This past weekend, Maria and I got to see two of our dear friends be ordained, one as a priest and one as a transitional deacon in preparation for becoming a priest in a year. It was an absolutely beautiful Ordination Mass (if appropriately very long) in the lovely Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception pictured above.
Both of these guys, individuals I should now be referring to only as the holy men that they are, were classmates of mine in high school. The new priest, Fr. Nick, was actually a year behind me in school, and it is absolutely crazy to think that anyone younger than me is going to be confecting the Eucharist on a daily basis. After eight long years in major and minor seminary, he was finally ordained into the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and was absolutely beaming with happiness all morning.
Joe, our friend ordained a deacon, is someone I go way back with. I went to school with this guy starting in kindergarten. We played as kids and competed as adolescents, and I tried my very best to beat the tar out of him when we were 10. He was always one of the smartest guys around, and everybody assumed that he’d be a doctor like his dad. But in a year he’ll be a priest. He preached his first homily on Sunday, and then our little family received his blessing after Mass. It’s amazing to think that this man, who was once the youngest, smallest guy in the grade, is now my spiritual leader.
All day Saturday and Sunday, as I watched these friends be ordained and heard Joe preach for the first time, I kept having a compulsion to say ‘good for you’ and ‘congratulations,’ because they’re doing what they want to do. But what I really want say is “good for us.” Good for us that we get the benefit of men who want to dedicate their lives to nourishing the Church. They are a blessing to us for answering God’s call, for saying ‘yes’ to God’s grace for them, so that they can be channels of God’s grace for us.
Seeing their choices come to fruition pointed out to me how much discernment is not about one person, but about all of us. We are all affected by the choices one person makes for his or her life. Indeed, no man is an island. But it’s more extensive than that: no man in the Church can live in his own home. We all live in God’s House, and share in stewardship of His creation. In God’s plan, each of us has responsibility to others, an ability to help or hurt them. I’m responsible to my wife and my daughters. Fr. Nick and Deacon Joe are responsible to the many souls they’ll come in contact with in their ministries. We can each fail or succeed, to the benefit or detriment of God’s children. With grace, we will succeed.
So congratulations to Joe and Nick and every other priest and deacon being ordained this month, and congratulations to us, the Church, for the great shepherds we are gaining, men answering God’s call.
marked for the fight 