Living in the Light of His Real Presence
Knowing his great love for and devotion to the Curé of Ars, we asked Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury some important question about the life and spirituality of the priest. Here are his responses:
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St John Vianney famously described the priesthood as ‘the love of the heart of Jesus.’ What does that mean practically? How should that shape the daily life and prayer of a priest?
In these words which found their way into the Church’s Catechism, Saint John Vianney saw the Ministerial Priesthood as the radiant, emanation of the love of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus. It is for this reason that the Holy Eucharist is always the heart and centre of the daily life and daily prayer of a priest. Pope Francis reminded us in his last Encyclical Letter how Saint John Henry Newman discovered the most loving Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and this discovery remained for him a source of ever-growing wonder. The same must be true of every priest to the extent that the same Curé of Ars diagnosed that whatever goes wrong in the life of a priest goes wrong because he has been inattentive to the Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist. The attentiveness given to the celebration of the Mass each day and the generosity by which we are happy to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. This will surely remain the measure for the priest as for the seminarian as to whether we are living according to the Heart of Jesus.
There is often discussion today about priestly celibacy. Do you see it as a discipline that remains valuable? How should a priest understand and live his commitment to celibacy?
A Catholic Priest understands and lives the celibate consecration in the light of the Holy Eucharist. Our understanding of this commitment and its generosity is diminished by the dimming of Eucharistic faith and love. For the total self-giving demanded by priestly celibacy reflects the total self-giving of Jesus Christ in His Eucharist. In the light of His Sacrifice and His Presence we find the key to understanding celibacy as something more than an ecclesial discipline rather as a way of total self-giving in our life and ministry. Saint John Vianney once observed that if as priests we failed to so identify ourselves every day with the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and in prolonged adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, we would be men who should be pitied for the opportunities we have lost.
© Mazur/cbcew.org.uk
Allowing for different spiritualities, what would you say lies at the heart of a priest’s spiritual life?
Amid the many schools of spirituality in the life of the Church, the heart of a priest’s spirituality will always be the Holy Eucharist. In the memorable phrase of Saint John Paul II, the Priesthood and the Eucharist were “born together.” And we are called every day of our lives to an extraordinary intimacy with Our Lord in His Sacrifice and to literally live each day in the light of His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, which moves us to constant adoration. Saint John Vianney attributed all that was brought about in Ars to the place where he knelt every day in prayer before the Tabernacle. We must never be in doubt that this is where the heart of our life and ministry will always be found.
What does spiritual fatherhood mean to you? What does it look like when it is lived well in a priest’s life?
The spiritual fatherhood of the priest is kept in mind by the custom of the faithful calling us “Father.” This can be a little startling for the newly ordained priest, but it serves as an invaluable reminder that there is never a time when we do not have the responsibility of spiritual fatherhood, in an active concern for souls. The most profound moments of our priestly ministry (when we offer the Holy Mass for the living and the departed and give Holy Communion to a countless number; when we baptise and restore the baptised by the grace of absolution; when we anoint the sick and commend the dying) are expressive of the commitment of a whole life to be always, in Saint John Vianney’s, words “for others.” The care and responsibility for souls is never merely a job or a function. Rather, it is a life wholly dedicated in parallel to human parenthood, where a father always remains a father.
What does the promise of obedience mean for both the priest and the bishop?
This is a good question because it can be overlooked that both priest and bishop are both bound by their own promises of obedience. This is not merely for the good order and organisation of the Church but so that our ministry may be faithful to her faith, worship and discipline. We can see that in the love which saint John tells us goes to the end for us in His Eucharist, Christ is the model of our priestly obedience and our own self-giving to the end.
Is there a particular saint who could teach us about priesthood today? What signs of renewal in priesthood do you see on the horizon?
The Saint of Ars has been raised up in a quite unparalleled way during this past century as a model for all priests. Pope Saint John Paul II wrote that Saint John Vianney remains the unsurpassed model of the pastoral priest which must lead “those already priests, and those preparing for the priesthood and those who will be called to it … to fix their eyes on his example and follow it” for “the figure of the Curé of Ars does not fade.” At the dawn of the New Evangelisation, in Ars we are all invited to glimpse amid different historical circumstances what is perennial and most urgent in the life of a priest today. I see many signs of the renewal of the Catholic Priesthood in our time not least in the generosity of the candidates who come forward in increasing numbers to offer their lives to Christ in the Catholic Priesthood, a generosity which invariably arises from their Eucharistic faith and love. I see in this the clearest promise of the renewal and the perennial youthfulness of the Catholic Priesthood for all generations to come.
