What are you in it for?
On this holy night, when we
commemorate the institution of the priesthood and the Holy Eucharist, that’s a
very important question for us to focus on—because it’s the question that every
ordained priest must answer,
sooner or later.
What are you in it for?
Now the answer should be obvious and relatively easy,
right? A priest should be ‘in it’ for
Jesus! He should be ‘in it’—in the
priesthood—for the salvation of souls!
He should be ‘in it’ to serve—to ‘wash the feet’ of others. He should be ‘in it’ to lead people to
heaven, by his sacramental ministry, and by his ministry of preaching the holy
word of God!
But not every priest is!
Unfortunately, some priests are
‘in it’ for other reasons.
Many of you will recall the story
of Fr. Steven Schier, which I told in a homily I gave on Holy Thursday several
years ago.
On October 18, 1985, as he was
traveling from Wichita, Kansas to his parish in Fredonia, Fr. Scheier was
involved in a terrible car accident: a head-on collision with a pickup
truck.
At the moment of impact he was
thrown from his vehicle, the entire right side of his scalp was taken off, and
he broke his neck at the second cervical vertebrae (which is commonly referred
to as the “hangman’s break”). Doctors at
the hospital gave him only a 15% chance of survival. However, he recovered in record time and was
released in early December.
But what’s most noteworthy about
Fr. Scheier’s story is the powerful, near-death experience he had immediately
after his accident.
He says that after he was thrown
from his car he found himself standing before the judgment seat of Jesus
Christ. And even though he had been
well-liked by his parishioners during his 12 years as a priest, his sentence
from Jesus was “hell.” He says that the
Lord took him through his entire life, and showed him (among other things) how
he had failed in his priestly service: how he had watered down the truth of the
Gospel in his preaching and teaching; how he had neglected his prayer life and
the condition of his own soul; how he had failed to deny himself and sacrifice
himself for others.
And Fr. Scheier says that all he
could say to Jesus was, “Yes. I
know.” He could offer no excuses,
because he was in the presence of truth—the
Truth!
And that’s the way it was when he
heard the final sentence. He responded,
“Yes, Lord, I know. I know this is what
I deserve.”
It was at that moment that he
heard a woman’s voice say, “Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal
soul?” The Lord replied, “Mother, he’s
been a priest for 12 years for himself
and not for me, let him reap the punishment he deserves.” “But Son,’ she said, ‘if we give him special
graces and strengths . . . then let’s see if he bears fruit; if not, your will
be done.”
There was very short pause, after which Jesus reportedly said,
“Mother, he’s yours.”
Needless to say, Fr. Steven
Scheier has been a very different priest since that event in 1985!
“He’s been a priest for 12 years for himself.” Those last two words say it all. Fr. Steven Scheier was ‘in it’—he was in the
priesthood—for his own self-glorification.
And deep down inside he knew it
was true—as we all know the truth deep within ourselves.
Thankfully, he was given the
chance to get ‘in it’ for different reasons—the right ones!
Self-glorification is just one
possible bad reason to enter the
priesthood.
But it’s definitely not the only
one!
Some might do it for power (after
all, when you become a pastor you do get to be ‘the boss’—or at least you get
to think you’re the boss!). Some might do it for financial gain (no, we
priests don’t make lots of money, but our needs are taken care of quite nicely,
thank you very much).
Some might do it for the good
education you receive in preparation for priestly ministry. Some might do it for affirmation, or for fame—or
because they want to be bishops someday.
Some might enter the priesthood
to try to change it: to refashion it and to refashion the Church according to
their own personal ideas and preferences.
After the scandals of 2002, it
became clear that a few men have even entered the priesthood over the years for
the most despicable of reasons: to have access to children.
One interesting question to ask
on Holy Thursday night is: Why did Judas do it?
Why did Judas say yes to the call of Jesus to be his apostle and eventually
one of his first priests?
Was it to betray our Lord when
the right opportunity finally presented itself?
Was it to undermine Jesus’ work from within (after all, enemies ‘on the
inside’ often do far more damage than enemies ‘on the outside’)? Was it for financial gain? Was it because he thought Jesus would someday
make him important and famous and powerful on earth?
We don’t know for sure. Perhaps he started off with good intentions. But regardless of how he began, we know how
he ended up.
He ended up ‘in it’ for the worst
of reasons!
I think there’s a warning there
for every priest.
But it wasn’t only Judas who had
to struggle with less-than-noble motives for following Jesus. How about James and John? We’re told that at one point during our
Lord’s ministry they came up to him and boldly requested ‘the best seats in the
house,’ so to speak, in the kingdom of heaven!
They said, “Teacher, see to it that we sit, one at your right and the
other at your left, when you come into your glory.”
Was that the real reason why they
were ‘in it’?
And then we have the first pope,
Peter, who said to Jesus at one point, “We have put everything aside to follow
you. What can we expect from it?”
Was he ‘in it’ only for what he,
personally, would get out of it?
Well, thankfully, James, John,
Peter, and all the other apostles (with the exception of Judas) ended up being
‘in it’ for the right reasons, for the best of reasons: for Jesus and for the salvation of souls.
But early on it does seem that
their motives were somewhat mixed.
This is why, whenever we talk about the priesthood, we need to focus
our attention, first and foremost, on Jesus himself.
It is the priesthood of Jesus
Christ that we ordained priests share in—and Jesus was the Great High Priest,
the Perfect Priest, who was ALWAYS ‘in it’ for the right reasons—from the very
beginning!
Think, for example, of how Satan
tempted him after his 40 day fast in the desert:
“Jesus, I know you’re ‘in this’
to save the world and those pesky little human creatures that you love. But I can show you a much better way. Why don’t you get ‘in it’ for fame (throw yourself down from the
temple; you’ll be famous!); why don’t you get ‘in it’ for pleasure (change those stones to bread
and satisfy your hunger!); why don’t you get ‘in it’ for power (I can help you run every country
on earth; I have the power)?”
Those temptations were all
attempts to try to get Jesus to change the mission the Father had given him:
the mission to offer himself in sacrifice for the sins of the world.
They were temptations, in other
words, against his priesthood!
Jesus resisted. He always
resisted—even in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night before he died.
He knew what he was ‘in it’ for,
and he never wavered in his commitment.
Not for a second.
Pray, my brothers and sisters, for
me and for all priests. Pray that we
will be more like Jesus, the Great—and the Perfect—High Priest.
Pray in a special way for those
who are currently ‘in it’ for the wrong
reasons.
That’s the best thing you can do
for your priests, but it’s also the best thing you can do for yourselves,
because when your priests are ‘in it’ for the right reasons—for Jesus and for
the salvation of souls—you all benefit.
And you benefit eternally!
