So they fall down
before the one who sits on the throne
and worship him, who lives forever and ever.
They throw down our crowns of incredulity before the throne, exclaiming:
“Worthy are you, Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things;
because of your will they came to be and were created.”
Who I ask you can endure the apocalypse at seven fifteen?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the door of heaven opened here, or here this morning and we could get a glimpse of the beyond?
Wouldn’t it be incredible if we heard the triumphal tones of that trumpet-like voice crying out “Come up here!”?
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we got caught up in the swirling spirations of the Immortal, Invisible?
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we saw the throne of jasper and carnelian (whatever that is)?
Wouldn’t it be tremendous to be dazzled by that halo of emerald shining in our chapel?
Wouldn’t it be overwhelming to see twenty-four circling elders before breakfast?
Flashes of lightening, Peals of thunder, Seven flaming torches, Four living creatures
What a vision. Perhaps too much of a vision for seven fifteen?
But it would be well … wonderful
Instead we get something else, Not a different reality
But a kind of accidental vision with which to see that reality
Accidental vision in which …
The door of heaven looks like an opening in a sandstone wall
The voices croak a bit with the strains of old chanted psalms
We are caught up in the insalubratory Spirit of lost sleep
The throne looks a bit like a table of wood and granite
The halo is a bright light shining off the roof of a copper box
The twenty-four elders, old monks and priests, a smattering of sisters and a pack of cranky, red-eyed seminarians slouching toward Thanksgiving
Slouching toward Thanksgiving with accidental vision
Miraculous myopicity
But O yes O yes Our song is the same: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty
Our song is the same even at seven fifteen, Even with accidental vision
As we penetrate the veil of mystery and with triumph rejoice with the heavenly witnesses
So we fall down
before the one who sits on the throne
and worship him, who lives forever and ever.
We throw down our crowns of incredulity before the throne, exclaiming:
“Worthy are you, Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things;
because of your will they came to be and were created.”
Apocalypse indeed, even at Seven fifteen

Given in Baltimore, USCCB Annual Meeting

My rector’s conferences this year focus on the spirituality of the priest as witnessed by the Rite of Ordination. The authentic spirituality of any office in the Church must be contained in the means by which that office is made. Thus, in the past months we have focused on the ideal of presence in the spiritual life of the priest and the particularities of that life as experienced in the promises made by the priest at ordination, especially the promise of obedience. In the coming months, we will focus on the laying on of hands, the prayer of consecration, the anointing, vesting, transfer of gifts, etc. The final reflection I will offer the seminarians in the Spring will be on the sign of peace. I would like to give you a bit of a preview of that conference this evening.
The sign of peace is a transitional gesture. The bishop embraces the newly ordained in an ancient gesture of fraternity and relationship. The gesture says: You are now one of us. You are a part of this group, this family, this diocese, this presbyterate. Following the sign of peace by the bishop, all of the priests present likewise offer the sign. It speaks the same anthropological language. While the sign of peace is a rich and meaningful gesture in itself, I am more interested in what comes after, which, in the Rite of Ordination is nothing. The new priest now takes his place among that group that has fully accepted him. He is now one of them. He is now called to carry out the responsibilities of membership in that group, family, diocese, and presbyterate. The long period of testing and formation is over and now … the future waits. The assembly of the faithful, and indeed the priests are anxious. Perhaps the bishop is also anxious about what the coming days, weeks and months will unfold. Expectations are high on every side. What does the bishop have the right to expect his new priest to be? What do the priests have a right to expect? What do God’s people have a right to expect?
First they have a right to expect that this man is a man of prayer. He has a relationship with God that is deep and intimate in itself, but is also lived in the context of the life of the Church. His mysticism is not drawn from esoteric sources of revelation about what is true and good, but from the very fiber of the Church militant, a Church alive, a Church whose spiritual animus may not always be pristine, but is unflaggingly real. This prayer expresses itself in a total commitment to deepening the priest’s relationship with Christ through the Liturgy of the Hours, through a penetrating love of the Eucharist, through a healthy devotion to Our Lady and the saints. It is a prayer steeped in the heart of the real Church, a Church of real persons, not an idealistic Church of his own construction that can never be realized this side of the Heavenly Jerusalem. His ease of prayer demonstrates a true comfortability in traversing a divine engagement.
There is also the right to expect that this man is a whole person. His human personality is truly as the late Pope John Paul II noted: “a bridge to his pastoral engagement.” He is comfortable with his emotions, his sexuality, his motivations. He knows how to have a good conversation. He has a sense of humor. While he takes the priesthood seriously, he does not take himself too seriously. He is not a narcissist. He embraces celibacy as an invitation to the many rather than an attention to the one. He is a good preacher. He studies the Word of God as an old friend. He is a good teacher. He knows the Church’s tradition and the fullness of that Tradition. He does not traffic in specialties or trivial Catholicism but appreciates the history of the Church as broad and deep. He is truly present to those whom he serves and he knows fully what service is. He has a genius for the mundane, for visiting the sick, for tending tirelessly to the elderly. He does not see his priesthood only in terms of stings of heroic deeds, rather he finds the heroic in the daily life of the priest. He works well with others, with other priests, deacons, lay ministers and the faithful. He is easygoing, but he never shirks responsibility. He knows how to collaborate, but he also understands the authentic role he is called to fulfill as a priest. He celebrates the Liturgy beautifully, elegantly and simply. He is not attracted by externals but knows the Liturgy in its radical nature. He is a man of vision and he can lead others in to that vision, not by coercion but through love. He is patient with people, never prone to outbursts. He is appropriately transparent. He inspires others. He will not walk away after a few months or years. He has shelf life because he has learned honesty. He knows what obedience is. He also knows on the day of his ordination that he is not, never will be a finished product. He is open to conversion, to change, to becoming always better. He is a man for others, a man of God, a man of whom St. Paul spoke: It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
And what is Christ but, hopeful, visionary, future-oriented, authentic.
This is what you have the right to expect your new priest to be. This is what Saint Meinrad pledges to deliver to your cathedral on the day of ordination. Our success depends on a number of factors.
A 150 year tradition of forming men for the diocesan priesthood
A staff that is experienced and likewise has shelf life, that won’t be turning over every few years.
A faculty that is intellectually second to none AND knows how to form men for their pastoral purpose
An intense focus on human formation and spiritual formation as the necessary foundations upon which intellectual and pastoral elements can be built
A conviction that priests are not cutouts, but complete men who need care and individual consideration in formation
A strong working relationship with Vocation Directors and Bishops
An intense and honest dialogue with you in which I pledge that you will never hear anything from Saint Meinrad but the Truth.
Bishops, in the Church today we are past playing a numbers game. We know that quality men in priestly service are a necessity. We cannot, we do not have the luxury to settle for second best. The stakes are too high.
You deserve the best priests. Your presbyterates deserve the best brothers. The faithful, the all too patient and forgiving faithful, deserve the best we have to offer.
At Saint Meinrad, we will never shirk from that responsibility. You can believe that.
We appreciate you so much. We love working with you. We love knowing that our alumni are serving you well. Please God may it continue to be so.
Thank you and good evening.

