Changing the Job Interview
Acts 5:27-32, 40-41
To
the church in the diaspora[1]
&
to the church of the unchurched[2]
Introduction
Back to fishing
After Jesus’ death and burial which
seemed to put a dismal end to everything, Simon Peter said to the other
disciples, “I am going fishing” (Jn 21:3). He wasn’t saying, “I’m going to take
a day off.” He was saying, “I’m going back to my old job of fishing.” The late
Elizabeth Kübler Ross, who frequently claimed she wasn't a religious person,
reminded her audiences that we deal correctly with the death of a loved one
only when we painfully decide to go back to our jobs.
Poor fishing
after the resurrection (John 21: 1-19)
One night not long after the disciples went
back to their old job, they fished all night long on
Poor fishing
before the resurrection (Lk 5:1-10)
The New Testament records another miraculous catch of fish.
This one occurred during Jesus’ earthly lifetime. One day when he was in
Peter’s boat on
Poor
fishing today
The fishing was poor at times for the apostles. It is particularly
poor for us today. We, the church, have
a shortage crisis on our hands. It’s not a shortage of fish; mysteriously our
nets are hauling in the faithful in good numbers despite our painful scandal.
It’s a shortage of fishers of men--a shortage of priests whose mission
is to haul in people for Christ.
In a small volume
entitled, Why I Am still A Christian,
Swiss German theologian Fr. Hans Küng writes,
I cannot believe that he, who said “I have compassion on the crowds,”
would have increasingly deprived congregations of their pastors and allowed a
system of pastoral care built up over a period of thousand years to collapse.
A system of
pastoral care which provided priests and shepherds for God’s people is
collapsing before our very eyes. Because of that priest shortage, here in
Milwaukee three parishes (St. Rita, St. Hedwig, and Holy Rosary) had to join
together to form a cluster parish with a funny name like Church of the Three Holy Women. With the addition Old St. Mary’s
it’s a cluster now of four holy women!
The gospel today speaks to us, the church, in our poor fishing plight. As we go fishing for fishers of men (for priests) we’re fishing “on the wrong side” of the boat. Jesus commands us to fish “on the right side” of the boat. On the right side of the boat swim schools of good fish waiting to be harvested for ordained ministry. If we obey the Lord, we will make a great catch of 153 fishers of men.
The question
These are good
days for us Catholics who are without priests and parishes and patron saints
like Sts. Rita, Hedwig and Mary of the Holy Rosary. The poor fishing--the acute priest-shortage--is a blessing. The more acute the crisis
becomes the greater is the blessing. An oriental wisdom sees a crisis as a
great moment of opportunity. The crisis before inspires us to ask a bare-boned
and pared-down question about the priesthood. It’s a question we would never
have thought of asking had we no crisis. The question is this: When we, the priestly community, go fishing
for a priestly head, what, we ask, should we be fishing for? Upon what should
we, the priestly community, be expending our time and energy as we go fishing
for our priestly head?
At heart, it’s
a question of what is a priest. I have had fifty-five
years to ponder that question, and over the years I have hammered out an answer
for myself. That answer is a light year
away from the one I had on the eve of my ordination to a pre-Vatican II church
and a pre-Vatican II priesthood. (That’s called growth.) My answer now isn’t a
one-line, clear-cut, wooden answer. Such answers never do justice to spiritual
and mystic realities.
Good at mystery
As a starter, a priest is
one who is good at mystery.
He cherishes the mystery of God. His God lives “in light inaccessible” (I Tim
Good at poetry
A priest is also one who is good at poetry. He’s
good at using words in such a way that they say more than what they say. At
Mass a priest flows with the seasons. He gives thanks for Spring which “warms
our mother the earth and calls forth the bloom from the tomb of winter.” He
gives thanks for the sun which “lengthens the summer day, and tans our mother
the earth with rolling field of hay. “ He
gives thanks for the fall harvest of apples and pumpkins--“God’s bounty
gathered into bins against the long winter night. “In winter he gives
thanks to the Father for the Son born for us “so that we might wildly know that
mercy blankets all the land more surely than the snow.”
Years ago as a young priest, I read a line from the
Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner. He said, "The perfect priest is perfect
poet." I liked that. At that time I didn't know what it meant; now after
many years I know what it means.
Good at ecstasy
A priest is one who is good at revelation. In Latin revelare means to draw back a veil or curtain and offer a glimpse
at the other side--a glimpse of glory. With the glimpse of glory comes ecstasy. When the priestly community
goes fishing for a priestly head, it should go fishing for someone who’s good
at ecstasy—good at lifting up the
Sunday assembly to the heights of
Good at tragedy
A priest is one who is
good at the tragic dimension which is stitched inescapably into the fabric of
all our lives. In the face of natural disasters or human tragedies, like the massacre
at Virginia Tech, a priest is good not with glib words to explain away the
mystery of evil or to console the grief-stricken; he is good simply at standing
wordlessly beside those who weep until they can painfully decide to go back to their
jobs.
