Guide to Ongoing Formation for Priests

CHAPTER 4: SPIRITUAL FORMATION | 59

and fidelity to the law of God. It is sustained by the sacraments, an active life of prayer, and the presence of God, including a love for silence and solitude. It relies upon and fosters a supernatural outlook, seeing one’s life, world, and relationships through the lens of faith, that is, from the perspec tive of eternity. The Second Vatican Council taught, “Therefore, since every priest in his own way represents the person of Christ Himself, he is also enriched with special grace. Thus, serving the people committed to him and the entire People of God, he can more properly imitate the perfection of Him whose part he takes. Thus, too, the weakness of human flesh can be healed by the holiness of Him who has become for our sake a high priest ‘holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners’ (Heb 7:26).” 124 In light of a priest’s particular call to draw souls to Christ, his holiness will also be distinguished by his efforts to keep God, rather than his own preferences and ego, at the center of his life. 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 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 eucha ristic 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 155. 156. FIDELITY TO THE CHURCH 157.

124 PO, no. 12. See also CIC, c. 276, for specific means of growth in holiness. 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.