{"id":2660,"date":"2008-10-25T00:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-25T00:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/homily-for-october-26-2008-30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-world-priest-day.html"},"modified":"2008-10-25T00:14:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-25T00:14:00","slug":"homily-for-october-26-2008-30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-world-priest-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/homily-for-october-26-2008-30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-world-priest-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Homily for October 26, 2008, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (World Priest Day)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It happens more often than you may think. Someone will ask me after mass, \u201cDeacon Greg, if priests could be married, wouldn\u2019t you like to be a priest?\u201c<\/p>\n

Well, the answer for me is no. God called me to this particular vocation, not to any other, and I\u2019m happy being a deacon.<\/p>\n

But this Sunday is a moment to consider those men who were called to that other vocation \u2013 and to thank them for answering the call. This is World Priest Day. At the end of mass, I\u2019ll offer a special prayer and blessing for the priests of the parish. But right now I\u2019d like to offer a few thoughts on the priesthood and why it matters \u2013 now, more than ever.<\/p>\n

As a deacon I\u2019m able to do many of the things that priests do. I share with them in the sacrament of Holy Orders, and have been given faculties to baptize, to marry, to proclaim the gospel and to preach. It\u2019s not unusual for people to confuse deacons with priests \u2013 we look a lot alike \u2013 and very often someone will corner me after mass and say, \u201cFather, can you hear my confession?\u201d<\/p>\n

And I usually say: \u201cI\u2019m happy to hear it, but I can\u2019t give you absolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which just confuses people more.<\/p>\n

But it points up something significant. It goes to the heart of the priesthood and what it\u2019s about. The fact is, sacramentally, there are three key things that only priests can do.<\/p>\n

They hear confessions and give absolution.<\/p>\n

They anoint the sick.<\/p>\n

Most importantly: they consecrate the Eucharist.<\/p>\n

When you consider those three sacraments, they offer a powerful testament to the meaning of the priesthood. Because those sacraments \u2013 confession, anointing, the Eucharist \u2013 are ones that bring us most profoundly into the presence of God. <\/p>\n

When we need it most, they touch our lives with grace.<\/p>\n

At moments when we are broken, we are made whole.<\/p>\n

At times when we are separated from God, we are reconciled with Him.<\/p>\n

At the high point of the mass, the greatest sacrifice is offered again and again and again, and Christ is made present, and he becomes, once again, a part of us.<\/p>\n

At these moments in our lives, we encounter the perfect God through the imperfect hands of another human being. The created brings to us our Creator.<\/p>\n

And it happens only through the hands of the priest.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s astonishing to consider. I think that God has given us the priesthood so He can continue to give us Himself. It is another sign of His boundless love for us.<\/p>\n

Before I was ordained, I was talking with a classmate of mine, who said his pastor had some very simple advice about preaching. \u201cJust remember,\u201d he told him, \u201cto tell the people that God loves them.\u201d<\/p>\n

I try to remember that myself every time I climb into this pulpit. But when you think of what priests do, what they bring to us, I think they do it even more powerfully and more profoundly. And they don\u2019t do it with words.<\/p>\n

Every absolution says: \u201cGod loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every anointing says: \u201cGod loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every elevation of the consecrated host at that altar says: \u201cGod loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is a message we are hungry to hear. Especially now, with so much that is uncertain, when it is easy to lose sight of what matters.<\/p>\n

The beautiful gospel we just heard tells us what matters: to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The greatest example of that, of course, is Christ. Nobody did that better.<\/p>\n

But the one who witnesses to that, every day of his life, is the priest.<\/p>\n

One of the arguments that is frequently made against a married priesthood is that the priest would find it impossible to devote time to both the Church and his family. As someone who struggles with that now, I can say: it ain\u2019t easy. One of my colleagues at CBS, Lesley Stahl, once used a wonderful analogy to describe the difficulties of being a working mother. \u201cWhen you\u2019re juggling all those balls,\u201d she said, \u201cyou need to remember which ones are rubber\u2026and which ones are glass.\u201d<\/p>\n

But very often, in the life of a priest, they are all<\/span> glass.<\/p>\n

Because the great work of his life is caring for the most fragile thing of all: the human soul.<\/p>\n

The priest is the only one who is there at all the critical moments of life\u2026from the very beginning, to the very end, and so many of the mileposts in between. He isn\u2019t there just to bless rosaries or pose for pictures. He is there to make God present, and make that presence real. He is there to walk with us on the journey. It is a journey he himself makes, for the most part, alone. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what compels a man to want to do that \u2013 it is a calling, just as some of us are called to be husbands or fathers or deacons. But it is also a journey. One of faith, and courage.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a beautiful book on the priesthood by Fr. Michael Heher, from the Diocese of Orange, in California. It\u2019s called \u201cThe Lost Art of Walking on Water.\u201d And near the end, he compares the mission of the Church to that moment when St. Peter stepped out of the boat and for one miraculous moment walked on water.<\/p>\n

We all need to follow Peter\u2019s example, Fr. Heher says \u2013 and we can only do it by keeping our eyes fixed on Christ. The message is clear: the waters may be turbulent. The wind may howl. But get out of the boat. With Jesus as your lifeguard, you can do the impossible.<\/p>\n

Peter did it. Priests, in their way, do it, too. They have summoned the courage to leave what is safe and secure and give their lives over to a miracle. A miracle that says again and again, \u201cGod loves you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priests spend so much of their lives reminding us of that. This day, we pause to remind THEM of that, too — and to express our gratitude, appreciation, and love. <\/p>\n

To all those priests who have walked with us on the journey\u2026to those who have prayed with us, celebrated with us, wept with us, forgiven us, uplifted us, hoped with us\u2026to those who have told us again and again, \u201cGod loves you,\u201d we can only whisper those words back, along with two more:<\/p>\n

“Thank you.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It happens more often than you may think. Someone will ask me after mass, \u201cDeacon Greg, if priests could be married, wouldn\u2019t you like to be a priest?\u201c Well, the answer for me is no. God called me to this particular vocation, not to any other, and I\u2019m happy being a deacon. But this Sunday…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\nHomily for October 26, 2008, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (World Priest Day) - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/homily-for-october-26-2008-30th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-world-priest-day.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homily for October 26, 2008, 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (World Priest Day) - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It happens more often than you may think. Someone will ask me after mass, \u201cDeacon Greg, if priests could be married, wouldn\u2019t you like to be a priest?\u201c Well, the answer for me is no. God called me to this particular vocation, not to any other, and I\u2019m happy being a deacon. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}