I am Fr. Kyle Schnippel,
Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. I originally hail from the northern reaches
of the Archdiocese, as I say, where the faith is still very much alive. I am very honored that my mother drove down
this morning to be here as part of this retreat. As every priest knows, he would not be at the
altar without the loving support of his mother.
I’m very lucky in that not only my mom but my whole family was very
supportive of my vocation to the priesthood and continue to pray for me as I do
for them. In fact, Grand-Baby Schnippel
#19 is due any time now.
However, my task today is to
reflect on three interrelated topics to set the stage for launching this
apostolate: The Importance of the Priesthood, Spiritual Motherhood and ‘Why
this apostolate?’ I will visit each of
these topics in due course of my reflections this morning. I have been given an hour to share my
thoughts, which is probably about 45 minutes too long! But nonetheless, away we go.
On the question of the
importance of the priesthood, we begin not with the priest himself, but in the
very nature of the human person, all the way back to the creation of Adam. As Adam was created in the Garden of Eden,
there was an incompleteness, a lack within the self, for he was out of
relationship. In His infinite wisdom,
God recognizes that ‘it is not good for the man to be alone, let us make a
suitable partner for him.’ And God sets
out to create all the plants and animals for the man to name, yet none are
suitable, none are reflections of God Himself, until, at last, bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh, Eve is created from his very side as the one suitable
partner in all of creation. Man was
created for the transcendent, there is a longing for more at the very core of
who we are as human beings. As we use
our thought to reflect on the nature of the world around us, we see that there
is more than meets the eye. Nature
itself reveals the fingerprints of God and points us to both the source of all
creation and the goal of all creation.
In this recognition, we hear the echoes of St. Augustine’s great
awareness: ‘You have made us for Yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless
until they rest in You!’
This plays out repeatedly in
the Scriptures, but perhaps never so clearly as when Jesus, following the
Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5-7 or Matthew’s Gospel begins to go around Galilee performing miracles and forming
his closest disciples. As He looks to
the crowd that follows after Him, as he visits the towns and villages, Saint Matthew reports that ‘at the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with
pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a
shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the
harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”’[1]
Isn’t this interesting that
the most often quoted passage that speaks of the need of praying for vocations to the priesthood follows Jesus recognizing the
hunger in our hearts of the transcendent?
This shows the connection that exists between this longing and Christ
establishing the priesthood as His continual presence in the Church and the
World after His Ascension.
For, right after He commands
us to pray for shepherds after His own heart, Jesus then calls the Twelve
forward to begin forming them in the mission they will have after His
Resurrection. At this point, Chapter 10
of Matthew’s account of the Gospel, Jesus sends the twelve
only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, commissioning them to share in
the program that He had begun over the previous chapters of the account.
By the end of the Gospel,
that mission is no longer just to the lost sheep of Israel, but it has become
universal: ‘The eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him,
they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All
power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you. And behold, I am with you always,
until the end of the age.”’[2]
Jesus commissions the Eleven
here (and soon to return to Twelve with the addition of Matthias) to take His mission to the world, specifically as priests, for it is the priest that blesses and
sanctifies, it is the priest who has the specific mission to teach, it is the
priest who consecrates the Eucharist, Christ’s enduring REAL presence still here among us in this very chapel.
Hence, we are able to
reflect on the priest as a living icon of Christ. He is to be a window through whom we are to
see into the very mystery of life in Heaven, where there is neither marriage
nor giving in marriage (hence celibacy).
As a man, he personifies the life giving mission of Christ by giving
freely of himself outwardly so that others might have life. He stands as a sign of contradiction, just as
Jesus himself did: present in this age by guided by the things of the age to
come.
Why Priesthood? Because we instinctively know that there is
more here than meets the eye, and by catching sight of the priest, we are
offered a constant reminder that all of us have a destiny awaiting in heaven
should we simply move away from our self-centered tendency to live for Christ,
and Him alone!
SPIRITUAL MOTHERHOOD
If that is why it is
important to have priests, why is it important to have spiritual mothers of
priests?
Again, as with all things,
we turn to the Scriptures. Tradition is
pretty strong that after the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord, Mary was
taken in by John to live with him and he was her ‘guardian’ so to speak. So even though Mary is only present in his
account of the Gospel twice, those two instances are of vital importance. We will look at each one and then a few
instances from history as we turn to part number three of these reflections.
Mary has only two speaking
lines in the entirety of the Gospel according to John: ‘Son, they have no
wine.’ and to the servants: ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Both occur during the Wedding Feast of Cana
as Jesus turns a large amount of water into a large amount of wine, and good
wine at that.
