The first statement of St. Paul in today’s first reading reminds me immediately of the autobiography of Blessed Fulton Sheen, Treasure in Clay. This wonderful book and many other books of his, especially, The Priest Is Not His Own, helped immensely to deepen my insight into the Catholic priesthood. St. Paul writes in the mentioned text: “People must think of us as Christ’s servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God”. In his second letter to the Corinthians, he described these stewards of divine treasures as “jars of clay” (4:7).
Jars of Clay
This is the expression that inspired the title of the autobiography of Fulton Sheen. Priests are jars of clay in which the Lord preserved the treasures of salvation and mandated them to make it available to all races and generations. He Himself is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, a special order of the priesthood in which a priest becomes equally a victim. The character of victimhood is what differentiates the priesthood of Christ from all other forms of priesthood. This is the priesthood Jesus bequeathed his Church.
A priest ceases to be his own the moment he submits himself for ordination. Through this sacred act he becomes wholly consecrated to God. Being now a steward of Christ, he would be entrusted with the mysteries of God. The Last Supper gives insight into the nature of the stewardship of priests. While they were at supper, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, gave it to the apostles and said, “This is my body, which will be given up for you.” In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be poured out for all, for the forgiveness of sins.” He then added, “Do this in memory of me.”
Do This…
The mandate, “do this in memory of me”, is more than an instruction to celebrate the Eucharist in his remembrance. With these words, he commissioned and mandated his apostles and all who would receive the grace of priestly stewardship through them to take up his priestly duties, in the words of St. Alphonsus Ligouri, to procure “the honor of his eternal Father and the salvation of souls”. Through the words, “do this in memory of me”, he commanded that the stewards of God’s mysteries too should become victims for the salvation of many and for the honour of the eternal Father.
A Call
The priesthood of Christ is, therefore, essentially a call to sacrifice, to self-denial, to self-immolation. It is neither a career nor a profession. It is a call to give up one’s life for the life of others, a call to become a victim for sacrifice. To answer this call is, therefore, to accept to become a victim for sacrifice. Thus, during the sacred event of ordination, the one about to receive Holy Orders prostrates himself completely and rests his forehead on the church floor as a symbolic expression of self-outpouring, self-abnegation, of self-immolation. This expression indicates that through ordination one dies to himself and to the world in order to completely dedicate himself to the stewardship of God’s mysteries.
Yet this steward remains a man. He is not elevated to the status of an angel. He still labours under human weaknesses and imperfections. This is actually the meaning of the Pauline expression, “jar of clay”. Priests are not supermen. They are fallible. They labour under the constant tension between the burden of the sacred mysteries they are entrusted with, the pressure of their human weaknesses and the effort to prove themselves worthy of their stewardship. When we understand these facts, we will judge them less, show them love and understanding, forgive their shortcomings, appreciate and support them in every way we can and above all pray for these stewards of God’s mysteries.
Great Homily