath, worked hard at winning souls for Christ, and there is no more opportunity to fall out of God’s favor…then at that point I will more readily accept words of congratulations. I yearn with all my being for the day when I can hear those words: “Well done good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).
That day has not yet arrived, and if the future is anything like the past, there are many more serious trials ahead. So while I suppose a moment of thanksgiving may be in order after 10 years, all the more is the need to recognize that we are still in the midst of a raging battle, and the stakes are high.
IV. Current situation
At the heart of this battle is the sense of the Sacred – the sacred liturgy, and the sacredness of the family. Both are under terrible attack, and both are interrelated. My seminary formation and experience at Mount St. Mary’s left a deep impression upon me about the culture of death: the annual March for Life, praying in front of abortion mills, Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelium Vitae forged my priestly identity into a priest who would be very involved in these issues. I am very grateful to all of you here today who for many years have responded so fervently to the battle of the “culture of life” vs. the “culture of death”.
The root of this conflict is the profanation of marital love, separating life from love, and in the end leading to a dramatic decline in morals, as Pope Paul VI had prophesied in 1968. I do not think it an exaggeration to say that not only has his prophecy come to fulfillment, but the period of history we are living through, with all of its perversions, is unprecedented in the entire history of the world.
While the truths about family life are compelling on their own merits, my conviction about teaching these truths grew even stronger when in seminary I read the words of Popes Pius XI and Paul VI, and the specific counsel they gave to priests in their encyclicals Casti Connubii and Humanae Vitae. For example Pius XI wrote:
“We admonish…priests who hear confessions and…who have the care of souls…not to allow the faithful entrusted to them to err regarding this most grave law of God…. If any confessor or pastor of souls, which…God forbid, leads the faithful entrusted to him into these errors, or should at least confirm them by approval, or by guilty silence, let him be mindful of the fact that he must render a strict account to God, the Supreme Judge, for the betrayal of his sacred trust.”
– “Pastor of souls”, “Guilty silence”, “Rendering an account”, “Sacred trust” – these are the values that I hold before me when I enter the pulpit and the Confessional, and which motivate me as a priest.
As I have reflected on how to build a “culture of life”, it has become increasingly evident to me that it must begin with the root of culture – cult – i.e. worship. Until people are able to have an experience of the sacred when they worship God, they will always struggle to understand the sacredness of human love and life. As long as our Masses are informal and casual, based on societal norms rather than the proven traditions handed down to us by our forefathers, it will be very difficult for people to appreciate the transcendent presence of God, the very source of human love and life.
Pope Benedict XVI writes in his encyclical Spe Salvi that while the convictions of the faith may be drawn upon from the moral treasury of previous generations, they nonetheless “must always be gained anew by the community”, and that “every generation has the task of engaging anew in the arduous search for the right way to order human affairs” (16,17).
My brothers and sisters, we have come to a point in history where we must discover anew the convictions of the faith; we cannot imagine that where the Catholic Church and all of its institutions stand in relation to the rest of society today is somehow satisfactory; and I am convinced that this renewal in faith will ultimately come about with a renewal in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Pope Benedict tells us in no uncertain terms that this is an arduous task, but we were born for this time in history, we are blessed to be here, and we have the strength of God and Our Lady’s intercession to guide us. May we be courageous, yet charitable and humble, as we travel this path.
V. Conclusion
With the daily pressure upon me for the parish (2 Corinthians 11:28), the center of my vocation still remains prayer and study, culminating in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The contemplation of truth still brings me great happiness and peace, renewing my vocation daily.
When I look back on my past ten years as a priest, I am very grateful to the Lord for many blessings, but perhaps most of all for preserving my priesthood from falling into any number of disasters. Both disasters which are obvious, and disasters which are more subtle, like poisons which cause a priest to become disoriented from the truth. This is why I am so grateful to be the Pastor of St. Mary Church. I have arrived to a safe harbor where the Lord can be worshipped in spirit and truth, and the Gospel can be preached in its entirety.
When the Lord ascended to heaven and founded his Church on Pentecost, I like to think that this was what He had in mind: priests who would “devote (themselves) to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4), that they would be “free to worship (the Lord) without fear” (Luke 1:73), preaching the word “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2), so that the Church would flourish. Our parish church devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary is growing, becoming a light to the world, and a source of strength to many people even beyond our parish boundaries. To be Pastor of such a project is truly a gift for which I give thanks this day.
Related Articles
No user responded in this post