The Catholic publishing company Our Sunday Visitor has just published my book Men of Brave Heart in which I stress the importance of the cardinal virtue of fortitude in Christian life, specifically in the life of a priest.
It seemed appropriate during this Year for Priests, called by Pope Benedict XVI, to reflect on how priests in particular are called to put into practice the call of St. Paul, “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be courageous, be strong. Your every act should be done with love.” (1 Cor 16:13-14)
When we consider the lives of such exemplary priests such as Fray Antonio Margil de Jesus, the missionary of Texas, the Mexican martyr priests of the 20th century, and St. John Mary Vianney, the great “Curé of Ars,” we can see that fortitude in the face of internal and external adversities is the common denominator that unites them beyond time and space.
The priest’s fortitude, as I propose in Men of Brave Heart, is based on the love of Christ, is nourished in the sacrament of the Eucharist and is expressed in a generous apostolic zeal through which the priest uses the vocation for the spiritual fatherhood it has inspired through the centuries, precisely so that he will be called “father.”
Devotion to others, the zeal for the salvation of humanity, the constant search for the lost sheep, constitute an essential part of the life of a priest. When a priest lives fully that spirit of devotion, it not only leads to the fullness of his own vocation, but he becomes the bearer of the mysteries of salvation to all human beings with whom he comes into contact.
In his letter to the priests throughout the world, designating this special year, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the importance and the need for priests to become tireless witnesses of salvation.
“In today’s world, as in the troubled times of the Curé de Ars,” writes the Holy Father, “the lives and activity of priests need to be distinguished by a forceful witness to the Gospel”. (Letter to the Priests)
And quoting Pope Paul VI, he reminds us that “modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
In this way, Pope Paul VI was stressing the importance of a priest’s testimony not being limited to words, but to an entire life devoted to the mission, which becomes the true fortitude that transforms the hearts of the faithful.
If the great missionaries attracted hearts through the strength of their words, in the end they won them for Christ with the radicalism of their example, expressed in the unlimited generosity of their service, the heroism of their acts, and by living out the virtues.
That is why the Holy Father warns in his Letter to the Priests, “Lest we experience existential emptiness and the effectiveness of our ministry be compromised, we need to ask ourselves ever anew: ‘Are we truly pervaded by the word of God? Is that word truly the nourishment we live by, even more than bread and the things of this world? Do we really know that word? Do we love it? Are we deeply engaged with this word to the point that it really leaves a mark on our lives and shapes our thinking?’”
If the Lord Jesus is the firm rock on which our life and our apostolate are based, then, as St. John Mary Vianney said, “We shall share in the same life of the apostles,” that is, a life of sacrifice, no doubt, a life that transformed the world forever.
In his Letter to the Priests, Pope Benedict XVI invites us to look at the example of an apostle, St. Paul, who “represents a splendid example of a priest entirely devoted to his ministry.”
St. Paul, in fact, wrote that “the love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor 5:14); and he reminded us that Christ “died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Cor 5:15) And reflecting on this Pauline teaching, the Holy Father asks priests, “Could a finer program be proposed to any priest resolved to advance along the path of Christian perfection?”
I ask all the faithful of our archdiocese, through the intercession of our blessed mother Mary, the mother of all priests, so that the young men and women of our time will be blessed with the gift of an exemplary courage that will allow them to be raised up as great missionaries and martyrs of the 21st century, as pillars that lead all men and women to follow the way of the Gospel.