Sharing the priesthood of Christ!
A reflection on the priestly vocation by Rev Fr Kingsly Asphall
THE MOST memorable day of my life was June 23, 1991, when the Lord conferred on me the Ministerial Priesthood. My 26 years as a priest is a process of recommitment, an expression of my willingness to participate in Jesus’ mission with renewed fidelity and enthusiasm. As years pass by, I recognise the depth of this vocation as the unfolding of the faithful’s baptismal grace and to enable them to offer their own “spiritual sacrifices” (1 Peter 2:5). Through the instrumentality of the Ministerial Priest, an unworthy servant like myself, Christ Himself makes His members an eternal gift to the Father (1 Peter 3:18).
As priests, one of the offices we hold is the Office of Sanctifying. As ordained priests, we have been sealed, signed and set apart for a specific purpose of sanctifying the faithful. But we have been consecrated in order to consecrate. That is why, we have a grave responsibility to focus on our own personal sanctity to which the faithful have a right. We need to be sanctified so that we can make Christ sacramentally present to the faithful and sanctify their lives by His presence to them.
One of the great truths of our faith is that the validity of the sacraments is not based on the worthiness of the minister. However, we have a responsibility to be holy. I think we sometimes forget that we are responsible for our own sanctification especially when we are judgmental of others and fail to see our own faults. Remembering the words of St Paul, “I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified” (1Cor. 9:27), we must be at work: we must work out our salvation with fear and tremblingÉ
A priest is most humbled when he hears the confessions of the faithful. Listening to their voices quiver as they articulate their transgressions and take ownership of their guilt and plead for God’s mercy compels us to reflect upon our own unworthiness.
We are most ecstatic when we celebrate the Eucharist with and for my parishioners. Oh the beauty of the Eucharist that is the source and summit of the life of the Church!
Daily, every single God-given day, within this fragile existence of mine, I strive to be a holy, kind, compassionate, patient priest, without compromising the teachings of the Church. I know this is our priestly responsibility in which all the priests share.
We are priests of God; men who take on the heart of God. We hear the words ringing in our ears, day and night: Look around you, can you see, times are troubled, people weep,
see the violence, feel the hardness.
Oh my people weep with me.
That is why it is difficult to see our people in pain, and like any caring parent, we want to take their pain away. Sometimes, there is just no easy way. Embracing our mission to serve the flock entrusted to our care we pray for them and love them.
If any young man, reading this reflection, feels the desire to become a priest, please contact your pastor and discuss the possibility. That’s how it started with me, and today I am a happy priest of the Catholic Church.