POPE JOHN PAUL II’S MISSIONARY PRAYER INTENTION FOR OCTOBER 2003: THAT GOD WILL NOT FAIL TO PROVIDE THE CHURCH WITH PRIESTS RICH IN WISDOM AND HOLINESS, READY TO CARRY THE LIGHT OF THE GOSPEL TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH Comment by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples

Monday, 22 September 2003

Vatican City (Fides Service) – “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd offers his life for his sheep” (Jn 10,11). These words of Jesus are a good description of the Shepherd, who for the people of the Old Testament was God himself who had led Israel from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to the Promised Land. The Son of God reveals the fullness of this Love when he gives up his life for his sheep and liberates the new People of believers from the slavery of sin and death and offers them the gift of God’s own life. All of us, as members of the People of God through baptism, have been redeemed by the blood of Christ. Jesus carries each one of us on his shoulder and I would say that he carries even more lovingly the sheep of his flock chosen by him to be – in his image – humble and authoritative leaders of his People.
The image of Christ the Good Shepherd, reveals the essential traits of the nature of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. What does it mean to be a shepherd to receive from the Church the ordained ministry? It means giving one’s life for the flock entrusted to us: serving humbly, announcing and teaching the Word of God, celebrating Christ’s sacraments, going in search of lost sheep, leading them gently back to the Lord’s fold. This Pastoral charity, a spiritual gift received by priests at ordination, “prepared them not for a sort of limited and narrow mission but for the widest possible and universal mission of salvation "even to the ends of the earth" for every priestly ministry shares in the universality of the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles.” (Presbyterium ordinis 10).
The risk that the ordained ministry may be used for personal ends is great. The risk of living a ministerial life style separated from the concrete pulsing of the life of the Christian community is a great threat to the Church’s harmonic development and growth. Another danger is the temptation to narrow the horizons of one’s mission to a restricted, limited field. Saint Peter the Apostle urged the ‘elders’ to put themselves wholly at the service of the community: “I make this appeal to the elders among you… God’s flock is in your midst; give it a shepherd’s care. Watch over it willingly as God would have you do, not under constraint; and not for shameful profit either, but generously. Be examples to the flock”. (1 Peter 5 1-3).
Today more than ever, men and women of our world want priests who are not “segregated” but who are men “rich in wisdom and holiness” who have put aside worldly goods and security to live the proclamation of the Gospel with total self giving. Wisdom is the gift King Solomon asked of the Lord in order to govern his people: “Because you have asked for this – not for a long life for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your enemies but for understanding so that you may know what is right- I do as you requested. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now”. (1 Kings 3, 11-12).
People want the priest to be a man who knows how to listen, who can help them understand life, pointing out the right paths; they want him to be holy, that is effectively united with Christ through meditation on the Word of God and proclamation of the same, through the celebration of the Sacraments – the Eucharist in particular – through witness of holiness and unity which is, above all, an expression of the bond which unites him to the Church, the Body of Christ. Holiness of priests is therefore closely connected with the spreading of the message of salvation: living intensely that love which Christ the Shepherd has for all men and women, broadens the horizon of pastoral service, fosters zeal for carrying the joy of the faith to those who have yet to receive it, propels us to reach out to those who are distant from Christ, “the Way, Truth, Life”.
The first priests, the Apostles, were given a most important task by the Lord: “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep the commandments I have given you” (Mt 28, 19-20).
At the beginning of the third Christian millennium, the Holy Father calls the Church once again to put out into the deep for New Evangelisation and indicates to the whole Church, and to priests in particular, certain signs of hope for the Mission: “ The Gospel continues to bear fruit in parish communities, among consecrated persons, in lay associations, in groups devoted to prayer and the apostolate and in various youth communities, as well as through the presence and growth of new movements and ecclesial realities. In each of them the one Spirit finds ways of awakening renewed dedication to the Gospel, generous openness to the service of others, and a Christian life marked by Gospel radicalism and missionary zeal.” (Ecclesia in Europa 15). Priests therefore are called personally to welcome and encourage this “renewed dedication to the Gospel” fostered by the Spirit, in order to meet the challenges and needs of today.
Bishops, called by their ministry to serve the universal Church and united through the Sacrament of Orders to the Presbyterate as a whole and to every individual priest, have a serious responsibility to “reawaken” and animate the sacramentally inherent missionary vocation of every priest. As the Council Decree Ad gentes affirms: “But since the need for workers in the vineyard of the Lord is growing from day to day, and diocesan priests have expressed the wish to play an ever greater part in the evangelisation of the world, this sacred synod desires that the bishops considering the very serious dearth of priests which is hindering the evangelisation of many areas, should send some of their better priests, who offer themselves for mission work and have received a suitable preparation, to those dioceses which are lacking in clergy, where at least for a time they will exercise their missionary ministry in a spirit of service” (Ad gentes 38).
During this missionary month of October, let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of the new Saints, Bishop Daniel Comboni, Father Arnold Jansen and Father Joseph Freidanemetz – examples of total dedication to the Church’s mission – to ensure that the Church always has sufficient priests rich in wisdom and holiness and ready to carry the light of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
+ Cardinal Crescenzio Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples
(Fides Service 22/9/2003 EM lines 68 Words: 1,116)


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