God has a plan for everyone. Catholic theology calls that a “vocation.” Vocation comes from the Latin word meaning, “to call.” God calls everyone to receive a particular role in establishing His kingdom here on earth. As we pray in the Our Father: “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Receiving and following this vocation leads to perfection, fulfillment, and happiness. As C.S. Lewis wrote: “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become—because He made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be… It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.” Yet, listening to God’s call can be difficult due to sin. We are creatures who want to be in control and dictate our own plans. We develop strong defenses against those who threaten our authority and autonomy.
Of all of the possible vocations, in God’s providence he decided to transmit salvific grace through space and time by establishing the priesthood. The priest stands in persona Christi (i.e. in the person of Christ). Hence the priestly life is meant to be an imitation of the life and mission of Christ. When he preaches, the priest preaches Jesus Christ. When he administers the sacraments, he does so in the name and the power of Jesus Christ. When he gives a cup of cold water to a poor man, he does so in the name of Christ. The priest yearns for the salvation of every single individual just as Christ thirsts for souls. Priests go forth to teach the power of the Name of Jesus and His Church to everyone. Everyone has a part to play in building up the Kingdom of God, but the priest can give the means of salvation: grace through the sacraments (particularly the sacrifice of the Mass).
The essence of priesthood is the celebration of Mass. The priest is ordained primarily to offer the sacrifice of the Mass. In this he daily repeats the offering of Christ to the Father. He becomes part of the inner life of God through this exchange. He can do this because of his ordination through the sacrament. Hence, the priest is not merely equivalent to a social worker. Instead, he is to be set apart from ordinary life and follow Christ in this unique way.
Father Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire, O.P., a Dominican priest, captured this uniqueness of a priestly vocation: “To live in the midst of the world with no desire for its pleasures; to be a member of every family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets, to heal all wounds; to daily go from men to God to offer Him their homage and petitions; to return from God to men to bring them His pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to bless and to be blest forever. O God, what a life, and it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!”
It is both a gift and an adventure to be called by God to the priesthood. Even the faintest echo of that call should be investigated by a man to see if God is indeed calling him to this vocation.
