Here's something a little different to pull you up in your tracks for a while. Here on Catholica we've spent much time in the last year discussing the nature of priesthood, and how it is changing, and how it might need to change to better reflect the social and spiritual needs of our age. Today's essay was written last year by one of the yongest of our regular commentators, Daniel Gullotta, as part of his discernment process — which he assures us is on-going — as to whether he has the call to Anglican Orders.

The Call from the Shore

A vocation, any sort whether it is to the ordained ministry or not, is a beautiful, mysterious and supernatural thing. Often I have thought about the millions of great men and women who were called by Jesus to a vocation beyond their imagination; the great missionaries of the church, the brilliant theologians and their works, the simple parish priests and their duty to their communities, the defenders of the faith as well as the martyrs and their convictions. I close my eyes and see the faces, works and deeds of the hundreds who have inspired me. The apostle Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Athanasius of Alexandria, Francis of Assisi, Dominic of Osma, Augustine of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, Thomas Aquinas, Peter To Rot, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Therese of Lisieux, Pope John Paul II, Rowan Williams, Thomas Nicholas Wright, just to name a handful. Yet no thought is complete without remembering the first who were called by Jesus of Nazareth on the shores of Galilee. While this tradition is contained in all of the synoptic gospels (and a variation in John's Gospel), I have recently grown fond of the tradition contained in the Gospel of Luke 5:1-11:

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets." When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signalled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching people!"

When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

It was here that the ministry of the Church first began, and it was here that the vocation of the earliest disciples began. From simple fishermen to disciples of Jesus of Nazareth to leaders of the Early Church to martyrs of the faith and now venerated as saints. Did any of them foresee any of this in their future? I am sure if Simon Peter could have seen a movie about what was going to take place in his life throughout the next couple of years, he would have repeated his plea to have Jesus leave him alone. Yet that is not how Jesus worked, nor is it how God works.

When this strange man from Nazareth, known by the crowds as a prophet and to his friends as a carpenter, walked up to them and simply asked them to follow him I can imagine they would have been flooded with a whole range of emotions. Anxiety, hope, excitement, doubt and fear — yet all these emotions aside they still followed him. Peter clearly had a feeling that his life was never going to be the same again, that he was going to face new challenges; but he couldn't help but be transfixed by Jesus, so much that he left his nets and took up the cross. According to the Church's two thousand year tradition, this is the origin of the clergy, the call of the very 'first priests'.

"Here I am. Send me!"

It is a common misunderstanding that the priesthood is like a twenty-four hour, seven-day-a-week job, as if the Church employs particular people to fulfil a particular role in the parish, almost like a robed clerk just because they have the training and skills required. While this is true in part it doesn't do justice to either the word or understanding of what and who a priest is and what a vocation is. To begin with, God calls all people to him. God's first call is always one of relationship, the call to simply follow Him echoing the similar call of Jesus to the disciples.

I have come to understand that any vocation must begin with this relationship and even above a person's calling, it is this relationship with God that matters the most. Yet, as this relationship grows, God continues to draw a person deeper into this relationship. The person undergoes a change, sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic, in which they become more like Christ in which they love Him more and love others through service. It is this love and this service that a person is called to a particular vocation, some the vocation to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. A priest is someone who answers God's call, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" by answering the Lord back, "Here I am. Send me!" A priest is someone who partakes in a continuing tradition of the Church by which Christ personally asks a person to "follow him".

The Ordained Clergy

However it is important for any Christian to understand that both the laity and the clergy is not Peter's, or James' or any of the apostle's; it is Jesus Christ's. Christ did not leave the Church with simply a memory, rather he left her with people, men and women, the apostles, to continue his work, continue his message and continue his ministry. The clergy is an extension of this, and is hence a continuation of the work of Christ in the world today. A beautiful and inspiring fact is that every member of the diaconate, priesthood and episcopacy can trace his or her ordination to Jesus and the apostles. From the beginning of the early Church, the apostles ordained successors and it is from this unbroken chain of leadership that the clergy comes from.

The first office (and by no means lowest) is that of the diaconate: the deacon. The deacon is ordained to a ministry of service to others modelled around the great prophets, particularly from the New Testament, John the Baptist and Steven. They are ordained to be the voice crying in the desert, forever challenging the Church, on both parish and diocesan levels. These challenges mostly revolve around reminding the Church never to forget the widow, the orphan and the outcast, no matter how they might materialize in the community and to read, understand and interrupt the Gospel so that it is always relevant. While some deacons remain as permanent deacons, others are deacons for only a short period of time until they are then later ordained as priests.

