Men of God – Contemplatives in Action Rev. Madre Martha Driscoll O.C.S.C.O.,

Collaboration with Monastics

I am surprised to find myself here with you today but I am very grateful that this Congress is being held because ongoing formation for priests is extremely important for the life of the Church.

I have some experience giving retreats for priests: personal and group retreats in preparation for the diaconate, ordination, for generational groups, for personal accompaniment, for priests in trouble sent by their bishops, collaboration with the diocese, with the seminary. I have heard the same problems from priests in Indonesia as well as in Rome that I read in the responses to the questionnaire.

It seems a monastery in a beautiful place of solitude, participation in our community liturgy, with times of silence for personal prayer and lectio, some material for reflection, personal encounters with a sister can be a very effective help in both initial and ongoing formation of priests. A bond of spiritual maternity in a community atmosphere of prayer and life centered on Christ encourages openness and joy.  Our community has grown in the awareness of having a special vocation to pray for priests.

If you but knew the gift of God…  (Jn 4.10)  I have often thought that the nuns have a deeper appreciation of the gift of priesthood than many priests. Not that we want to be priests, but in contemplating the Mystery of Christ and the Church, there is awe and gratitude for the gift that allows Christ to be sacramentally present in all times and in all places through his priests.

Why do we find this sintonia between diocesan priests and enclosed nuns?  Because we, too, are called to center our lives on Jesus in a radical way in and through the Eucharist. We seek to deepen our awareness of the liturgy of the hours as the exercise of our common priesthood in which we invoke the Spirit and offer the world to God seven times a day in a prolongation of the Eucharist. We want to truly live the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Christian life: to reflect on what that means,  to let our lives be transformed until we become Eucharist – a thanksgiving sacrifice of love.

Priests have studied more theology but perhaps we have meditated and interiorized more about this mystery of life as a sacrifice of grateful praise in union with Jesus who gives both priests and contemplatives a sharing in his total oblation to the Father. It is not just in the  liturgical celebration but in all our daily activities. Sometimes we nuns know more about how to live that.

Contemplation

To think is to look for a rational answer; to contemplate is to let the answer come to us. When we think, we use our brain and thought process; when we contemplate, we  gaze upon reality in thoughtful observation. Thinking is active, contemplating is receptive. We want to see and hear reality as Christ sees. Contemplation is not just something done alone in a silent room – although that is also necessary. It is learning to live together seeking the Father’s will, listening to his word in Christ, following the inspirations of his Spirit. Living our faith concretely in daily life instead of just believing it abstractly, bridging the gaps between faith and life, faith and reason. Learning to discern, decide and act together according to the Gospel of Jesus and not the criteria of the world.

How can priests be contemplative? Or rather: How can they be men of God if they are not contemplative? Contemplatives are aware of an inner calling, an encounter with the living Christ and want to know Jesus more and more, to be close to him in mind, heart and body. We are new creatures already living in the new humanity of the risen Christ. Contemplatives are by their very nature missionaries! “The first reason for evangelization is the love of Jesus that we have received…. What love does not feel the need to talk about the beloved, show Him, introduce Him, share happiness?” (Evangelium Gaudium. 264)

Priestly ministry must proceed from this personal contemplative experience of the Mystery they announce. We are saved by the Incarnation, by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus: the most important event in human history.

But sometimes priests don’t seem to have time for contemplative reflection and they can lose contact with the mystery they are announcing and celebrating. They need to give time every day to remember the reason for their being priests, to go to the roots of their vocation and service, otherwise they forget who they are and Who is working in them. They need a personal, loving relationship with the Lord, they need to do lectio, read the Word, be touched and converted by it and not just announce it to others.   They need to prepare themselves in prayer before Mass to be able to be present to the Mystery they are celebrating in the Eucharist, the meaning of the words they are saying and how to live that meaning throughout the day. They need to be reminded of that by their bishop and fellow priests.

Self-Knowledge and Communion

But being contemplative doesn’t mean being a saint. In fact, contemplatives are more aware of themselves as sinners in constant need of mercy. The love of Jesus is light and so he shows us our darkness – our faults, limitations, selfishness, our inner divisions and pride. He leads us into self-knowledge so that we can be more and more emptied of self, more and more united to Him so that it is no longer I that live but Jesus who lives in me. Our contemplation leads us to openness to others in love and compassion

The gift of priesthood is given to earthenware vessels and it is important that priests know their own poverty, pride, selfishness and sin. The path of union with God in Christ is the path of self-knowledge, the path of humility that enables us to forgive and be forgiven to live our relationships in truth and love – in other words it is the path of communion. Contemplation in action is learning how to live together as the Church, members belonging to the one Body of Christ.