These two lines of our
Blessed Mother have been reflected on countless times through the ages to show
Mary’s role of intercessor before Her Son, which I certainly do not want to
diminish here, but I would rather like to focus on them from a different
perspective, trying to take a step back and look at what is happening in the
thread of the story of Jesus at this point in the Gospel.
This is still very early in
the Gospel narrative, just chapter 2 of John’s account and it seems to take
place prior to the events that are related in the synoptic Gospels as far as
Jesus’ public ministry goes. As we turn
back the page to Chapter 1, what do we see?
Jesus is slowly starting to amass a following and has started to invite
specific followers to join Him in his peripatetic wanders. Andrew and Simon; Philip and Nathanael have
started to journey with him and are hinted that they are attending this wedding
with Jesus.
As Mary sees her son return
to their native place (Cana is a short distance from Nazareth) and that he has
brought disciples with Him, she recognizes that His Hour is now
approaching. It is time for Him to begin
to fulfill the Mission that has been laid down for him from the foundation of
the world. The light must shine into the
darkness and the cosmic battle that will play out over the rest of the Gospel
narrative takes up the first act, as it were, after the initial prologue of
Chapter 1.
We see in Mary’s gentle
invitation to Jesus ‘Son, they have no wine…’ as her invitation to Him to begin
to say yes. In a sense, this is her
gentle push out the front door, giving her assent to this Mission. How many times do we need that gentle little
push from mom to get out the door (have to admit, my mom’s wasn’t always
gentle!) and get going on what we have been called to do? Mary gives us a model of how to do so, both
in this gentle little reminder and in her follow up instruction to the
servants. ‘Fine, if He won’t listen,
I’ll make Him go!’
The lesson is, of course,
don’t cross your mother! Or, if we just
followed what she asked us to do in the first place, wouldn’t we all be
happier?
But a mother’s wisdom is
deep and profound, both for that child and for the rest of the family. There is a rather curious little encounter
back in Matthew’s account of the Gospel, again at the end of a
period of Jesus performing a set of miracles and other events and in the midst
of a further set of teaching. At the end
of Chapter 12, Jesus’ mother and brothers ‘appeared outside, wishing to speak
with him. But he said in reply, “Who is
my mother? Who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his
disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly
Father is my brother, and sister and mother.”’[3]
Does this somehow indicate a
slight towards Mary? It certainly seems
to on first glance. Rather, I think one
way of interpreting it is to look at this passage in a way that Mary is helping
to form the rest of the (extended) family to embrace the call that their
relative and friend has embraced.
Remember, she has a unique insight into this from His Birth that the
rest do not have. Therefore, not only
does she help Him to understand His mission, as we saw in the previous episode
from St. John, we also see that a mother helps others to understand the mission given to her son.
Once again, if you want to
‘persuade’ someone, don’t go to that person, go to their mother. She knows how to press his buttons better
than anyone else!
One final look at an episode
from the Gospels, and this one is fairly universal. The key moment in Jesus life is
Crucifixion. This is truly the lens
through which His entire mission and ministry is understood. And, once again, we see Mary present by His
side. At that most traumatic moment of
His life, either struggling with the acceptance of the Cross or reigning as the
King of Heaven, there is Mary, standing to his side, in love, in support, in
quiet encouragement of embracing the Mission given to Him by His Heavenly
Father.
Once again, how completely
human of the whole picture, and how much we are able to relate to this simple
act of support to our own lives. How
many times do moms sit on the sidelines of soccer practices? How many times do moms wait patiently while
her child is out later than expected?
How many times do moms quietly pray when she knows her child is going
through a particular trial or ordeal?
What our physical moms do, now we are able to turn and look to see our
‘spiritual moms doing the same thing.
WHY THIS APOSTOLATE?
And hence we turn to part
three as to why we need this apostolate.
Christopher Dawson, the
great English historian and anthropologist, remarked that whenever anyone mocks
or challenges the ‘Church,’ the one they are really attacking is the Catholic
Church. Now, they hardly have the
decency to pretend otherwise as the attacks on our Church have grown stronger
and more direct over just the last few months.
And our priests and bishops will be forced to lead the charge against
it. If they (we) are not strong and firm
in our convictions, we will not be able to lead you in the contest we face
these days. It is as simple as that.