What is a Priest?

In my discussions with priests and bishops and in personal studies, prayers and reflections I have often been asked to describe what a priest is exactly. It is no easy feat describing what exactly a priest is. Let me begin with what a priest isn't. A priest is not an angel sent from heaven but rather a person chosen among people, a member of the Church, a Christian. When he or she undergoes training for ordination, there is no magic act that transforms the person from human to divine. Priests remain human but are made separate from others because of their calling by God, yet they are guided to be in the midst of them as shepherds of Christ's flock. It is important for members of the Church to realize that not everyone can be priests, as not everyone is called to the priesthood.

Each member of the Church receives an individual calling.

To me, this person is usually someone who is (just to name a few qualities) focused on ministry, skilled in teaching as well as learning and values life in all its forms, is deeply spiritually, a good pastor and evangelist, (however God has His ways with people of all character). Even with all such skills, no one simply 'becomes' a priest. A priest is a person who is ordained by God before the Church. In this rite they devote their lives to service of the church and of all humankind, to prayer, to preaching as heralds of the Gospel, to celebration of the blessed sacraments and to leadership of the people of God. Priests continue the work of redemption as Christ's representatives, and because of this, through the power and blessing of the Holy Spirit, to represent both Christ and the people before God, the priest can administer and celebrate the Eucharist.

Yet, the main task of the priest is to share in Christ's Priesthood and this is done by continuing the work of Christ on earth. While the whole Church is called to be a holy people, it is the individuals who share in the priesthood of Christ by their daily sacrifices, prayers and spreading of the Gospel that God calls them to serve in His name in the midst of the community.

Privilege & Power, But in Service & Sacrifice…

It must be warned that this office is not without sacrifice, as it is an office of complete service to Christ and his Church. No man or woman is ordained by the Church lightly, nor does any man or woman consider the call without meditating over the consequences of such a vocation. Christ's Priesthood is a holy priesthood which calls its members to be holy, a challenge to all of the faith but fully embraced and deeply radicalized by its priests. A priest is called to be completely devoted to the service of God and God's people, a mission that requires a priest to be all things to all people. This aspect can be deeply challenging to those called to both ordination and matrimony as both sacraments demand 'all or nothing'. However what is perhaps the most daunting and challenging characteristic of the priesthood is that of utmost accountability. On the Day of Judgement, the priest will be held accountable for all of his or her negligence and how this affected the people of God.

The life of the priest can almost be summed up by those four words, power, privilege, service, and sacrifice. All of this is crucial in understanding the role and nature of the priesthood. When a person is ordained, most people only see that person sharing in Christ's power and authority, but a priest is called to share in Christ's servanthood and victimhood. As a shepherd they are to take ownership and responsibility of the folk, to be willing to travel the toughest terrain, to be able to fight off the wolves, accept their mistakes and acknowledge their faults. A priest is a constant prayer, in the tradition of other shepherds such as the apostle Paul, always praying for forgiveness and strength and boasting in nothing but Jesus Christ.

"Come, Follow Me"

Looking back to Luke's Gospel, with the Call of the Disciples, we have no idea how many generations the Zebedee family had been involved in the Galilean fishing business. Within the culture of the time, a family trade was known to be handed down over hundreds of years, even centuries. It's safe and it's secure. People know what they are doing because they have always done it. A good season meant less work and a bad one meant more work. Yet a young prophet from Nazareth appears on the scene, proclaiming that "the Kingdom of God is at hand". He first tells John and James, then their neighbors Peter and Andrew, to drop it all and follow him. Peter, Andrew, John and James had no idea to the future in which Jesus was inviting them to, not knowing how earth-changing this experience would be, not just to them, but to the entire world. Even so, all this was unknown to them at the time, and Jesus asked them to leave everything they had ever known, their families, their trade and all that was secure to them, leave it all and follow him.

Someone who is called is asked to the exact same thing.

We leave what we know into what God knows. From God we receive a calling that doesn't change who we are, but shapes what we become — and to some that is priest. I am still discerning if it is for me … One day I will know — today is not that day. I follow Jesus Christ and I wish others to do the same. If that is via the ministry of priest, or the youth minister, or the chaplain, or the teacher; so be it. It is not the vocation that is important it is who the vocation is done through: Jesus Christ. Amen.

IMAGE CREDITS:
The headline image, "Fishers of Men" by Simon Dewey, has been sourced from picturesofjesus4you.com. The prayerbook image is sourced from www.elca.org.

©2009 Daniel Gullotta

[Index of Commentaries by Daniel Gullotta]