A LETTER TO A YOUNGER BROTHER IN THE PRIESTHOOD

Dear Francis,*

It feels nice to no longer call you a deacon, i.e. a servant, but a friend, a brother priest and a co-worker in the vineyard of the Lord. (Cf. John 15:15).

I hope you will forgive me for missing your priestly ordination. But as I told you, I was with you in spirit and I placed you on the Paten that day during Holy Mass.

I thank God for calling you into His service. I know that you will realize as you celebrate Mass during the Easter Vigil that indeed, the Lord has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. (I Pet 2:9). Thanks to you too for responding to God’s Call. It is a sign as Pope Francis wrote in his Letter to Priests last year, “that in a society and culture that glorifies the ephemeral, there are still people unafraid to make lifelong promises.”

“Priesthood,” as St. Josemaria Escriva always insisted, “is the greatest thing.” Please try your best with the grace of God to guard it jealously and zealously.

Thank you for your e-mail which asked pertinent questions about our priestly ministry in light of the current Covid-19 pandemic. First of all I want to admit that I am the least qualified to respond to your concerns since my experience in the vineyard of the Lord as a priest is just more or less three years ahead of yours. However, I will still give you the promptings of my heart as a fellow presbyter and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. (1 Pet 5:1).

I chose to respond to your letter deliberately on Holy Thursday. Today, as you know is the anniversary of the institution of our sacred priesthood. Happy Anniversary!  Indeed, it is sad, as you note in your e-mail that you will not get an opportunity to renew your priestly promises albeit for the first time this Holy Thursday. I feel with you and for you, though on a lighter note, I guess we who have more years in the priesthood need more of that renewal! 

However, as you are already aware Chrism mass has just been postponed. I am sure your Bishop will communicate to you a proper date for this once this pandemic comes to an end.

Holy Thursday’s are very special days not only for us, priests but for the entire Church. It is the first day of the Easter Triduum-those three days of great liturgical activities in the Church’s calendar. I would not like to miss it for the world. Growing up as a child I loved going to the Cathedral (which was our Parish Church by then) to join many priests working in our diocese as they renewed their priestly promises in the presence of the Bishop. It was also a great opportunity for me to see the Holy Oils of Catechumenate and Anointing of the Sick being blessed and that of Chrism being consecrated. I loved seeing the Bishop breathe into the oil of Chrism as it used to remind me of how God breathed into man and gave him life in the Book of Genesis.

Later, as you already know, a great thing happened…just as it has recently happened to you.  One day I found myself among those who were also to renew their priestly promises! As you know, I am in the third year of the holy priesthood and today was supposed to be my fourth time to renew my priestly promises on Holy Thursday. The fact that this ceremony happens in our Cathedral for me is often significant because in the same Cathedral I was baptized and later confirmed; in the same cathedral my parents solemnized their marriage; I also saw so many of my friends get ordained in the same cathedral and finally, I was also later ordained a deacon and a priest in the very cathedral.

Yes, we cannot renew our promises today. But I feel like the circumstances within which we are living and ministering at the moment are themselves renewing. First of all, unlike other times we have more time for prayer and reflection. We also get to taste how it was on the very first Easter Triduum and the very first Easter. Jesus celebrated his first Mass alone, with the disciples. And on that Easter Sunday, when he appeared to them, they had isolated themselves, locked themselves in, for fear of the Jews. (Jn 20:19). We too will celebrate Easter having isolated ourselves, locked ourselves in, and we will hear the consoling words of Christ: “Peace be with you...” (Jn 20:20) resound from our various places of isolation.

Indeed brother as you rightly put it, you have become a priest at a very challenging time in the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But all the same brother, it is still God’s appropriate time. I wish to remind you of the Letter Pope Benedict XVI wrote to seminarians in 2010. I recall we were both of us seminarians at that time when this letter was published. In that letter he narrated his motivation to join the seminary and become a priest though he knew that in the prevailing situation it seemed like priests were no longer needed, “I knew priests would eventually be needed more than ever.”

