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| The real "Fr. Stu" |
(Holy Thursday 2022: This homily was given on April 14, 2022 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:12-18; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Holy Thursday 2022]
One day many years ago a priest friend of mine sent me a
copy of a letter—a fictitious letter—supposedly written to our Lord, giving him
the results of personality tests that were done on the twelve Apostles. The letter reads as follows:
Dear Jesus, son of Joseph,
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men that you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have taken our battery of tests. We have run the results through our computer and arranged personal interviews for each one of them with one of our psychologists and vocational aptitude consultants.
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background and vocational aptitude for your enterprise. They have no team concept. Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has no qualities for leadership. The two brothers, James and John, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas shows a skeptical attitude that would tend to undermine morale. Matthew has been backlisted by the Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings and register a high score on the manic-depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated and ambitious. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.
That letter, as I said at the beginning, is fictitious; it’s
the product of someone’s very fertile imagination. But it does reveal, in a somewhat amusing way,
an important truth about the apostles (who were, of course the very first
priests): they were all flawed in some way. They were ordinary men who were called and
empowered to do extraordinary things—things that other people cannot do. You know, in a very real sense, we priests are
the most powerful people on earth. Did
you realize that? We can summon God to
act, and he acts! Guaranteed! We can call upon the Creator of the universe
to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Savior of the world and
God does it. We can say the words of absolution
over the worst sinner in the world, and God forgives that person. Immediately!
Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin can’t do that! Tom Brady and Tiger Woods can’t do that. But every priest can—by virtue of his ordination.
And yet, at the very same time, every priest is flawed in
some way (perhaps in many ways)—just like the original priests were. That’s why you should pray for priests every
day, that they will receive the grace they need to deal with their flaws. Because even though every priest is a sinner,
and every priest is flawed, no priest is hopelessly flawed. Think, again, of the twelve Apostles. By the grace of God they dealt with—and in
some cases overcame—their personal weaknesses (with the exception, sadly, of
Judas).
God chooses people not so much for who they are; rather he
chooses them for who he knows they can become.
He chose Peter, for example, not because of Peter’s impulsiveness and hot
temper. Jesus chose Peter for the great
leader he knew he could become if he cooperated with God’s grace.
I heard a great quote the other day from Catholic actor Mark
Wahlberg. He said, “God is always
looking for flawed people that he can turn into polished gems that will go out
and do his will and serve his greater good.”
He said that specifically in reference to Fr. Stuart Long,
who’s the subject of a new movie appropriately called, “Fr. Stu”—which opened
in theaters yesterday. Wahlberg financed
the film himself and plays Fr. Stu.
The film is based on the true story of a man from Montana,
Stuart Long, who for many years was an agnostic, and who lived a fast and
sometimes wild lifestyle in his young adult life. He dreamed of becoming a professional boxer,
and was well on his way to accomplishing that goal until his jaw was shattered
in a fight and he had to undergo reconstructive surgery. That put an end to his boxing career.
He then left Montana and went to L.A. to pursue an acting career. He was able to get into a few commercials, but that was about it. He worked as a bouncer for a while, and eventually was hired (believe it or not) to be the manager of a museum in Pasadena, California. Then one night, as he was riding his motorcycle home from the museum, he was involved in a horrible accident: one car hit him; another ran him over. He nearly died—but God obviously had other plans for him here on this earth.
After the accident, he had several religious
experiences which led him—with the help and encouragement of his girlfriend—to
seek Baptism. It was after that that he
began to think of the priesthood. (I’m
not sure whether his girlfriend ever regretted the fact that she had encouraged
him to get baptized. I hope not!)
Fr. Stu was ordained in Montana in 2007. But he only served 4 years as a priest. That’s because he came down with a rare,
incurable disease—inclusion body myositis—the symptoms of which are a lot like
the symptoms of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
Which means it’s really bad!
But in his 4 short years of ministry, this priest touched
a lot of lives—especially the sick and the suffering. His tough background, his terminal
illness—and his strong faith—made him very effective. In fact, toward the end of his life, when he
was living in a nursing home, people would line up outside the door to his room
for long periods of time waiting to go to confession to him. One bishop was quoted as saying that Fr. Stu
did more in his 4 years of priesthood than he had done in 40!
If you didn’t before, I’m sure that now you understand Mark
Wahlberg’s quote that I mentioned a few minutes ago: “God is always looking for
flawed people that he can turn into polished gems that will go out and do his
will and serve his greater good.”
That truth, my brothers and sisters, actually applies to all
of us. We’re all flawed, but none of us
is hopelessly flawed. But this truth
applies in a special way, I would say, to priests, who are empowered to act in
the person of Christ whenever they celebrate the sacraments.
Tonight we praise God for the 11 flawed men who allowed
themselves to be transformed into polished gems for Jesus Christ 2,000 years
ago. And we pray for all priests in the Church today, that they, like Fr. Stuart
Long, will allow the Lord to transform them in the very same way.
