It’s quite a few years since I actually spoke about vocations to the priesthood on this day. There have been a variety of reasons for this, not least of which was the fact there are so many things I could say on a subject which has been so central to my whole life since the age of twelve and about which I have so many thoughts that I could never have done them justice in one homily. This year, however, I would like to say something, a decision that grew out of the retreat I gave last week to a group of nuns in South Wales.
They were sisters of St Joseph of Annecy, and what makes them significant for me is that I first met them fifty years ago this year when, at the unbelievably tender age of twelve, instead of coming here to St Joseph’s Academy, where I would have met some of you, I went to Blairs College, the then National Junior Seminary near Aberdeen. How all that came about is another story, but in Blairs I met the Sisters of St Joseph who did all the domestic work in the college. Even now, I squirm at the thought of it. They were just skivvies who, among other things, polished the priests’ shoes. I remember one particular nun who spent fifty years in Blairs peeling potatoes every day to feed around 200 boys and fifteen or so priests. And so being with these sisters stirs all kinds of memories for me.
That was particularly true last Wednesday, however, during the final Mass of the retreat. As we came to the moment of the Consecration I was suddenly back at the 5th of September 1957, sitting in the corner of a train compartment in the old Buchanan Street railway station in Glasgow. It was 2.10. in the afternoon as the train moved slowly away and I watched my Mum and Dad disappear into the distance. It was an important and traumatic moment in my life, but, as the memories flooded back, the years just flashed before me and I was filled with a sense of amazement at all that had happened to that little boy in the fifty years since; how much I have changed, how good God has been and how much I have learned about priests and priesthood. And it was then that I knew I had to say something about vocations this weekend.
When I arrived in Blairs in 1957, priests, of whom I had only known two in my life, were almost like supernatural beings to me. I remember being both amazed and horrified by the way the other boys referred to the staff by their nicknames. The idea of calling any priest by his first name, let alone old baldy or big cheesie, shocked me. I was sure it was at least a mortal sin and for months after arriving was afraid to do it myself in case one of the priests would hear me and I would be expelled. Since then, of course, I have called priests all kinds of things and have got well-used to picking up the paper and reading all kinds of stories, some true and some untrue. One of my fellow-students in Blairs in 1957 was Gerry Nugent, the priest who has figured in the trial of the man accused of killing the polish girl in Glasgow. Who knows how he got to where he is today, but he was a good lad when I knew him and whatever has happened over the years could only be explained by someone able to understand the long-term effects that that experience had on some individuals.
And it was the same with the Church. As a child the Church was beyond all reproach in my mind. It was the fountain of all truth and all goodness, an illusion which laster longer than the one I had about priests being perfect beings. But it, too, fell apart over the years, as I was gradually initiated into the reality of Church life and saw close at hand what actually goes on. There are things about the Church that I hate and detest. Some of the things I have witnesed over the years have horrified me and continue to do so. There are times when I wonder why I remain part of such a dysfunctional organisation. And yet at no time over the years has there been even the remotest chance of my not doing so. And I heard another priest recently give an explanation for this. He is parish priest of St Charles Borromeo parish in Madrid and has been in the News recently, even over here. The parish has, for years now, been deeply involved with the poor of Madrid; drug addicts, prostitutes, immigrants, asylum seekers and so on. Recently, however, someone has reported them to the Vatican for not saying Mass properly. The priests among other things apparently, don’t wear vestments. And so the Archbishop of Madrid has been under pressure to close the parish down. And on Spanish TV a couple of weeks ago I saw an interview with the parish priest who was asked by a journalist why he didn’t leave the Church, as so many other people in Spain are doing. And his reply was so simple. He looked at her and said very gently; ‘I am a Spaniard. Many things go on in Spain that I don’t like. But I don’t stop being a Spaniard.’
Many things have happened to me, too, since 1957 when I first met those sisters I was with last week. Some of it has not been good, and yet, in the end, I would not change any of it. Overall, being a priest in the Catholic Church has been and remains for me the most wonderful experience of God’s goodness and power at work in the midst of human weakness, and on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the priesthood I have no difficulty in recommending it. Having said that, I would want to be careful. As with any other walk of life, not least marriage, there are many things that can go wrong. To survive in the Church today, whether as a committed lay person or a priest, you need to be free of the kind of naivety which very quickly leads to loss of faith when it confronts the harsh reality of what the Church and those in it can be like. There is no place here for fantasy or illusion. To survive as a priest in the Church today a person would need a faith that is robust and virtually unshockable, but if you are such a person or know somebody who is – provided, of course, you are male and single – go for it.
It has been very good to me.
BIDDING PRAYERS
We begin today by praying for all the priests in our own diocese, that God will fill them with joy and enthusiasm for their ministry. We pray in a particular way for those who struggle to cope with the realities of life in the Church at this moment in its history. We ask God to stir in them a profound sense of hope for the future, a hope which others will see in them and which will help them in their turn to be men and women of faith at this sometimes difficult time……………………….….Lord hear us
As the number of priests in our diocese continues to fall, more and more parishes are being left without a resident priest. Here in Kilmarnock, it is only a matter of time – and possibly a very short time - before we, too, will have to come to terms with this reality. And so we pray that, as this happens, we will respond to the challenge and finally begin to implement the Second Vatican Council’s vison of a Church filled with mature, committed and active lay men and women………………...Lord hear us
We pray, too, on this World Day of Prayer for Vocations to the Priesthood that God will raise up among us men, young and not so young, who will give serious consideration to the possibility of entering a seminary and perhaps becoming priests in a few years time. We pray, too, for those who have already done this and are currently in the process of training and formation, that God will give them the grace they need to discern his will for them………………….………………....Lord hear us
Over the years, many good priests have, for all kinds of reasons, chosen to leave the priesthood. And so we pray for them today, that, whatever path they have chosen to follow, it will lead them to God. We pray in a very special way, however, for those who, in the process of leaving were often deeply hurt and have, as a consequence, lost contact with the people they served, sometimes for many years….…Lord hear us
There are many questions surrounding the way the Church thinks of priesthood today. Many people argue for a married priesthood. Others campaign for the ordination of women. And so we ask God to give the whole Church at this moment in its long history the wisdom it needs to develop an understanding of priesthood fit for the age in which we live………………..Lord hear us
Every single one of us, of course, shares in the priesthood of Jesus through baptism. We are a priestly people, called to reach out to the world. And so we pray for the wisdom and openness we need to understand this and the courage to implement it for the sake of the men and women of our time, leaving behind the internal politics and petty disputes, so often rooted in jealousy, which we heard about in the first reading and which bedevil the Church in every age………………………………Lord hear us
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