From Our Pastor: 11th Sunday In Ordinary Time

This weekend’s readings tell us that the Lord has chosen Israel to be His beloved people, a people set apart, a holy nation, a priestly people, and kingdom! We the church are the new Israel because of Christ. A Lord who loves you so much that He chooses you, and all you need to do is love rightly Him in return. He died for you as Paul says in the letter to the Romans that He died for you even though we don’t deserve it at all. We deserve death by our sin, but instead Christ offers us life, if we accept, and not just life, but life eternal.

The gospel tells us that Jesus had pity for the people because they were lost like sheep without a shepherd. They have no one to lead them, so not only lost without guidance, but also without protection, and often protection from their own dangers. Jesus promises them the gift of laborers for the harvest, who are few. We must remember the job of the priests is not to be liked, is not to entertain, is not to make you laugh, is not to be what the world wants us to be, but instead to be shepherds. This means protecting the sheep, often from themselves, but also from the dangers of the outside world. The job of the priest is to guide and lead, and often times poke and prod, sometimes forcefully, in the right direction to protect and lead the sheep rightly. Priests are not called to lead the sheep to where they want them to go or where they think the church should go or be, but instead to where the Holy Spirit is leading them to Christ, the stream of living water. Sadly, so often priests put in their personal preferences or ideas or wishful thinking as teachings of the Church. Sadly, they have led you astray in their way instead of the way of Christ and His Church. Seek the answers. Seek the truth. It’s spelled out fairly clearly, but so often priests are afraid to do the right thing because it won’t be popular, or the people will get angry or threaten to leave or even leave instead of seeking the truth.

The truth is clear in the Church’s teachings and the Church’s liturgies. Pope Francis states in these very words in his apostolic letter, Desiderio desideravi, “Let us be clear here: every aspect of the celebration must be carefully tended to (space, time, gestures, words, objects, vestment, song, music...) and every rubric must be observed. Such attention would be enough to prevent robbing from the assembly what is owed to it; namely, the paschal mystery celebrated according to the ritual that the Church sets down.” We can’t just make it up. We can’t just do whatever I or you or anyone wants in the liturgy. We are told what to do, and we as a people need to get over our personal preferences to seek instead what the Church is asking.

The laborers are few and we need to be grateful for the fact we have any laborers. We need to pray for our priests, especially the ones we don’t like or disagree with. It is very difficult to be a priest and often times discouraging by the treatment, not of the world (as that’s almost expected), but of their own people. We need to support them and hear them out even when we disagree, as long as it’s the teaching of the Church. We must be careful of what we ask for because often there are worse options or sadly no options left to send. We need to be grateful to have a priest at all and learn to love them even if they are difficult to love or if we struggle to understand them either by language or by what they teach. Stop seeking out the easy way or the way we like, but instead the Lord’s way and the way of truth, which shouldn’t be a surprise, isn’t always roses and butterflies. Expect it to be challenging and step up to the challenge and seek the truth. Pray for all priests.

We need to pray for more priests. They are there. They are sitting in our midst. Pray for them. Encourage them! Tell them they would make a good priest. Don’t be discouraged if something doesn’t work out the way we want, but instead to encourage them to follow the Lord. He is calling young men in our very midst. I know it. I see it. They also tell me. BUT sadly, parents discourage it, they don’t encourage their children to be open to it, they don’t pray for their children to find their right vocation. We don’t teach them to pray for their right vocation. We don’t often teach young men and women to open their hearts to see what the Lord is calling them to. Instead of asking them what they want to do, ask them instead what God wants them to do. It may be priesthood, it may be as a religious brother or sister, it may be as a consecrated, it may be as a deacon or it may be as a married person. God is calling them by name to something great! Pray they have the courage to answer and that they seek the Lord’s call and not their own. Jesus called the twelve today by name, and He continues to do so today and just like in the gospel today, He sends them out to do the work He calls them to at all costs!

-Rev. Steven Arisman