The Eternal Priesthood/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX.
THE PASTORAL OFFICE A SOURCE OF CONFIDENCE.
Beyond all doubt, the priest's helps are greater than the priest's dangers. But fear and anxiety can feel: they do not reason. The foresight of years of responsibility, the consciousness of our own weakness, the subtilty and strength of sin, the thought of our death-bed—all these weigh heavily at times upon us. The daily sight of sin; the wreck of many close around us, who began well and persevered long; the fall of priests who were our fellow-students and fellow-workers, or near friends; the memory how often we were near to the precipice, and our own feet had well-nigh slipped—these things keep alive a sense of fear in a priest's mind, and that fear is from the Holy Ghost. Confige carnes meas timore tuo ought to be our daily prayer. We have already seen many motives of confidence. We will dwell on one more and that is the pastoral office itself.
S. Peter three times denied his Master; three times Jesus asked him whether he loved Him; and three times He gave to Peter the pastoral care of His flock. This charge, therefore, was a sign of forgiveness, a proof of love, a pledge of salvation. This pledge was not exclusively given to Peter. It comes through Peter to us all. The pastoral care which we receive through him is to us also a test of our love, a proof of the love of Jesus, and a pledge of our salvation.
1. For first, to be a priest, as we have seen, is the highest predestination. The priest is called and ordained for the greatest glory of God. He is the first-fruits of the first-fruits of the new creation. He is called to the nearest approach to our Divine Redeemer, and to be a fellow-worker with Him in gathering out the elect from this evil world. In him are summed up all the tokens of acceptance that God ever gave to man. Peter of Blois says, "A priest has the primacy of Abel, the patriarchate of Abraham, the government of Noe, the order of Melchisedech, the dignity of Aaron, the authority of Moses, the perfection of Samuel, the power of Peter, the unction of Christ."[1] These are all so many seals hanging to the writ of His promise to save us. They are not mere titles but realities. The Good Shepherd said of His disciples, "My sheep hear My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of My hand. That which My Father hath given Me is greater than all, and no man can snatch them out of the hand of My Father."[2] If we fall wilfully out of that divine hand we destroy ourselves. No power can pluck us out of it against our will, so long as our will and God's will are one. "If God had a mind to kill us, He would not have received a holocaust and libations at our hands, neither would He have shown us all these things, nor have told us the things that are to come."[3] Every token of acceptance in our work, every light and grace, our perseverance year after year, day after day, are pledges of our salvation. "I will not now call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have learned of the Father I have made known to you. You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, that you should go and should bring forth fruit."[4] To have been chosen by Him out of all the world is by itself a revelation of His purpose to save us. To call us out of His servants to be His friends: to admit us to the knowledge of His work and will: to make known also to us the communications of the Father: to have chosen us when we thought not of Him, to have made us capable of serving Him—each and all these signs of grace pledge to us that His will is steadfast to save us if we do not betray ourselves.
2. And next, to be a pastor is to possess the most abundant source of grace. We have already seen the unfailing supply of sacramental grace proportionate to our needs, duties, and dangers; and also the grace which attaches to the state in which we are. On this we need not dwell again; but there is a twofold discipline in the exercise of the pastoral office which aids us in a special degree in working out our salvation. The one is the continual augmentation of charity; the other is the continual exercise of self-denial.
"God is charity; and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him."[5] And God is the life of the soul. Where this life abides, except through our infidelity, the second death has no power. God will never revoke His gifts. He wills not the death even of a sinner. He pleads with him, "Why will ye die?"[6] "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye may have life."[7] He who loves God has the earnest and pledge of eternal life.
