Priestly Vocations for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

By Cardinal Justin Rigali

“Heed and Celebrate the Call to the Diocesan Priesthood,” January 6-14

The universal call to holiness
Many of you are familiar with the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. You may also know that the interior decoration of the Shrine is still being developed. In 1999, a magnificent marble relief, which had been sculpted for placement over the inside main entrance of the Shrine, was dedicated. This relief pictures what the Second Vatican Council referred to as the universal call to holiness. This call is summarized by the Council Fathers in this way: “All Christians in any state of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love, and by this holiness a more human manner of life is fostered also in earthly society (Lumen Gentium, 40).”

While this call to holiness is universal, its acceptance and living out is always personal. In the Book of Revelation we read: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). God, our loving Father, Jesus our Savior and Redeemer and the Holy Spirit, who makes us holy, invite us to a unique, personal relationship within this mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity. This is why the relief in the Shrine pictures not only well-known figures, such as Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa fulfilling their personal call, but also many examples of individuals of differing backgrounds and vocations who are also fulfilling theirs. I know, not only from my own priestly and episcopal experience, but also from the testimony of so many of my brother priests working in parishes throughout the Archdiocese, that there are so many examples of heroic and silent holiness among so many of you.

An army “marches on its stomach.”
You may be somewhat startled by the heading of this section of our reflection! It quotes a well-known concept taken from warfare: that if soldiers are not properly fed, they cannot effectively fulfill their mission. In that sense they “march on their stomach.” The same may be said for the Christian striving to fulfill his or her personal call to holiness: he or she must be properly fed in order to have the strength for the Christian journey toward holiness and its ultimate fulfillment in heaven.

In the sixth chapter of Saint John’s Gospel, Jesus explains how he will feed us for this journey. This chapter foretells the gift of himself, which Jesus will give in the Eucharist. Our Lord says: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35). Jesus goes on to say: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life”... (John 6:53-54). How would this promise of Jesus be fulfilled in time and history, for each individual person called to an intimate relationship with him in fulfilling the call to universal holiness?

We find the answer in the Scriptures and the constant understanding and teaching of the Church. In the Scriptures we refer especially to Saint Luke’s Gospel, chapter 22, verse 19, and Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 24. These make clear reference to the teaching, which we all commonly know and understand as followers of Christ and His Church, that after instituting the Eucharist, Jesus instructed His apostles to perpetuate what He had done. The Church has always understood Jesus’ words “Do this in remembrance of me,” to mean that the Apostles and their successors in the priesthood of the New Covenant would renew the Sacrifice of the Cross in an unbloody manner, and bring about in that context the Real Presence of Jesus in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Pope Paul VI wrote: “We believe that the Mass which is celebrated by the priest in the person of Christ in virtue of the power he receives in the sacrament of Order, and which is offered by him in the name of Christ and of the members of his Mystical Body, is indeed the Sacrifice of Calvary sacramentally realized on our altars” (Creed of the People of God, 24). Concerning the Last Supper, the Council of Trent teaches that Our Lord “offered his body and blood under the species of bread and wine to God the Father and he gave his body and blood under the same species to the apostles to receive, making them priests of the New Testament at that time ... He ordered the apostles and their successors in the priesthood to offer this sacrament when he said: ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ as the Catholic Church has always understood and taught” (De SS. Missae sacrificio, chap 1). To give just one more example, among the many that can be cited, we look to Pope John Paul II’s Letter to all Bishops of February 24, 1980. He states that the Eucharist is “the principal and central reason-of-being of the sacrament of the priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist and together with it.”

We see then, that the food for the journey to holiness is the “Bread of Life,” promised and fulfilled by Jesus at the Last Supper. We also see clearly in the Scriptures and constant teaching of the Church that this indispensable food for holiness is perpetually linked to the living priesthood of Jesus Christ, established at the Last Supper and continued in His Church through the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Being “fed” for holiness
In the relief we mentioned at the beginning of this article, many different individuals, representing many vocations, are pictured. Their individual vocation and yours make up the marvelous “mosaic” that is the People of God. However, the fulfillment of these vocations in holiness of life comes from the one source that unites us in Christ’s Mystical Body: the Eucharist. Many people praised and admired Mother Teresa for the heroic work she and her Sisters did, and do, for the ‘poorest of the poor’ in our midst. It is unfortunate that many do not realize what she recognized as paramount for this heroic work: the reception and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This is likewise true for each and every vocation in the Church, yours and mine included.