The Anchoress who blogs for
Patheos, an online religious portal, wrote a while back under the provocative
title: ‘Don’t pray for good priests!’ We
do not need ‘good’ priests right now, we need excellent priests, we need holy
priests, we need courageous priests. And
this is where your prayers can come in.
We got a bit of flack a
while ago in the Vocation Office when we put out a program that had a simple
quote from St. John Vianney on the priesthood.
It went something like ‘There are no bad priests, just priests who’s
people haven’t prayed hard enough for him!”
And while certainly even priests are free to turn aside from the grace
offered by Christ through the intercession of the faithful, there is an
indication of the familial dimension of our faith in this statement. As the priest stands and offers the Sacrifice
on your behalf, you offer your prayers and intercessions on his behalf.
Do not think these are empty
prayers or unneeded prayers, they are very much needed. As I was given the title of this talk, I was
asked to explain what was contained in the document that introduced this
concept to the Church. On the eighth of
December, 2007, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Congregation
for the Clergy released the following document: ‘Adoration, Reparation,
Spiritual Motherhood for Priests’[4] As I looked at it earlier this week, I
thought, ‘How am I going to fit a 40 page document into an hour talk?’
Well, then I, umm, actually
read the thing. It contains mostly
stories of the impact that this type of prayer has had on priests and bishops
over the centuries. If you Google ‘Congregation
for the Clergy Spiritual Motherhood’ it will be the first result to come up and
I will have this copy available in the back during lunch, but I would like to
share a few of the stories told in this document.
Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa,
d.1464, had a dream one night. He
entered a small chapel and despite the tiny size, more than 1,000 nuns were
praying in unison. Standing together,
each one had her hands raised in prayer, carrying the soul of a man, woman,
child; some together held a city or even a nation. He was struck with divine bliss as he saw one
elderly nun who held him in prayer, with all ‘the wrinkles of his age; he saw
the blemishes of his soul and his life in all their clarity.’ His guide through this dream gently explained
“Now you see how sinners are sustained and carried and, in spite of their sins,
have not given up loving God.” The
basement of the little chapel was filled with nuns who carried in their hearts
the souls of those who had ceased loving God, interceding that the ember of
faith might be rekindled in them.
Cardinal Cusa turned the Bishop’s Castle into a convent for Benedictine
Nuns, where they remain to this day.
The little village of Lu,
northern Italy, outside of Turin, was also noted. Roughly 150 years ago, the mothers of this
small village got together in a shared desire that one of their sons might
become priests. Gathering together every
Tuesday for Adoration, they interceded before our Eucharistic Lord for priests,
even to the point of offering their sons for this holy vocation. Every ten years, the sons and daughters of
this little village of a few thousand who have become priests and/or religious
return home to see one another. At last
count, they numbered over 300, some of whom have even now been beatified.
One final story. Archbishop Schnurr tells the story of preparatory work that he was
involved with in the lead up to World Youth Day, Denver. At one point, they submitted the plans
reworking and expanding the schedule of World Youth Day from just a weekend
event to the week long event that it now has.
As the comments came back from the dicastry in Rome, the Cardinal
overseer questioned the program that was submitted. ‘There is no time for fun in this
program!’ Then Father Schnurr remarked:
‘Eminence, we submitted a number of things, but your staff removed them
all.’ The Cardinal replied: ‘They are
teenagers, they can’t be on their knees all the time!’ So the schedule was reworked and times of
celebration were included. This
Cardinal, whose name I simply could not remember nor was Google any help in
finding, was a rockstar during World Youth Day, kids flocked to him, even
though he spoke only Italian and Spanish.
I mention him because his
mother was told after her first child that she would never be able to have
another child. This son of hers was her
20th and last child. His cause
of canonization was introduced the same day as Pope John Paul II. For those who trust in God’s providence and
care, God will reward with greater generosity and care.
We have briefly discussed
the need for the priesthood in our day and age as a way of responding to that
deep need for the transcendent that exists in our world. We have looked at how Mary, Mother of Jesus
and Mother of priests, stood beside Her Divine Son during the key moments of
His life, reflecting on the events that she witnessed in the silence of her
heart. We have looked at how religious
and laity have prayed for priests down through the ages.
It is now our turn to take
up the call. Unless we have the courage
and conviction to ask for a miracle, it will never happen. Pray for me and my brother priests, pray for
us to be courageous and wise shepherd; bold and daring preachers, compassionate
and gentle confessors; that the tides of the enemy that seek to wash away the
Church may once again be turned back by the rock solid faith which you exhibit
this day.
God Bless and please be
assured of my prayers for you.
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