So S. Paul reasoned. His conversion, his call, his apostleship, his mission, were all pledges of the love of God, and of its immutability on God's part. But our love to God may be increased all our life long. Every act of piety towards Him receives an augmentation of love. Every true prayer of the heart kindles the grace of charity. All mental acts of contemplation and adoration bring an increase of love into the soul of the least and the humblest, in the busiest and the most overburdened life. How much more in the life of a priest and of a pastor, whose whole toil in thought, word, and deed is in and for the kingdom of God. Every Mass we say, every recital of the Divine Office, may be an act springing from love to God, and drawing down accessions of love into the heart. The augmentation of charity in our union with God may go on accumulating every moment. Every aspiration, every desire, every inward act of obedience, patience, submission, and longing after God unites us more closely in love to Him, and enlarges our heart with His love, turning our hope into confidence, and quickening our course. Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri, cum dilatasti cor meum.[8] As the heart is dilated the love of God increases, and as it increases it dilates the heart still more.
But where the love of God is, there is the love of our brethren. Where a fountain is, there is a stream. As a stream flows from a fountain, so the love of God pours itself out in love to man. The stream proves the fountain to be there. Therefore S. John says, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."[9] Our love to them proves our love to Him; and he that loves God abides in God, and has passed from death to life; for God is our eternal life, and He dwells in us even now. The continual exercise of brotherly love to all—to our flock, to our kindred, to our friends, and to our enemies—in all the extension of charity, is a discipline of perfection and of perseverance.
And this life of charity is more perfect in the proportion in which it exacts of us a mortification of self. But the sacerdotal or pastoral life is full of daily and hourly self-denial. We are called to die to ourselves, to our own wish and will and choice, and to be at the beck and bid of all, good and evil, reasonable and unreasonable, "becoming all things to all men, that I might save all."[10] It is a strange result of all our labour that only some may be saved. And yet for this we must die to ourselves, and go out of ourselves, and give up all right and claim over ourselves, for the elect's sake. The word expropriatio is full of a deep and searching sense. We "are not our own," we have lost all property in ourselves; for we are purchased by the most Precious Blood. This is S. Paul's meaning when he says, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus."[11] To be on our Master's side against sin, the world, and Satan, is not of our own act, but His who has predestinated and called us to His service. His will, and no will of ours, except under His preventing grace, has posted us in this warfare. "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you."[12]
3. Lastly, to be set and sent to save others is either the lot of Judas or the lot of the beloved disciple. We may make it either. We may then well mistrust ourselves, and ask, "Lord, which am I?"
But if we love the poor we need not doubt, for Judas cared not for the poor; and if we love our Divine Lord we cannot doubt, for Judas sold Him. We are not the beloved disciple, for he was sinless, and we are sinful; but we are disciples, and we are beloved, and our lot is full of the signs of salvation. S. Vincent of Paul said, "O Jesus, why didst Thou come down upon earth? For the love of Thy neighbour. Poor priest, what has brought thee to this, to be cold and hungry and wearied, and all alone in the world, and in the wind and the weather and the winter? The love of souls." But who gave us this love? It is a sixth sense, which the few possess and the many cannot comprehend. The priest is called to show perfection in himself, and to exercise it upon others. He is not only saved to save others, but sanctified for their sanctification.[13] He is set as the light to give light, as the salt to resist corruption, as the good odour of Christ, like the censer between the living and the dead. If, after all this, he be a castaway, great indeed must be his infidelity to the Holy Ghost.
What motive to confidence is then wanting to the priest? He is encompassed by the signs of God's love and power. The will of God to save him eternally is made known to him by every token and pledge short of a direct and personal revelation. This strong and changeless confidence is a motive to self-oblation in greater things, and to self-denial in the less. Hope is a source of joy, and joy is a source of strength. The downcast and timid are weak and inert. The hopeful and confident are energetic and courageous. Fear does not honour our Divine Master. But trust springs from a perception of His love. Hope is a gift of the Holy Ghost, infused in Baptism and matured by exercise. S. Paul says that we are saved by hope, and he prays, "The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope and in the power of the Holy Ghost."[14]
Gedeon's three hundred men who lapped the water were of more worth in the battle than the multitude that drank kneeling, and the two-and-twenty thousands fearful and timorous who went away.[15] The proclamation sounds to this day along the whole line of those who aspire to the priesthood: "What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest he make the hearts of his brethren to fear, as he himself is possessed by fear."[16] When once posted by our Lord in the array of the battle no priest need fear. If he be faithful the hand of his Divine Master will be a helmet of salvation upon his head.
