The context is in today’s chosen Gospel passage. It is located between the two accounts of miracles that were proclaimed and heard during Lent. He healed the man born blind on the 4th Sunday of Lent and on the 5th, He raised Lazarus from the dead. The argument against curing the blind man on a Sabbath occasioned for Jesus a catechesis on the relationship between the Shepherd and the Sheep.
In teaching about what a herder should be like, the Lord modelled the shepherd on Himself. More than the ease of moving amongst sheep or that sheep are familiar with his voice, the heart of a shepherd is his willingness to lay down his life for them. There appears to be a thread that runs from the Sunday of Divine Mercy to the Breaking of Bread last weekend and to this Sunday, otherwise known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The link between the Road to Emmaus and the Good Shepherd grants us an opportunity to speak of vocation, notably, the priestly vocation.
The Gospel invites us to reflect on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. For some parishes, it is an occasion for sharing the vocation story of a priest. Sadly, last Monday we buried an emeritus Bishop. So, rather than giving a personal testimony, perhaps it might be more profitable to speak on the situation of the priestly vocation.
The priesthood is suffering a decline in number. If an active priest were to suffer an untimely demise, then the diocese would be gripped by a frenzy of adjustment to the new status quo. At it is, the diocese does not have “unemployed” priests. Our exorcist is already in his 80s. Many amongst the clergy are wearing one hat too many. Why is the number of vocation not increasing?
The dismal statistics may just expose our poor understanding of the nature of clerical vocation, the purpose of the Church and how the Lord intends to save. A common strategy in the last few decades has been to promote the vocation of a priest along the line of a professional career. It uses the matrix of productivity and it is ministry-centred rather than presenting vocation as a call to mirror Christ the High Priest. The ministry does not make the priest. Even a monkey can do the work of a priest. Instead we may have forgotten that it is the priest who sanctifies his ministry. As a result, vocation directors may have sacrificed the priestly vocation at the altar of productivity. A priest is a priest even if he does nothing. His main task is simply to be an “alter Christus”.
To speak of the priest as “another Christ” is not to idolise or put him on a pedestal but to state the truth that the “alter Christus” is a mirror of the Eucharist. If the Eucharist make the Church and the Church makes the Eucharist, then the core of the Church’s identity is the Eucharist. Holding on to the principle that every Sacrament is the work of Christ Himself done through the agency of the Church, then at the heart of this principle is the priest who stands in for the person of Christ.
According to the passage in John’s gospel which corresponds to the Institution Narratives found in the Synoptics, Jesus’ conversation with the 5000-strong crowd He fed, highlights the centrality of the Eucharist for eternal life. “If you desire eternal life, eat my flesh and drink my blood”. Jesus was unambiguous in stating this requirement and this was proven by the fact that He did not stop the crowd from walking away after they had heard Him.
The Church uses the theological term “Transubstantiation” to express how Christ is able to feed us His Flesh and Blood. Through the person of the priest, Christ effects the change of the whole substance of bread into His Body and the whole substance of wine into the His Blood so that we may eat and drink of the food of eternal life.
The whole edifice of our Catholic theology is like a house of cards. Every component of our faith is connected one to the other. If we remove one facet, then the house of cards will tumble. While the decline in vocation possibly conveys a lack of understanding of the nature of the Catholic priesthood, what is more likely is that it demonstrates an unquestioned disbelief in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In other words, all claim to believe in the necessity of the Eucharist but our actions speak otherwise.
According to the same Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel, Christ intends to feed His Church with the Sacrament of Salvation: His Body and His Blood and the only way to do it is through the Catholic priesthood. It means that Christ continues to call but two facts characterise our lack of response. Young men no longer hear God’s call or people no longer believe that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is sine qua non, that is, the Eucharist is not essential for eternal life.
The second could sadly be the case. If we do not really need the Eucharist for salvation, then we do not really need the priesthood in the Church. And if we remove the Catholic priesthood, is the resultant entity the same Church founded and instituted by Jesus Christ? Can the Lord recognise His Church without the priesthood. If no, the dire situation of vocational response leaves much to be desired. Since the number of priestly vocation continues to decline, perhaps it is a clear indication that we do not really need the Eucharist as much as we proclaim we do.
We should pray for young men to step courageously into the sandals of the Shepherd. Either we pray and beg the Lord to awaken new vocations or if not, we will be driven by whatever faddish winds that blow that try to reshape the priesthood according to the spirit of the times. Either the priesthood is necessary for providing the Eucharist or if not, then we will have to look for a solution to this purported or supposed Eucharistic necessity for salvation.
Finally, the death of a cleric is always a moment of reckoning for any Eucharistic community. The fact remains that many priests and bishops fall short of “Whom” they have been called to be. Yet, this shortcoming cannot mask the truth that the priesthood is a reminder of Jesus Christ’s eternal love for His sheep, His Church and a powerful sign that He is still saving the world, through His Church, through the priesthood and through the Eucharist.
