Holy Orders - preview

 Things continue to be complicated.  Maybe that is a strong word for how I am feeling recently, but it has been difficult to focus.  I want to focus on my future, especially the next three months before I leave for my six-month sabbatical to San Diego.  The parishioners are very supportive, which helps quite a bit.  Many continue to tell me how much I will be missed, which is also appreciated and humbling.  It many just be their good hearts saying so, but sometimes I begin to feel almost guilty about leaving.  Still, I know this is the right thing for me to do.  I have at least 12 years of ministry to go before I am even of age to retire without doing so for medical reasons.  I hope it stays that way.  It's the only way i want to retire.  Just to reach 70 years old and retire without extraordinary circumstances. 

The talks on the Sacraments I have been working on for the last few months are going pretty well.  July was baptism, August on the Eucharist, and September was confirmation.  Each has been well attended.  Some of the material seemed maybe a little bit ambiguous and maybe too deep to comprehend.  Some people said that the sound on the confirmation talk was pretty bad because of the church's echo.  I also did not have another microphone for people to be able to hear when a question was asked.  However, I took the time to watch the recordings on our St. Cletus YouTube page (under "videos").  The sound was very good and I heard it all loud and clear.  Maybe those who struggled will watch them again.

October's sacrament is going to be on Holy Orders.  I some way I have had to touch on that subject in the other talks because you talk about the ministers in various situations too.  For the record, and if you run into anyone who might be attending the talk on October 7th, one thing I want to be clear about is that Holy Orders are deacon ordination, priest ordination, and bishop ordination.  I bring this up because there are many misconceptions about how religious order brothers, sisters, monk, and nuns are classified.  Their affiliation with a religious order is not necessarily Holy Orders.  Some male members of the various orders are ordained.  Otherwise, if you are not ordained, it's not the sacrament.  Members of orders whether male or female simply follow what is called a "rule" that was established by a holy man or woman who came to Rome to petition that the "rule" become an "official" order -- St. Francis of Assisi, Saint Dominic, Saint Benedict, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Augustine and many others.  Each religious order has different vows they take.  Each rule has a different focus of ministry -- teaching, preaching, ministering to the poor, prayer, and many many others.  Just remember their members, unless ordained to a a deacon, priest, or bishop, they have not celebrated the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Holy Orders is the sacrament that essentially started on Holy Thursday at the Last Supper.  The Apostles were indeed chosen by Jesus along the way in His early ministry.  However, they were not simply going to be Jesus' "inner circle of friends" or His "clique."  They are the men that were chosen by Jesus specifically to be present in the upper room when Jesus gave us the sacrament of His Body and Blood through the ministry of the Apostles.  And while Judas Iscariot may have been present at the meal and had his feet washed by Jesus, Jesus also knew who would betray him and turn him over to the authorities.  When Judas realized his mistake, he despaired and hung himself.  Then we hear in the Acts of the Apostles that the other Eleven apostles discerned the will of God to succeed Judas.  It may not sound like it was much about prayer in who was finally chosen, but it happened to get them back to twelve.  But their work was just beginning.

Yes they went out amongst the people after Jesus commissioned them at the end of Matthew's gospel, filled with the Holy Spirit, but then they came to realize that they were overwhelmed by the number of people they were gaining, those who were accepting Jesus' message.  So because they were so swamped with Eucharist/"Church" work, they got help -- ordaining 7 men to be deacons and they ministered in word to widows.  These were not men who would be eventually ordained to be priests as far as we know.  We don't know what ever became of them.  Once the Apostles began to split up and take the message with them everywhere, we don't hear about them anymore.

Interesting fact:  We don't hear much about priestly ordination until the letters of St. Paul to Timothy and to Titus.  "A priest should be..."  "A bishop should be..."  You know.  Those verses that offer us "qualifications" of priests and bishops.  For example:

"So that you might set right what remains to be done and appoint presbyters (priests) in every town, as I directed you, on condition that a man be blameless, married only once, with believing children who are not accused of licentiousness or rebellious.

For a bishop as God's steward must be blameless, not arrogant,
not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive,
not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness,
temperate, just, holy, and self-controlled,
holding fast to the true message as taught
so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents." (Titus 1:5-9)

But there are many references to men along the way receiving the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands too.

What is this imposition of hands?  Let me say this part of the ordination ritual still exists in our modern day.  It was one of two equally powerful moments for me at my own ordination.  Those to be ordained are ordered to lie prostrate and pray in full submission to God.  I can't say just how long we did, but when finished, the Cardinal asked us to kneel, then individually go to him so that he could place his hands on us and pray.  But that was not all.  After each of us went to the Cardinal, we remained kneeling and the whole presbyterate present came to each of us with the same gesture, praying that the Holy Spirit would fill us to be a sign of our communion with the bishop and the Church.  That's hundreds of priests at that time!

The other moment was promising obedience to the Cardinal and his successors.  When the newly ordained says "I do" the Cardinal uses the Sacred Chrism to anointing our hands, and then gently wraps our hands in his.  I think of a new bride and groom, sealing their marriage with a gentle kiss.  Let me tell you, it was then that I knew I was ordained.

The next session on October 7th will be streamed and recorded just like the first three.  Thanks for supporting this effort.  Remember this blog is just to wet your appetite.