REMEMBERING PRIESTS
Sharing to the Community of Galilee Center, Tagaytay City
On this feast day of St. John Mary Vianney, we recall the familiar stories of his holy life as a Christian and as a priest. Who can forget the long hours he spent in the confessional… or the constant fasts and sacrifices he did for the sake of his parishioners. St. John loved the Blessed Virgin Mary so much, an affection that started in his childhood. It was said that the Blessed Virgin appeared to him many times in his church and in his rectory. But he was not a sacristy priest, a cultic figure only. He was truly pastoral, establishing and maintaining charitable institutions for the poor and the abandoned.
But a little known fact is that St. John spent his childhood under the shadow of the French Revolution. Almost all revolutions in history – French, Spanish, Mexican – were anti-church and anti-clerical movements. The Philippine Revolution was an exception, for people never rebelled against their church. As a child, John and his family heard how priests and religious in France were hounded, persecuted and killed.
The family of St. John remained faithful to the Catholic Faith and supported priests whenever they could. I read a book that recounted how one night, a priest, in disguise, came knocking on their door and asked for refuge. His parents sheltered the priest in their house, and later in their barn, so as to escape detection by the military. The young John brought the priest his food and he observed the priest as he solemnly celebrated Eucharist, performed his devotions and prayers.
This encounter with that intrepid and dedicated priest must have ignited something in John’s heart. The picture of the priest continuing to serve God in the midst of perils must have remained a strong impression in his life. Like many priests today, his vocation too was strengthened by inspiring lessons from the lives of priests he knew when he was young.
Pope Benedict XVI found a connection between the Year for Priests and the 150th year of St. John Mary Vianney’s death. In his letter opening this important event, the pope encouraged us to remember our priests, the priests of our lives. Yes, we are also priest ourselves. But not only lay people ought to love and remember priests. Priests must also remember and love fellow priests. Do we remember the priests who initiated us into Christian life, the priests who encouraged our vocations, the priests who stood by our side during the years of seminary formation, the priests who accompanied us in our various ministries and assignments, the bishops and superiors who led us and reflected God’s will on us?
Before I was ordained I tracked the priest who baptized me. He was about to celebrate his diamond jubilee as a priest. Learning that I was to be ordained, he was filled with so much joy.
As for my former spiritual director, now a resident in a retirement home, I try to visit him once a year, close to Christmas. The last time I came, he was already senile and would not even open his eyes to see me. He was acting like a child again and yet, I owe to him all the guidance he devoted to me as a seminarian.
The bishop who ordained me, the great late Jaime Cardinal Sin, I try to honor by visiting his tomb every November as we recall all the saints and all the souls in Purgatory.
On this occasion of St. John Mary Vianney’s feast, feast of this patron of all priests, we need to remember our priests. Even priests must remember the dignity of their priesthood. Even priests must remember that they are not solitary soldiers of God but brothers in the ministry, brothers in the sacrament, brothers in the spirit.
We remember the priests who have gone before us. We remember the priests now around us. We remember priests who suffer various trials. We remember our brothers gathered around the altar of Jesus offering lives and hearts and souls… and yes, we are not alone, when we live in remembering.
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