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Father Gary Jeffrey Joseph Picou and Father Raul Martinez Lopez at their
ordination ceremony last May 25, 2014.
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May 25, 2014
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas
Why do we ask you to promise obedience today, on this the day of your ordination?
I once heard that in the 1950’s one of the business schools at a prestigious American University identified the Catholic Church as a model business organization. It was reasoned that this was because, in part, that the Church possessed a loyal and compliant workforce that labored for little financial compensation while being completely dedicated to the cause. It was noted that the promise of obedience made by its workforce made this possible.
This is not why the Church asks these men to promise obedience to their bishop on the day of their ordination as priests.
The obedience of a priest is not simply compliance. Too often our policies for parochial administration can become more important to us than the mandates given to us by Christ concerning love of neighbor, the Beatitudes, or even the dignity and nature of marriage as taught by Jesus and His Church. The obedience that Christ requires of His priests is a life-giving obedience that makes known the obedience of Christ to the Father. Obedience is an act of the heart directed to the bishop, but to the bishop as he represents Christ and His Church. Thus, obedience is never simply procedural or administrative. Obedience doesn’t end with a particular assignment nor does it end with retirement. Priestly obedience is at its core an apostolic heart ready to be inconvenienced and available for the burden of God’s people wherever and whenever they cry out for us.
La obediencia de un sacerdote no es simplemente el cumplimiento. Con demasiada frecuencia nuestras políticas para la administración parroquial se vuelven más importantes para nosotros que los mandatos relativos amor al prójimo, las Bienaventuranzas, o incluso la dignidad y la naturaleza del matrimonio como lo enseñó Jesús y de su Iglesia. La obediencia que Cristo requiere de Sus sacerdotes es una obediencia vivificante que da a conocer la obediencia de Cristo al Padre. La obediencia es un acto del corazón dirigida al obispo, pero al obispo como él representa a Cristo y su Iglesia.
As Pope Francis recently articulated, “An obedience to the Church in the hierarchy which gives us, as it were, not simply the external framework for our obedience: the parish to which I am sent, my ministerial assignments, my particular work … but also union with God the Father, the source of all fatherhood. It is likewise an obedience to the Church in service: in availability and readiness to serve everyone, always and as best I can, following the example of “Our Lady of Promptness,” who hastens to serve Elizabeth her kinswoman and is concerned for the kitchen of Cana when the wine runs out.”
So, when as priests we receive that emergency phone call at 2:30 in the morning, remember it is Christ calling to whom we are obedient; this form of obedience engenders a generosity that will generate even more devotion among the faithful people of God encouraging even stronger and life-giving marriages and more robust priestly and religious vocations within our local and universal Church.
A lack of docility and obedience on our part manifests a symptom of a church challenged in its health. This symptom is more broadly identified by Pope Francis as a lack of a sense of belonging among the people of God. The Pope states, “If part of our baptized people lack a sense of belonging to the Church, this is due to a bureaucratic way of dealing with problems, be they simple or complex, in the lives of people.”
The real objective of the enemy is to scatter the flock so that he can pick them off one at a time like a predatory wolf. This lack of belonging is a sign of the scattering of the flock, the work of the enemy. Obedience is important because the priest’s deference to the bishop’s authentic leadership helps to prevent the enemy from scattering the flock. The bishop has the responsibility to keep the entire flock in his sight and may have to ask his priest to sacrifice his own preferences or even well-formed judgment for the sake of the unity of the entire flock, the life of the local church, the Diocese. This can never be simply understood as compliance to a procedural request or assignment.
If we are to nurture a sense of belonging among the people of God, a sense that is rightfully all of ours by the grace of our baptism, we must first work hard to belong ourselves as priests---to each other as bishop and priest, to our presbyterate as brothers, and to the entire Church as servants by living and preaching-with God’s help-the entire Gospel---especially those parts that left to our own devices we would rather omit. Our fidelity to this mission will help to reverse the process of secularization that harms our unity by reducing the Catholic Faith to that of the private sphere, to an individual commodity, or to that of the exclusively personal opinion or prejudice.
+ Bishop Michael F. Olson
Also See:
Bishop Olson ordains Deacons Gary Picou and Raul Martinez to priesthoodNorth Texas Catholic Newsmagazine
