The priest is an interesting figure. He is loved by his people, and yet often treated with suspicion by those outside. He is called to work in the world yet to be working for a kingdom yet to come. He serves those on earth but his Master is in heaven. He sits on a certain boundary between two spheres, the spiritual and the earthly. He is called, ultimately, to bring people to God. He has no other task for which he is trained.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan recently gave a talk to Irish priests and bishops with a very similar theme: “God is the only treasure people desire to find in a priest.” Dolan tells the story of visiting Haiti following the earthquake and spending time with some 300 CRS workers who were exhausted and worn down from day after day of intense relief-work efforts. He asked them if there was anything he could personally do and one young woman raised her hand. “Father, tomorrow is Sunday. Will you say Mass for us?” That is what she wanted from her spiritual father. Not more food, supplies, or medicine but the outpouring of God’s grace. This is the true charism of a priest: he deals with the things of God.

Dolan also mentioned the words of John Paul II in Pastores Dabo Vobis when he said, “The priest must be a man of God, the one who belongs exclusively to God and inspires people to think of God. So, the priest must have a deep intimacy with Jesus.” The source of this intimacy for any priest is the Eucharist.

Dolan explained how the Archdiocese of Milwaukee adopted a parish that had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina and how the pastor described that first day after the storm:

“For the first time in my life, I could not say Mass! I had no table, no bread, no wine, no missal, no chalice, or paten, or vestments. All was gone. I felt lost, helpless. For the first time in my life I realized how much I depended upon the Eucharist, how I needed it, how empty, lost, and scared I was without it, and how my people were so disappointed that I could not provide it.”

The Eucharist is the very center of a priest’s identity. In the Eucharist, the priest is not simply an offerer of the sacrifice on the altar but he becomes the victim as well, offered to the Father with Christ. And in offering himself, his very life, to God, he also offers it for the people, the flock he shepherds. Or as Dolan mentioned, Jesus takes us, blesses us, breaks us, and gives us. So the priest becomes that which is broken and shared by all. This is no easy life. What is acted out in the Eucharist becomes part of the priest’s daily life. He is constantly asked to pour himself out, deny his own desires and needs, to be at the constant service of his people. This does not mean his life is without fulfillment, but rather that it is bound up in the life of Christ and his great joy is seeing the faithful being brought back into relationship with the Lord.

Part of what perhaps makes the priesthood so daunting is that modern society tells us we must be successful. But the reality is, as Mother Teresa said, “God has not called me to be successful; He has called me to be faithful.”

Not only is the priest a victim, a gift for others, but he becomes so completely subsumed in this mission, according to Dolan, that he is simply priest. He no longer has any other identity. To be a priest of Jesus Christ is to die to self so completely that when asked who you are, you know your name. You are a priest of Jesus Christ.

Dolan points out one of our best examples in St. Maximilian Kolbe. For “when the Nazi commandant of Auschwitz snickered, “Who is the Polish swine,” at the prisoner who had raised his hand asking to take the place of the married man and father who had been chosen at random to be executed, the “Polish swine” did not reply, “I am Maximilian Kolbe,” nor “I am prisoner number 1408,” nor “I am a friend and would like to take his place in execution.” No. He simply replied, “I am a Catholic priest.”

Priesthood is not a simply another career option, but a calling from God to become another Christ, an alter Christus. A man called to the priesthood becomes in the very core of his being a priest consecrated eternally to God and the service of his people.

But what could possibly give rise to saying yes to priesthood? While speaking to the National Federation of Priests’ Councils, Archbishop John Quinn once said said that “the deepest and most enduring reason why a modern man would want to become and to remain a priest is the person of Jesus Christ. In the depths of every authentic priest echoes the word, ‘Do you love me more than these?’” These words of Jesus to Peter become words that echo through every generation of priests who desire to serve God absolutely, knowing full well their weakness and sinfulness as Peter did, but nevertheless courageously stepping out onto the waters, completely faithful to the will of God.

To be a priest is simply a gift. Is it your vocation? Perhaps. As a Fr. Luke Buckles O.P. said, “God takes us places and gives us our vocation in life not because that is how we can best love God but rather how God can best love us.” How does God desire to love you best? However it is, his love alone will initiate, sustain, and complete that vocation that has been placed in your heart. Consider priesthood, it may just be God’s calling for you.

Perhaps these words of Lacordaire best summarize a priest of Jesus Christ:

To live in the midst of the world
without wishing its pleasures;
To be a member of each family,
yet belonging to none;
To share all suffering;
To penetrate all secrets;
To heal all wounds;
To go from men to God
and offer Him their prayers;
To return from God to men
to bring pardon and hope;
To have a heart of fire for Charity,
and a heart of bronze for Chastity;
To teach and to pardon,
console and bless always.
My God, what a life;
and it is yours,
O priest of Jesus Christ.

I have taken generously from Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s talk to Irish priests and bishops as well as from Archbishop John Quinn’s talk to the National Federation of Priests’ Councils. Please read them for a greater grasp on the matter at hand.