Fr. JC Maximilian

[Icon of Jesus, the Eternal High Priest. Chosen for this Year for Priests]

St. Mark tells us in today’s Gospel reading that when Jesus got off the boat, upon seeing the vast crowd, “His heart was moved….” “His heart was moved….” What an amazing phrase, when you stop to think about it. What a very different image comes to mind when you hear, “His heart was moved…”, then the image one gets when you hear Aristotle describe God, philosophically, as “The unmoved Mover.” With Aristotle’s description, you only get an impersonal, abstract construct or idea. But when you hear Jesus described as having His heart moved, you know that we are speaking about a person. When we are talking about Jesus, we know that we are not talking merely about an abstract concept or idea. Rather, we are dealing with a God who loves us so profoundly that He took on our human nature so that He could be one with us. Jesus has a human heart; He took one on purpose so that He could be close to us. Jesus really cares for us. Jesus feels our needs and struggles even more deeply than we feel them ourselves. And he continually reaches out to be our leader, our light, and our strength. When we accept these gifts, he is pleased, truly gratified. But when we reject them, he is hurt, truly stung by our ingratitude.

Through the Holy Spirit and the Church, he extends his friendship to us, trying to draw us more fully into the indescribable joys of his own divine life, so that someday, when the time is right, we may enjoy that place he is preparing for us in heaven. We all know this, but how deeply do we believe it? Not deeply enough; that’s why the Church constantly reminds us that God urgently desires our friendship. Every human being desires to live in communion with God; only those who find Christ get to live out that communion in the form of a real, human friendship.

Two of the most beautiful signs of God’s love for us, which the Church has continued to encourage all of us to receive frequently, are the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confession. It is not surprising that these two were so special to St. John Vianney, the patron saint for parish priests. This year we will celebrate the 150th anniversary of St. John Vianney’s death, and Pope Benedict XVI has taken this opportunity to proclaim the Year for Priests, a year in which the whole Church reflects on the gift that God has given to the world by establishing the Catholic priesthood.

For those who do not know much about St. John Vianney, he lived in France during the 1800s. His journey towards priesthood was a long one; he was not considered a very good student. When he was finally ordained, he was sent to Ars, which was considered one of the most unfavorable assignments. Ars was basically a town bars, brothels and gambling joints. Few of the people went to Mass, and even fewer went to Confession. St. John spent long hours, days, and years witnessing to God’s love for the people of Ars, and God’s strong desire for them to turn away from their sins, and embrace the friendship that Christ offers everyone. His persistence in God’s love paid off. There came a profound spiritual renewal in Ars. St. John would spend long hours in the confessional – 12 to 15 hours a day – celebrating the sacrament of God’s mercy not only with the people of Ars, but also with the many pilgrims who came to hear him preach at Mass. St. John had a deep love for the Eucharist. He would spend hours in Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. One of my favorite quotes from him is when he was asked what he does during his long time in adoration, St. John said, “I look at Him, and He looks at me.”

Two days before St John Vianney died at the age of seventy-three, he received Holy Communion for the last time. He was extremely weak, unable to rise from bed, completely exhausted from his decades of tireless service to his little parish of Ars. The parishioners gathered around his rectory, kneeling in prayer, tears streaming down their faces. After receiving his last Holy Communion, he whispered: “How kind the good God is! When we are no longer able to go to him, he comes to us.”

That’s what Jesus does for each of us in the sacrament of the Eucharist – he makes it easy for us to find him and go to him, and when even that is beyond our power, he himself comes to us. That’s the Heart of our Savior, a heart burning with love for us.

In this Year for Priests, this message is especially powerful. The Holy Father, in deciding to call for a year in which the Church puts the spotlight on the priesthood, is not trying to feed the egos of the priests. He is trying to remind all Catholics that God is present, active, and interested in our lives. God hasn’t abandoned us and never will abandon us. The priest, the priesthood, the sacraments, still around in spite of persecution, cultural transformation, and scandals – are proofs that God is still with us.

There are at least two things each one of us can do to help the Church celebrate this Year for Priests. First, we can pray for our priests. Jesus turned some very rough and very normal fishermen into the Twelve Apostles, men who were faithful to their mission up to the point of giving their lives for it. If Jesus did that with the Twelve, He can do it with today’s priests too – and we can help with our prayers. Second, we can pray for God to call more young men to the priesthood. In today’s Gospel we heard how Christ’s heart was moved at seeing the crowds, who were “like sheep without a shepherd.” That is a good description of popular culture in our society today, which often reveres celebrities who are models of self-indulgence more than self-sacrifice. We need more reminders in this world that there is another way to live, another purpose beyond satisfying our basic instincts. Priests are meant to be those reminders; we should all ask God to give the world more of them.

As we continue with this Mass, and as we then in Holy Communion we receive the bread of life from our Good Shepherd, let’s thank Him for not giving up on us, and let’s promise that we will do our part to keep His plans moving forward.