In all times of anxiety and fear and doubt and discouragement we may say: "God has foreknown and predestinated me to be a priest: He has called and justified and adopted me into the glory of His sons. He has sealed me with the mark of His soldiers and signed me with the character of His priests. He has guided and guarded me in youth and manhood, and has preserved me to this day, supporting my perseverance by the ever-present and unfailing help of His manifold grace in every time of need. In every change of the warfare which is against me, I know that He wills my salvation. What has He left undone that He could do to save me? One thing He will never do: He will never take away from me my free will. And this is my only danger. If I freely betray myself or forsake Him, then I shall perish; but if my will is united with Him, He will guide and guard me, not only from my enemies without, but even from myself. If only I have no will to grieve Him, and a true will to hold fast by Him, He will keep me even unto death." "The sure foundation of God standeth firm, having this seal. The Lord knoweth who are His, and let every one depart from iniquity who nameth the name of the Lord."[17]
Our very state, then, is the highest ground of confidence.
The state and work of priests and of pastors, if we are faithful to our Divine Master, is blessed everywhere throughout the universal Church. In the countries of the Old World, where the world is strong and corrupt, and faith and piety are weak, they who have the cure of souls have much to suffer. To watch a flickering and departing life is the saddest office of love and patience. The nations and people of the Old World for three hundred years have been descending, some rapidly and with violence, some slowly and insensibly but steadily, from the light and order of faith. Spurious reformation has generated revolution, and revolution has desecrated the sovereignties and states of Christendom, leaving the Church isolated as in the beginning. The pastors of the flock have many sorrows over souls that are rushing to perdition, and for the outrages wreaked upon the Church. It is a grievous thing to see a Catholic or a Christian people turning its back to the light. Nevertheless, faithful pastors have the peace of knowing that they are on God's side, and that they are contending for the rights of God. In all their sorrows there is this deep joy, which none can take from them. S. John Chrysostom says: "The warfare of monks is great, and their labours many; but if one compare their toils to a priesthood well discharged, he will find as great a difference as between a private man and a king."[18]
And their consolation is in like proportion. But if this be true in the older regions of the Church, how much more is it true in England. Among us the Church is both old and new. We are a handful, but separate from the world, and from courts, and from the corrupt atmosphere of secular patronage and secular protection. The true protection of the Church is its own independence, and its true power is its own liberty. We are pastors of a flock descended from martyrs and confessors, and their fervour is not extinct in their posterity. We are in a special sense pastors of the poor; for the rich have gone away, and the vast prosperity of England is in hands that know us not. But to live among the poor was the lot of our Divine Master, and to share His lot is a pledge of His care. We are not only pastors of the poor, but poor ourselves. Poverty is the state of the priesthood in this the richest of all the kingdoms of the world. We are here bound together in mutual charity and service Our people are united to us in a generous love and mutual trust; and our priests are united to each other and to their Bishops. They are united to each other with bonds of fraternal love as close as, if not closer than, can be found in any region of the Catholic unity. If all these things be for us, what shall be against us?
- ↑ Serm. lx. ad Sacerdotes, Opp. p. 373.
- ↑ S. John x. 27-29.
- ↑ Judges xiii. 23.
- ↑ S. John xv. 15, 16.
- ↑ 1 S. John iv. 16.
- ↑ Jer. xxvii 13.
- ↑ S. John v. 40.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 32.
- ↑ 1 S. John iii. 14.
- ↑ 1 Cor. ix. 22.
- ↑ 2 Cor. iv. 6.
- ↑ S. John xv. 16.
- ↑ "We must first be purified and then purify others; be filled with wisdom and make others wise; become light and give light; be near to God and lead others to Him; be sanctified and sanctify; guide others by the hand and counsel them with knowledge."—S. Greg. Naz. Orat. ii. § lxxi.
- ↑ Rom. xv. 13.
- ↑ Judges vii. 3-7.
- ↑ Deut. xx. 8.
- ↑ 2 S. Tim. ii. 19.
- ↑ De Sacerdotio, lib. vi. 5.