Good
at loving
Finally, a priest is one who is especially good at being a loving
human being. After the
appearance of the risen Lord on the shore of the
As you enter that marvelous miracle in marble which is St. Peter’s Basilica, and as you look up into its lofty heights, you can see there that job-interview and the conferral of the job written with gold mosaic letters six feet tall both in Latin and in Greek. “Simon Ioannis, amas me?” (“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”) “Pasce oves meas.” (“Feed my sheep.”) The lettering is so outstanding that you seem to hear the voices of Jesus and Peter in it.
Changing our job-interview
We solve the acute shortage of fishers of men in the
church today by changing our job-interview. Our job interview
for ordained ministry asks (three times for sure), “Are you a celibate?” Jesus didn’t ask Peter, “Are you a celibate?”
He wasn’t celibate. The gospels say that he had a mother-in-law, and that one
day Jesus cured her of a fever (Mt
Our job interview asks (three times for sure), “Are you a male?” Jesus didn’t ask Peter, “Are you a male?” Indeed, he was a male--a rough and tough fisherman. But that has nothing to do with ministry. Women, in fact, are better at ministering than men.
Our job interview is even tempted to ask, ”Are you a
saint?” Jesus didn’t ask Peter, “Are you a
saint?” He was, in fact, a sinner
who denied his Lord three times (Lk
We, the church, must launch off into the deep and change our job interview for ministry. We should not expend our time and energy looking for a celibate or a male or even a saint. We should spend our time and energy fishing for someone who is good at mystery, ecstasy, tragedy, and especially good at loving.
Conclusion
We all win
Of
such fish there is no shortage. If there is a shortage, it’s man-made like the
energy shortage at the pump these days.
The problem is that those fish are swimming on the right side of our
boat, and we’re fishing on the wrong side. In our crisis, Jesus is ordering us
to cast our nets on the right side. If we obey like Peter and his partners,
we’ll make a grand haul of 153 fishers of men. That’s more than enough to serve the needs of
the people of God.
If
we obey, we all win. Healthy young men who want to minister, and who also want
to marry will win. Women, too, who have a knack for ministering will win. Those
three or four holy women who had to join a cluster will also win: they’ll each
get back their own individual church each with its own priest and each with its
own patron saint. Pope Benedict XVI, who celebrated his eightieth birthday last
Monday (April 16), and I, who celebrated my eighty-second birthday last March will
win: we both will be able to retire before we are ninety, and that could help
solve the problem of gerontocracy in the church today.
Prayers
of the Faithful
April
22, 2007
Introduction
The Virginia Tech Massacre took place last Monday,
April 16, 2007, on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University in Blacksburg, Virginia, in two separate attacks approximately two
hours apart. A gunman killed 32 people and injured 29 before committing
suicide, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern U. S. history. The
gunman, Cho Deung-hui, a horribly benighted and lonely human being crying for
help (into whose business no one chose to step) was born in South Korea. At the
age of eight he immigrated with his family to the U.S. and grew up in Northern Virginia.
As
the nation and world grieve with the
In peace, let
us pray to the Lord…. Lord have mercy!
1.
That
we, oh Lord, might know when it is time to mind our own business, and when it
is time not to mind our own business. That we might know when it is time
to take note that someone is hurting and crying for help. We are, indeed, our
brother’s keeper. In peace, let us pray to the Lord….
Lord have mercy!
2.
That
we, oh Lord, might know how to console those who grieve. We don’t do it with
words. There are no words, and so we don’t have to say anything. Help us, Lord,
to simply walk wordlessly beside the people we want to console. In
peace, let us pray to the Lord…. Lord
have mercy!
3.
That
we, oh Lord, in this monumental moment of national grief, might not be laid low
by ominous images of Cho Deung-hui
splashed over TV screens, brandishing the weapons that killed 32 students and
wounded 29. Rather, may we be lifted up by the candlelight services and eloquent
speeches about wonderful human beings delivered by other wonderful human
beings. In peace, let us pray to the
Lord…. Lord have mercy!
4.
That
the entire TV world-community might not overlook an extremely wounded victim--the family of Cho Deung-hui. It’s grief, too, is inconsolable. That this moment might not
call forth thoughtless ethnic reprisal but only deep compassion for a family
who cannot recognize one of its own in a son and brother. In peace, let us pray to
the Lord…. Lord have mercy!
5.
That
the
[1] Diaspora is a Greek word
meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered
colonies of Jews outside
[2] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!
[3] Called also