HEADING I
THE PRIEST'S MISSION
What is the priest's mission on earth? - To save himself? Too little. - To become a saint? Still too little. - What then? To save himself, but by saving others. We want to remind the priest, so Pius X1 says in his Exhortation for the clergy in 1908, that it is not allowed of him to only attend to his own sanctification: he is the worker that Jesus Christ led to work in his vineyard. It is his serious duty to uproot the weeds, to sow the good seeds, to watch over so that the enemy may not come to sow weeds... Priests, therefore, should beware of a life of individual sanctification, thus forgetting the pulpit, the confessional, the sick, the children, the afflicted, the sinners: let him move on like Jesus, by doing good to all and delivering the oppressed from the demon. - The priest is man for others. - Thus the Founder of the priesthood, Jesus Christ, has wanted it: in fact, just as He had established the sacrament of Marriage for the generation of the body according to nature, so did he institute the sacrament of Holy Order for generation according to grace.
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Per evangelium ego vos genui (St. Paul).2 And Jesus did not want to spare any doubt on this most lofty goal of the priesthood and he told the Apostles: Faciam vos fieri piscatores hominum;3 and even more clearly yet: Posui vos ut eatis et fructum afferatis, et fructus vester maneat.4
A formidable responsibility weighs on the priest: inasmuch as just as a head of the family shall answer for his children, the teacher for his students, the priest must answer for the souls that he could save. Thereby St. Paul, almost terrified by the thought of such weight, exclaimed: Vae autem mihi si non evangelizavero!5 On the other hand, he encouraged the good ministers of the Lord at work with the hope of a most special recompense prepared for them: Qui bene praesunt presbyteri duplici honore digni habentur:6 and the two honors are: Centuplum accipietis et vitam aeternam possidebitis:7 the hundredfold of consolation in the accomplishment of this most sweet duty in the present life and a special glory in heaven.
The priest, therefore, is not simply a LEARNED MAN: neither is he simply a SAINT: he is a LEARNED MAN-SAINT who avails with learning and holiness in being apostle, savior of souls. - Otherwise, he would be out of his mission and hence would he be betraying his own vocation:
1. he who should want to make, as his principal or almost exclusive occupation, music, literature,
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art, politics, medicine, concern over material interests, etc. It is well understood that exception stands in those cases when there is the need for these things due to particular positions, for example, that of a professor, or of a seminary treasurer, etc. Here, the priest is not involved with material things, with literature, etc., as such, but as means for directly or indirectly saving souls. Neither should the priest-teacher consider as his mission and primary purpose that of conducting his classes well, or teaching how to read, write, arithmetic: these, in his hands, shall not be but a means for reaching the souls of children and to make them Christians, practicing Christians...
2.?he who reduces his priestly life to the Mass and the breviary: or else he who would write on his own flag and take as his motto these words alone: I-God, he would not be a priest: it is fitting for him to retire in a cloister wherein he could sanctify himself and perhaps through his prayers sanctify others: he however does not live the life of a secular priest. It is not enough for this to pray, to mortify himself, to live a withdrawn life, to avoid sin as an individual: from him the Lord has the right to demand for souls, from him, society expect THE PRIEST'S WORK. Jesus Christ told him clearly: Euntes docete...8 and the Pope: To the priest, individual holiness is not enough, he has
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to work in the Lord's vineyard. Let him have, therefore, the motto: I-God-Souls-People.
What is the care for souls? - It is the action of Jesus Christ and of the Church, exercised by the priesthood, for the salvation of souls. It is the same ministry that one day the Son of God, made man, exercised in order to give the spiritual life to souls: Veni ut vitam habeant et abundantius habeant.9 And now this occupation of Jesus Christ was left as an inheritance to us, his ministers: Sicut misit me Pater et ego mitto vos...10 It aims at seeing to it that human thought, science, philosophy, etc., are Christian: it aims at turning Christian hearts, affections, the will, words, and all the works of man: it wants to raise and sanctify everything... Why? In order to lead each one to his place prepared in heaven: Vado parare vobis locum.11 - Hence: pastoral action has this purpose - to let Christianity live in people. And Christianity, so it is today repeatedly heard by everyone in theory but is translated by few into practice,12 is a way of life. It is not a composite of ceremonies, of external acts, of bows, etc...; Christianity is not a piece of clothing that one puts on during certain special solemnities as weddings, baptisms, funerals, as if to accomplish a role: it is a way of life. It takes man, integrates him, almost consecrates him. The priest cannot speak of himself as
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satisfied when he shall have splendid ceremonies in church, hymns executed to the dot, a thousand devotions: he cannot say he is satisfied of the yearly communions, marriage done in church, of church funerals: he cannot say he is satisfied with certain parades, as are pilgrimages, processions, big contests as to attendance in conferences:13 he cannot say he is satisfied that a certain number of souls indulge in childish sentimentalism and very spiritual ideas:... no: these are means, even if they have always been so: but the end is just another matter. The end is to change thoughts from human to Christian. It is a must that man becomes Christian not only because he is baptized, that he greets the parish priest, or goes to mass sometimes: but he must be a Christian at home and in society. - Otherwise? One runs the risk of exchanging the means for the end: to render almost ridiculous a religion, which is so much more noble that uncreated Wisdom could teach us; to make of religion an externality that is sought at times due to circumstances, as one would call the band in some solemn feasts.
