MESSAGE FROM THE REV. MAX MAXWELL
Last Sunday I preached at the 50th anniversary celebration of a friend’s ordination. When he invited me to do this, he asked me to talk about the priesthood and to encourage anyone who might be thinking about ordination. And that request eventually led me to ask myself, “What does the Church need in a priest now?”
I’m not asking for a job description. Rather, I’m asking what quality or qualities are needed in a person considering the priesthood. I’ll confess that when I asked myself that question, I initially came up short. I’ve been a priest for quite a while. And I’ve spent a lot of energy meeting all sorts of different needs in the various parishes I’ve served: administrative, fundraising, public relations, personnel needs among others… in addition, of course, to the parishes’ liturgical and spiritual needs. But it’s been some time since I’ve considered what the Church more broadly and fundamentally needs. After a little thought I realized that what kept coming to mind was the Summary of the Law. Those of you who remember Rite I will remember that the Summary of the Law is repeated at the beginning of every Eucharist.
“Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” The Church needs priests who love so strongly that they can disregard all the things that society tells them they should yearn for and, instead, live out of that love.
And then I remembered the description of a priest that the theologian Alexander Nairne came up with in the early 20th century (I’ll paraphrase): “A priest is one who stands on the human side of God, and on the Godward side of humanity.” The church needs priests filled with love for God and for humanity.
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