I guess the world will always need priests. In fact, Priests are needed now, during this Covid-19 pandemic just like the Israelites needed the Prophets during the period of exile. "So when it comes to pass-- as surely it will-- then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst." (Ez 33:33). Remember Joseph* one of our brothers in the seminary, he is now a priest in your neighbouring diocese. He recently wrote this to me, “In these days of Covid-19, I have been celebrating low key funerals in our parish with very few people in attendance 15 or so. People are so broken and the situation is desperate, please if somehow I test positive for the virus, it is not because I am reckless but because it is difficult for me as a priest to abandon my people when they need a shoulder to lean on.”  Indeed as Pope Francis noted in his letter to Priests, “In these times of turbulence …and pain, we must demonstrate that we have joyfully put our lives on the line for the sake of the Gospel.”

Yes, you are right that the essence of our priesthood is ministerial meaning that it is for others. Still, we must look for creative ways of being close to our people at this time as Pope Francis recently encouraged us. We must also look for ways to be close to our fellow brother priests at this time. I know it is difficult as you say to visit your priests’ friends and other priests in the diocese because of “social distancing” but we can still be close to one another, and to the faithful we serve through our prayers and using the marvelous gift of technology.

I know it is difficult for you to celebrate all your Masses Sine Populo! (Without a congregation). However, thank you for celebrating those Holy Masses all the same. Always remember that the Eucharist is the Supreme reason for ordained priesthood. You were ordained to celebrate Mass. Remember in his letter to Priests last year, Pope Francis thanked priests for celebrating Mass daily!

You have asked about my take regarding our brother priests who have tested positive for the virus and those who have died throughout the world. Well, we pray for them and for all who are sick to recover and we also pray for the eternal repose of the dead. God has a reason why he chose men and not angels to become priests. We priests have always to share in the pains and the sufferings of the people of God. In doing so, we also share in the suffering of Christ. (Cf. 1 Pet 4: 13). Allow me to Paraphrase the words of St. John Paul II, “The Priests must be attacked, the priests must suffer so that the whole world may see that there is a higher gospel, the gospel of suffering by which the future is prepared.”

Dear brother, in the Gospel of Luke, in the Journey to Emmaus, one of the Gospel passages that we will read during the upcoming season of Easter, we will hear how Jesus opened the eyes of the two disciples so that they could fully comprehend the mystery of Resurrection. (Cf. Lk 24:31). We are praying that the Lord Jesus may also Open our eyes during this pandemic that we may see the many things that this pandemic has taught us.

First of all, this pandemic has taught us to be more sensitive to our health and the health of our Christians. We should be at the fore front to advocate for quality and affordable health care for all. We have also learnt how important it is to maintain high levels of hygiene. We have also learnt the importance of the media as means of social communication. In these days when it has become impossible for the faithful to come to Church, we have kept their faith alive by using various means of social communication: TV, Radio, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp to mention but a few. Many priests are indeed realizing that the media is becoming an indispensable part of evangelization. Surely, if you have good news to proclaim, then you use the most effective means. And what better means than reaching people where people are today.

Finally, I would like to compare Covid-19 to Sin. Sin is more dangerous and more fatal than Covid-19. Just as we have been sanitizing ourselves these days at every opportune time, the same way we should sanitize our souls at every opportune time. Encourage your Christians to come for confession as often as they go for the sanitizer. What better way to encourage them, than frequenting the confessional as penitents ourselves.

Similarly, dear brother, just as it is proper today to keep away from a person and those things that have been contaminated with the Covid-19 virus, so too should we keep away from the many sources of temptations: The things, the Places and the People!

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother, the Mother of all Priests, who accompanied her Son Jesus, the Eternal High Priest and the Church from the Wedding at Cana to Pentecost always accompany us and especially you my beloved brother in Christ as you celebrate your first 30 days of priesthood and your first Easter as a priest in these challenging times.

Always remember as Pope Francis reminded us: You are anointed, to anoint others!

Tu es Sacerdos in Aeternaum! You are a priest forever! We are Priests forever!

Yours in Christ and in Priesthood,

Casmir

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Post Script

1. This was a genuine letter emailed to a brother priest in response to an earlier email he shared.
2. I share it with his permission and upon his request for the edification of the my fellow brothers in the priesthood
3. The real identity of the priest to whom, this letter was intended and any other person mentioned have been concealed. The names mentioned in * are mere Pseudo-names.

The author is a at Parochial Vicar: St. Mary’s Parish Kabarnet, Diocese of Nakuru

Email: casmirthomas28@gmail.com