Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - The Saintly Cure d’Ars said “the priesthood is the Heart of Christ”. It is certainly the act of supreme love that Christ has for those who accept to be his apostles whom he calls to live with Him and act in His name; at the same time the ministerial priesthood is an effect of the immense love which Christ has for all men and women, so that all may be reconciled with the Father. Priests in fact are living sacraments of Christ the Great Shepherd, who did not hesitate to give his life for the world.
Priests must consider their ministry solely as a service of love. They are required to have the same sentiments as Christ, who for love of the Father and his brothers and sisters willingly accepted to torment of the Cross. They are required then to be holy. They must live not for themselves but for Christ in an act of continual self-giving to humanity. Only in this way can they be dispensers and witnesses of Christ's love. Pope John Paul II, who instituted the Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests in 1995 started from this simple truth, also a first principle: “The call to mission derives from the call to holiness” (RM. 90).
We know that the science of communications assigns an essential role to the personality of the communicator, which conditions to outcome, in both the positive and negative sense. The receiver of the message, even before he hears the contents, assess the value of the speaker on which depends both its rejection or reception. Priests, who are called to communicate a message which cannot be measured in quantitative, palpable or visible terms, usually against the common good sense, are expected to be consistent with the message they announce. Technical ability is worth little without the power of witness.
This is why in recent years there has been so much, even too much emphasis on the holiness and the profound interior convictions demanded of the priest and missionary, communicators of the Gospel. For the Church and us to effectively sense the urgency of mission, we must first of all consider ourselves, take a look at our vocation. This is a necessary condition, because there can be no violent fracture, no schizophrenia between the contents of the announcement and the announcer. This is perhaps the most serious reason why the Gospel is no longer important, comprehensible and effective in our society, and evangelising activity is at a standstill.
What is needed therefore is a return to the Absolute, to the Centre, to the Heart of Christ, where we have or we rediscover the only vital reasons for mission. “Why mission?” John Paul II asks in Redemptoris Missio. “ we reply with the Church's faith and experience that true liberation consists in opening oneself to the love of Christ” (RM 11) The Gospel is always God's saving power and energy, it is a prophetic message also for men and women today. Mission has its foundation and power only in faith in Christ and it is the reason for the existence of all the other activity of the Church.
For a priest and the community he leads to be able to announce they must regain possession of faith in Christ, believed in as the one and only Saviour, which impels us to work for the Kingdom of God. Blessed Paolo Manna, founder of the Pontifical Missionary Union, was an enthusiast of Christ and tormented by salvation of souls. He used to say: “All through my life I have studied nothing but mission, I have been interested only in mission, I have known only mission”. In present day terms this is the same insistence which Novo Millennio Ineunte and in recent documents of the Italian Bishops Conference which say contemplation of the face of Christ is the model and source of evangelisation “We have no use for mediocre priests: what we need is a host of superior men filled with the Holy Spirit capable of founding communities, capable of suffering much: not privates, but leaders; not mercenaries or beginners, but real shepherds of souls in the most sublime sense of the word, capable of giving Jesus Christ to souls from the superabundance of their treasures of graces and virtues”. Unless we contemplate the face of Christ and learn from Him, apostolic activity can be a waste of energy. Without passion there can be no anxiety or creativity for mission. A priest without sound faith does not exist; if he exists he is not an authentic priest of Christ. He is par excellence the man of faith: he is born of faith, he lives of faith, for the faith he willingly works, suffers and dies. Fr. Vito del Prete, PIME, Secretary general of the Pontifical Missionary Union (Agenzia Fides 15/6/2007; righe 53, parole 805)