To whom must this care of souls be addressed? - There cannot be any doubt in the reply: to all those who are called to heaven, to all those to whom the apostles and their successors
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were sent, that is, to all men. Here, there cannot be any distinction of class, of age, of conditions: omnibus debitor sum,14 with St. Paul every priest has this to say. - That the duty of going after the spiritual interests of all the souls without distinction lies on the shoulders of all priests in general, one can say that it lies on the shoulder of the parish priest in a most special manner. - That the priest has committed his strength, his intelligence, his time, his life for souls in general, one must say that the parish priest, also ex justitia, assumed this obligation. And he assumed it for the sake of all the souls that make up his specific parish. All these souls, without distinction, have the right to have in him a father, a friend, a teacher, a zealous pastor. All: not only the PUSILLUS GREX15 of pious souls, the already converted: but also of the working mass that sweats from morning till evening in work shops and in the fields, so often abandoned in the hands of subversives: but also of the educated class that is ordinarily held as naturally adverse to religion: but also the most hardened sinners, that ever so often the priest habitually places, I would say unmitigatedly, AMONG THE MASS OF THE DAMNED; but also the most miserable poor from whom he flees, while Jesus Christ would have sought them by preference: but also the businessmen, the government employees, the students, the so-called gentlemen, etc., all.
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If a preference should ever be made, it should be that of Jesus Christ who leaves the ninety-nine sheep16 in order to look for the only one lost: it should be that of the doctor17 who attends above all to the most seriously ill: Venit18 salvum facere quod perierat. And this means that the parish priest, coeteris paribus19 should, by preference, dedicate his time, his efforts, his life to sinners, to the working class, to the indifferent.
What conclusions? - From all these, two conclusions seem to spontaneously come: address the care of souls to men; in caring for women, seek to train them in true virtues.
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1 Cf. also DA 14; 30; 34; 79; 108; 110; 166; 168; 178; 180; 192; 223; 286; 335. During the papacy of Pius X, Fr. Alberione finished his formation for the priesthood and published his first writings.
2 Cf. 1Cor 4:15: “I became your father in Christ Jesus.”
3 Cf. Mt 4:19 and Mk 1:17: “I will make you fishers of men.”
4 Cf. Jn 15:16: “I... appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
5 Cf. 1Cor 9:16: “... woe to me if I do not preach it” (the gospel).
6 Cf. 1Tm 5:17: “Presbyters who preside well deserve double honor.”
7 Cf. Mt 19:29: “Will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.” For the hundred times more, cf. also Gn 26:12 and 1Chr 21:3.
8 Cf. Mt 28:19: “Go therefore... teaching them...”
9 Cf. Jn 10:10: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
10 Cf. Jn 20:21 (and Jn 5:30; 6:58): “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
11 Cf. Jn 14:2: “I am going to prepare a place for you.”
12 Original Italian variation: DA has patria = motherland; instead of pratica.
13 Aside from councils, general and special, and the properly so-called diocesan synod, public and official assemblies, the church ruling provided for other periodic meetings of the clergy, less public and solemn, for purposes of consultation and professional training, such as conferences on the forane or vicarial levels and the bishops conferences.
14 I am indebted to all. Cf. Rom 1:14: “To Greeks and non-Greeks alike, to the wise and the ignorant, I am under obligation.”
15 Cf. Lk 12:32: “Little flock”.
16 Cf. Mt 18:12,13 and Lk 15:4,7.
17 Cf. Mt 9:12 and Lk 5:31.
18 DA has veni. Cf. Lk 19:10: “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.”
19 Under equal conditions.