As Archbishop of Philadelphia, I have the responsibility of seeing to it that all the faithful are able to receive food for their journey to holiness. It is not I but Jesus himself who has given us this food in the Eucharist. It is also He who has entrusted the continuation of the Sacrifice, which makes the Eucharist present, to a living priesthood in the Church. It is important for us to understand that the Catholic priesthood is not a cultural invention or the mere product of “self-reflection” on the part of the Church. It is a true and living necessity, established by Christ himself, to bring us the source of holiness.

During the Second World War, wartime necessities and shortages of essential products, led scientists to discover many “alternatives” to products that became scarce or unavailable. For instance, plastics and synthetic fibers, both of which have become so much a part of our lives, had their origin in this context. However, there is no “alternative” to the priesthood! The fulfillment of Jesus’ command to Peter: “Feed my sheep,””(John 21:17) occurs in the context of the Eucharist and the Eucharist is inseparably united to the priesthood. This is why our late, beloved Holy Father John Paul II so famously stated: “Without the Eucharist there is no Church and without the priesthood there is no Eucharist.”

A crusade of prayer
Since we believe in intercessory prayer, it is imperative that we pray for an increase in priestly vocations. I am constantly begging prayers for this intention because I need that indispensable help in fulfilling my own responsibility of feeding Christ’s flock in this local Church of Philadelphia. I would like to share two examples with you of the remarkable results of two great ‘crusades of prayer’ in this century.

There is a famous Church in Paris called Sacre Coeur. It was built in the last part of the nineteenth century to make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the sins and sacrileges of the French Revolution. From the completion of this famous Church, the Blessed Sacrament has been continually exposed and adored so that the people of France could fulfill this act of reparation. During World War II, Paris was being heavily bombed and the people of that city were faced with a dilemma: Do they cease exposition and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the cause of safety, thereby breaking an uninterrupted practice of over fifty years or do they expose the Blessed Sacrament and the faithful to danger? They decided to maintain the vow and throughout a long night of bombing the Basilica was filled with faithful adoring the Blessed Sacrament with danger to their lives. What happened? In the rear of the Basilica there is a brass plaque that tells the story. It shows an outline of the Basilica and the places where bombs fell on that night. They were dropped all around the exterior of the Church, causing observers to be sure the Shrine would be hit, but not one bomb hit the Church and no one was injured. Likewise, after the War, experts predicted that Austria would fall behind the “Iron Curtain” of communism being erected by the Soviets in Eastern Europe. The Austrian people began a great crusade of prayer, with the faithful reciting the Rosary throughout the land for the aversion of what was to so many a foregone conclusion. To the amazement of the world and political experts, the “Iron Curtain” never fell over Austria! The crusade of prayer had seen to that!

We are not powerless! This is why I ask you to join me in a crusade of prayer for priestly vocations in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Just as we will celebrate the World Day for Consecrated Life the first weekend of February, so this week we are called to “Heed and Celebrate the Call to Diocesan Priesthood.” We all have a part to play in this week’s celebration because it involves the call to holiness made to each one of us.

I invite you*
I ask that no one reading this put it down without making a resolution. To our dear young men, I ask you to be generous with God! Do not walk away sad, as the rich young man in the Gospel did when he heard our Lord’s invitation. To preach the Gospel by word and example, to feed God’s people with Christ’s own nourishment and to be the mouth and hands of Jesus himself is what he may be calling you to. How will you respond? You may want to go to the excellent web page prepared by our Vocation Director for the diocesan Priesthood, Father Christopher Rogers: www.heedthecall.org, or you may want to contact Father Rogers at 610 667-5778 or email him at frcrogers@adphila.org.

To our parents and families, just as you wish yourselves and your children to be fed with Christ’s food, so must you create an esteem for the priesthood in your homes. Many of you tell me of your love and admiration for your priests. When I visit the Parishes, I am touched by your devotion to your priests! I want to continue to provide for all Christ’s faithful in the Archdiocese by being able to send them the priests they want and need but I cannot do so without your help.

To the sick and suffering reading this, you are so important to me! Do not put this down without making a resolution to offer your pain and sickness and all that goes with it for this intention of priestly vocations in the Archdiocese. In doing so, you will be a silent but most powerful aid to me in my mission of providing for the faithful of the Church of Philadelphia.

Join me as we reflect always but especially this week on our roles in providing holy and zealous priests for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, whose transparent integrity of life and holiness will help each of us to fulfill our vocation in Christ’s Church!