Stress in the Priesthood
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7 October 1986
Bettystown, Ireland

Four years ago one of the commissions of the U.S. Episcopal Conference issued a report entitled The Priest and Stress. I was reminded of it by the content of the two readings which the Church offers us today for our reflection. Some of the biographical details which St. Paul presents in the first reading were occasioned by a stressful situation. There were those who questioned his credentials as an authentic Apostle and disciple of Jesus Christ. Even within that story, as St. Paul recounts it, there are many stress vibrations, as there are throughout the corpus of St. Paul's writings. If we accept what St. Paul tells us, he seems to have been bounced from one stressful situation into another as he went through his life preaching Jesus Christ crucified and risen to Jew and Gentile alike.

The gospel passage to which we have just listened throbs with stress and tension. It seems clear that Jesus himself felt the stress of his ministry, not merely the drain which it made on his physical strength, but on his moral and spiritual resources as well. In the home of Martha and Mary he could unwind, as we say, and St John also in his gospel corroborates that fact. Jesus Christ was subject to human stress as we are, because he was both truly and perfectly God and truly and perfectly man.

On this particular occasion, when he went to relax in the home of Martha and Mary, he found himself caught up in a stressful situation. Reading the narrative, you can almost feel the tension rising in Martha until it boils over, and then she vents her frustration on the wrong person. Have you noticed that she attacks, not Mary, but Jesus himself? "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?" (Lk 10:40). How authentically human is Martha's behavior. So often we work out our frustrations on the wrong people. The reaction of Jesus was not what mine would be: "Why blame me?" No, Jesus diffuses the tension, and reduces the stress by calmly addressing Martha. Note how He twice calls her by name: "Martha. Martha..." (Lk 10:41). How calming that must have been and conducive to helping Martha to regain her composure. Have you noticed that there is no rejection of Martha, no suggestion that she should not have been engaged in preparing the meal? Jesus merely underlines a truth that St. Luke records earlier, namely, that they are blessed who hear the word of God and keep it. He was putting an emphasis on a sense of attention to the word of God, if we are to offer that service to others which is the fulfillment of the second great commandment of the law. Hearing the word of God in prayer through reflection is a condition for true selfless loving service of the body of Christ.

Because the Bishops of the United States recognized the prevalence of unnecessary stress in the lives of their priests, they thought it worthwhile to study the phenomenon and to make some helpful recommendations. Although the Bishops' document does not say so explicitly, there can be a healthy and normal degree of stress in our lives, as there was in the life and experience of our great high priest, Jesus Christ. But there is another kind of stress which is undesirable, and which impairs our effectiveness as priests. It has its source not so much in our temperament as in our way of life or our way of thinking. "Respect," we are advised by the Bishops' Commission, "the four quadrants in which a healthy life is lived: prayer, work, friendship and leisure....Define clearly what are the priority needs in your apostolates and how many of them you can attend to without bringing upon yourself unreasonable strain....Do not forget that the quality of your work is more important than the quantity. What people are looking for in you more than anything else is a spiritual guide and one who will help them come to know the Lord and find his peace." The Bishops, not of the 1950s but of the 1980s, reminded their priests of the old truth that "regular time each day for prayer, meditation and spiritual reading is a `sine qua non' for the unfolding in a priest's life of an authentic Christ-centeredness." For the priest in Ireland, there is another subtle agent of stress. Not one of us is unaware that a certain corrosion of the sacred is taking place in the Ireland of today. We priests stand for the sacred, and which of us is not feeling the force of some of those strong winds of secularism which are blowing across our land. Let us by the grace of God stand our ground. Let us preserve and preach our values, Christ's values, the Church's values, in season and out of season, while being watchful that our own lifestyle is not in open conflict with those values. Above all, let us, priests of Jesus Christ, not forget that, however isolated and lonely we may feel at times, we are not alone. It is to us priests first that Jesus Christ gives the assurance that He is close to us. It was almost at the end of our ordination (according to the old rite) that the bishops said to us in the name of Christ: "I will no longer call you servants, but my friends, for you know all that I have done in your midst." (Jn 15:15). No sociological change, no shift of emphasis in theology can alter the fact that we are special friends of Jesus Christ by ordination, and that as far as He is concerned, we will remain so until the end. "Tu es sacerdos in aeternum."

May the Virgin Mary, who lived the stress of the sorrowful mysteries, win for us the peace that comes from becoming more worthy of the promises of her Son, so that we may be brought to the glory of His resurrection. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

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