Appropriately, we should approach the gift of the priesthood with awe. However, if we view it merely as a function, we miss its essence. If we do not recognize it as a gift, we miss the essence of service, whether episcopal or priestly. Paul tells his disciple, ‘Do not neglect the gift that is in you’. The priesthood is a service, but first and foremost it is a gift from the Lord who looked at us and told us, ‘Follow me!’. It is certainly not a function or an employment contract..
If we do not protect the gift, there is a risk of deviation.
It’s an employment contract. I have to do this and that; the doing comes second. First, I must accept the gift and treat it as such; everything else stems from contemplating the gift. When we forget this, we appropriate the gift and transform it into a function. The heart of the minister is lost, as is the look with which Jesus looked at us and said, ‘Follow me.’ Selflessness is lost. All the departures we know stem from this lack of contemplation of the minister as a gift, from the ugliest, which are terrifying, to the everyday, which leads us to focus on our own priesthood and not on the selflessness of the gift or the love of the one who gave us this gift: the gift of the priesthood. This gift was given through a prophetic word and the laying on of hands by presbyters. This applies to both bishops and priests. Let’s do our best with goodwill, intelligence, and wit, but always to protect this gift.
It is not work that decides, but sensitivity to the gift
Of losing the central importance of the gift is human, we see it today in the Gospel. The Pharisee hosts Jesus in his house and neglects many rules of hospitality, including the gift of hospitality. Jesus shows it to him, pointing to a woman who gives him everything that the host has forgotten: water for his feet, a kiss to welcome him, and anointing his head with oil. There is this good man, a good Pharisee, but he forgot the gift of courtesy, the gift of coexistence, which is also a gift. We forget gifts whenever there’s some interest of ours in the background, when I want to do something myself, and do and do… Yes, we priests all have to do things, and the first task is to proclaim the Gospel, but it is necessary to protect the center, the source from which this mission springs, and that is the gift, which we received for free from the Lord. Let’s ask God to help us protect this gift, to perceive our ministry first as a gift, then as a service“, so that we do not destroy it „a do not become priests-entrepreneurs, producers“, focused on several things that distance us from the contemplation of the gift and distance us from the Lord who gave us the gift of the priesthood.