Now, there is where we can help our brothers, the priests, when they come to the monastery. We dare to question them about how they are living their vocation, their sacramental life, their relationships. They have a very important role in the Church but they don’t always have the experience of self-knowledge gained in community life that leads to real humility. That causes a split between personal life and their priestly service. They often fall into a culture of individualism, the modern mentality of autonomy, rather than communion. The most painful thing I read in the synthesis of the questionnaire was that there is often resistance to meetings with other priests, a feeling of self-sufficiency, no sense of needing their brother priests. And yet it is with their fellow priests that they can experience most deeply their communion of life, vocation and conversion. Without that fraternal help, they are prone to be ‘single fighters’, overwhelmed by work, thriving perhaps on success and popularity, or depressed by the difficulties, the lack of results, unconsciously living more by worldly criteria than by Gospel values…. 

In many cases their motivations for becoming priests were mixed, ambiguous, and they still need to encounter Jesus in a more personal way, deepen their relationship with him and the meaning of their faith and their call. They need to do this together in open and deep relationships. Their formation was too academic and abstract.

Ongoing Formation

"The whole work of priestly formation would be deprived of its necessary foundation if it lacked a suitable human formation." (Pastores dabo vobis, 43)

Unfortunately this foundation was missing in the seminaries for many years and this makes ongoing formation of priests all the more important. Not just for the first 5 years after ordination but even more so for older priests. When I was asked to give a presentation on the vocation to celibacy at the diocesan seminary about 10 years ago, several seminarians came up to speak with me afterwards and said, “This is the first time that the word ‘sex’ has been said in public at the seminary. It is the responsibility of the confessor/spiritual director to talk about sexuality but they never say anything.”

Silence and the ‘taboo-mentality’ communicate negativity and shame and then many try to find out by themselves, secretly, with guilty feelings . But the education needed is not just a matter of biology and psychology. It needs to be based on Christian anthropology, on revelation and theology. It needs to lead them to the joy of deep understanding of their priesthood as the fulfilment of their heart’s desire. Christ came not only to reveal the Father but also to reveal us to ourselves (Gaudium et Spes 22).  If they know their identity in Christ, they can help others to find theirs.

Eros - Desire for God

Contemplatives are also philosophers always seeking to understand more about the meaning of things, always asking questions about life and reality. We are constantly in need of ongoing formation.

Throughout history there has been a problem of dualism, the tendency to separate the spiritual from the material. If you choose the spiritual, you despise the material and if you choose the material you do away with the spiritual. The sexual revolution and all its subsequent confusion is in some ways an extreme reaction to a dualist repression of sexuality as something sinful.

“Christianity of the past is often criticized as having been opposed to the body; and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort have always existed…. Christian faith has always considered man a unity in duality, a reality in which spirit and matter compenetrate.”  (Deus Caritas Est, 5)

The anthropological teaching of St John Paul II, popularly called Theology of the Body, is a gold mine that explains our identity: who we are, where we come from and where we are going. It speaks very clearly and helps to open people up to their questions and problems because it gives clear answers from Revelation. It is a good instrument for showing the beauty of human sexuality and married life which needs to be appreciated before it can be renounced. If we learn the meaning of our body as the gift of self, we can give ourselves directly to God in consecrated celibacy by giving ourselves completely to Christ in the service of his Bride, the Church and find full personal fulfillment.

Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical “Deus in Caritas Est’ has given us the basis for a new and healthy understanding of human and divine love, He is the first pope to speak about eros and has explained how eros and agape are not opposed but both exist in God’s love for us and need to be brought into union in us as we are transformed into Christ. Eros is a force of goodness that leads us to God if it is orientated and united with Agape.

In “Amoris Laetitia” Pope Francis reiterated this teaching of his two predecessors: “God himself created sexuality, which is a wonderful gift for his creatures. If this gift needs to be cultivated and directed, it is to prevent the “impoverishment of an authentic value”. (n. 150)

“Love your neighbor as yourself…. “

We have come to believe in God's love. Contemplation is not an individualistic mountain climb to personal spiritual perfection - that was often only exterior conformation with lots of pride, ambition, competition hidden inside. ‘Neighbor’ means the ones closest to me, the ones who live with me, have the most in common with me in terms of vocation, work, goals. Not just those who need my services which puts them in a lower position. The ‘neighbors’ of priests are their fellow priests. They need to have moments of communion, of open and deep sharing, of fraternal correction, taking responsibility for each other’s growth and fidelity. They need to be able to speak the truth in love to each other rather than be silent, afraid to offend. They need the paternal attention and affection of their bishop. They need to share their projects and their visions and help to build up the local Church together. Then they will be contemplatives in action.