Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests (Ascension)

GOFP 158

Chapter 4: Spiritual Formation

156 Commenting on St. John’s Gospel, St. Augustine captured this aspect of priestly holiness well. The shepherds of Christ’s flock must never indulge in self-love; if they do they will be tending the sheep not as Christ’s but as their own. St. Augustine wrote, “This is the vice that must be most guarded against by those who feed Christ’s sheep, lest they seek what is their own rather than what is Jesus Christ’s and turn to the uses of their own desires those for whom Christ’s blood was shed.” 125 Fidelity to the Church 157 Obedience in the life of a priest requires far more than mere compliance to the will of a superior. It is founded on trust that God’s plan is always better than his own, because it is the fruit of the Father’s paternal care for each soul. “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?” Jesus asked. “Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge” (Mt 10:29). For the priest in particular, obedience springs from the eucharistic sacrifice, in which he unites his own self-offering to Jesus’ perfect self-offering to the Father. The priest freely offers to God his own plans and preferences for the sake of the Gospel and orients his will toward faithfully obeying legitimate authority within the Church, so that he can be a more effective instrument for the good of souls. 158 The priest of Christ, whose bride is the Church, is uniquely called to love and respect her in a spousal manner. Only through the Church can the priest generate spiritual children; indeed it is through her that he receives his very office. A priest who undercuts the Church’s authority through disobedience or infidelity commits a grave injustice to the people he serves and poisons the very wellsprings of his own

125 St. Augustine, “Homily 123 on John 21:12-19,” in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century , pt. 3, vol. 13, Homilies on the Gospel of John 41-124, ed. Allan D. Fitzgerald, trans. Edmund Hill (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2020), 533.

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