Dear Friends,
This weekend we are having an open house to celebrate the 40th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. The anniversary was June 6th, but I thought Covid might have waned if we waited until September – boy, was I wrong on that one! Join us if you can, but I understand if you cannot.
Over the last few months, I have been reflecting on these forty years of ministry. They have truly been filled with wonder. I find it impossible to summarize the adventure in a few words or in one homily. However, let me say a few, brief things here…first and most importantly, I extend to you my deepest thanks for allowing me to be a part of the intimacy of your relationship with God. You have invited me to join you in the beginnings, the growing times, the struggles, the joys, the sorrows and the many doubts that are a part of that most important relationship. I am a different man today than the one that was ordained forty years ago, in part, because you have let me in on that relationship. I treasure all of those moments. I will be forever grateful for your willingness to share the journey with me.
One of the reasons I became a priest was because I really believe Christ’s powerful message of God’s love. I wanted to be a minister of that Good News, one who would present it in such a way that hearts were touched and a response was inspired. I hoped to do that not only with what I said, but in how I lived.
I hoped people would see me as a person who truly felt the joy that came from following Jesus. During my years in the seminary, I struggled making the decision to be ordained. There were so many things I desired: a loving partner for life, children to carry on my genes and watch grow up, freedom to choose where to live and what I wanted to do. But at some point, I had to surrender to the reality of human limitations; that every human choice frees us but also restricts us. A “yes” to one thing is a “no” to so many other things. I wanted people to see that in spite of saying “no” to so many other things, my life with Christ remained filled with wonder and joy. Honestly, I have never been bored and never lacked anything. Every encounter with you – even if that was in the midst of tragedy – was an opportunity to encounter the living presence of Christ.
I trust that you have seen me as “person for others” (I borrow that phrase from the Jesuits). Jesus’ invitation to join him means we are to be for others as he was for others. Part of the uniqueness of “being for others” as a priest means being a person of the Church. The Church has as its primary purpose to fashion the human person in the image of God, in the likeness of Christ. Salvation takes place within a community. No one gets to heaven by themselves. Being a priest in the Church has meant having honor without having sought it and having disgrace without having done anything personally wrong to earn it. We all get lumped together.
An Italian priest, Carlo Carretto, wrote a piece about the priest’s relationship with the Church. Here is a brief portion:
“How much I must criticize you,
my Church and yet how much I Iove you.
You have made me suffer
and yet I owe more to you than anybody else.
You have given me much scandal
and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.
Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised,
more false and yet never have I touched anything more pure,
more generous, more beautiful…”
It goes on about the two-sided nature of the priest’s relationship with the Church and I have found it so true.
The day I was ordained, I made a promise to pray. Since prayer is simply a relationship with God, I always thought it odd that the Church was making us promise to pray. I wondered how it was possible to be a priest without being a person of prayer; like being married without ever speaking to your spouse? Prayer has centered my priesthood, it is for me a ceaseless living in the presence of God. God is my constant companion. I so appreciate that the Church truly wants me to spend time in prayer, time that accomplishes no earthly task, time that would seem to the world to be a waste, time where the human and the divine touch. I love time in prayer and I hope you have felt encouraged over the years to join me in that incredible encounter with the divine.
You, my friends, have been a blessing to me over these forty years. May my ministry continue to be a blessing for you.
Peace,
Fr. Damian