Golden Jubilee of Vincentians
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23 June 1987
Chicago

My dear Confreres,

When Father James Richardson was Superior General, he introduced the custom of writing to Confreres and Brothers who were celebrating the Golden Jubilee of their vocation to the Community or of their priesthood. We have often remarked in the Curia how much Confreres appreciate receiving a short letter of congratulations on their Jubilee from the Superior General. Many of the Confreres who receive these letters of good wishes, of greetings and congratulations, reply with letters that are invariably a joy to read, so full are they of appreciation and gratitude to the Congregation for what it has meant and done for them. Invariably these letters end with the expression of hope that the Lord will continue to support them until, in Cardinal Newman's words: "the shadows lengthen and the evening comes and the busy world is hushed and the fever of life is over, and our work is done."

I have often wished I could publish for the Congregation some of these letters, for they are vibrant with humble gratitude to God and to the Community. Living among an angry generation, we have more need than we realize for the refreshing breeze of thanksgiving during the long hot summers of angry protest that we have all experienced. Authentic thanksgiving is always born of humble wonder. It is the sort of loving, humble wonder of Jeremiah who, in trying to respond to his vocation, could only exclaim: "Ah, Lord God, I know not how to speak. I am too young. But the Lord answered me: 'Say not, I am too young.'" (Jer 1:6-7). It is not that protest, wonder and thanksgiving cannot live in harmony together. It was G.K. Chesterton who wrote: "The voice of the rebels and prophets recommending discontent, should, as I have said, sound now and then suddenly like a trumpet, but the voices of the saints and sages, recommending contentment, should sound unceasingly, like the sea."

Even if the hearts of our Jubilarians today are full of contentment, they would be hesitant to number themselves among the saints and sages of the Congregation or of the Province. Their sentiments are similar to those of St. Vincent which he expressed to his Community when he was seventy years of age and had just passed the Golden Jubilee of his Ordination:

All our life is but a moment which flies away and disappears quickly. Alas, the seventy years of my life which I have passed, seem to me but a dream and a moment. Nothing remains of them but regret for having so badly employed this time. Let us think of the dissatisfaction we will have at our deaths if we do not use this time to be merciful. Let us then be merciful, my Brothers, and let us exercise mercy towards all in a way that we will never find a poor man without consoling him, if we can, nor an uninstructed man without teaching him in a few words those things which it is necessary to believe and which he must do for his salvation. O Savior, do not permit that we abuse our vocation. Do not take away from this Company the spirit of mercy, because what would become of us if You should withdraw Your mercy from it? Give us, then, that mercy along with the spirit of gentleness and humility." (Coste XI, Fr. ed., p. 342).

Is it true that as we advance in years in the Congregation, we feel more keenly the need of God's mercy? Not a few priests feel after their middle years that they are going to appear before God with empty hands and the thought can be frightening. For us in the Congregation it is consoling to think that the very last sentiment expressed by St. Vincent in our Common Rules is that "we must get it firmly into our heads that when we have carried out all we have been asked to do, we should, following Christ's advice, say to ourselves that we are useless servants..." (CR 12,14). To have the experience of feeling oneself a thoroughly unprofitable servant is a great grace because of it is born that attitude of mind which for St. Vincent was the kernel of his spiritual life: humility. "If a person has this humility," writes St. Vincent, "everything good will come along with it. If he does not have it, he will lose any good he may have and will always be anxious and worried." (CR II, 7).

When our Jubilarians were ordained twenty-five or fifty years ago, the rite of ordination was different from that of today. Among the final words which the ordaining Bishop, according to the old rite, addressed to the newly ordained priest were those words of Our Lord to which we have just listened in the Gospel: "I will not now call you servants, but friends." (Jn 15:15). Today we speak much about ministry, old ministries and new ministries; ministry means service. Being a servant is a key concept in any theology of the priesthood, as it must be for any person baptized into Christ Jesus. But at its deepest level, the priesthood is friendship. To share in the pastoral priesthood of Christ is to share in a special way in the friendship of Jesus Christ. The initiative for that friendship was taken personally by Jesus Christ: "I will not now call you servants but friends....You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you. Go forth and bear fruit." (Ibid. v. 16). Of all the possible failures in my priesthood, perhaps the greatest is to question the reality or the sincerity of Jesus Christ's willingness to share His life with me, a fragile priest of His own choosing, to question the reality and sincerity of His invitation to me to share my life with His. I could pray for no more perfect gift for our Jubilarians than that of giving, not just a notional but a real assent to Our Lord when He addresses them today, as He did on their ordination day: "I will not now call you servants, but friends....You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you." (Ibid.).

In the context of this Eucharist, let me thank our Jubilarians for the work they have done for the Congregation and for this Province. May they continue to hear the word of God and, like Mary, the Mother of God and of us all, keep it in their hearts. May they, like Mary, continue to nourish the Body of Christ, which is the Church, and may she, when their work is done, show unto them the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus.

Meantime, to each of the Jubilarians I address these words which St. Vincent himself wrote to a priest: "Remain steadfastly in your state and 'walk in the vocation to which you are called'... (Eph 4:1) and 'do not swerve either to the right or to the left.' (2 Cor 34:2). You can be sure that your vocation will bring about your sanctification and, in the end, your glorification." (Coste III, Eng. ed., ltr. 931, p. 174).

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