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.

The air is full of the eschaton these days. Swirling leaves and quickening hours
The readings are full of the eschaton these days
The four last things
Death and Judgment, Heaven and Hell

Needless to say as a child I worried a lot about Hell
I wasn’t a particularly virtuous child
I was always getting into trouble
Christmas every year was a complete terror as I was usually naughty and never nice

My grandmother was constantly telling me that if I didn’t change my ways I would end up where the fire is never quenched and the worm dieth not
How I kept from becoming I serial killer I do not know

Perhaps we all fear hell, death, judgment
But a confessor in my younger years once told me that if you fear hell, you will not go there.
While I am not so sure of the soundness of the doctrine, frankly, I’m going with it.

These days …
I think about Heaven a lot.
I suppose we all do especially as we get a bit umm older
I wonder who goes to heaven and who doesn’t?

We all speculate

Not about the obvious people of course
St. Joseph
St. Francis
Mother Teresa
The Pope

Instead, I wonder about people like my Aunt Pearl

Aunt Pearl was my grandfather’s sister
When I was 8 years old, she was about 240 years old

Aunt Pearl was the bane of the cousins’ existence

First of all she always smelled like mothballs and that icky powder that old ladies wore
She applied this powder to her face very liberally and painted on her rosy cheeks and lips
She always wore the same coat, a molting mink that had been alive at some eon before the process of evolution got underway

She smelt and she shedded

And she was stingy
Every year for Christmas or our birthdays, she would send us the same present, a dime taped to an index card

And whenever she came over to the house, usually on Thanksgiving and Christmas she would gather us round and say.
Aunt Pearl has a treat for you
And she would produce from her ubiquitous patent leather pocketbook a stick of juicy fruit gum which she would then divide among her miniature mendicants

An eighth of a stick of gum and eleven dimes is the pearline legacy so …

Yes I wonder if Aunt Pearl got to heaven

Because when push comes to shove is that not what we are really longing for?
To escape Hell and find our way to heaven, perhaps with a pit stop in purgatory?

We live our lives in the anticipation that amid the swirling leaves, the biting winds, the darkening days, the decay of the year, there is HOPE.

Hope that the pain and anxiety which we hold so closely to our hearts will evaporate in the twinkling of an eye
Hope that all our woundedness, our past, our sins will vanish in the wind like the acrid smoke of waning days and burning leaves
Hope that we can rise above the tenacious aimlessness of this world, rise to power, self power, God-like power, the power of saints

Hope that there is a place where all doubts are removed
Where all hurts are healed
Where all victims are made complete
All sinners forgiven
All enveloped in the all in all

In these waning days of the year, in this season of the eschaton

We are reminded that we continue to take part in a cosmic drama
That surrounded by the mundane and the fading, we are nevertheless pressing on to Glory

Glory that crests the eastern sky with the bright transcendence of another dawn
Glory that caresses with calloused hands those jasper walls, those golden gates of promise
Glory that creates in us new visions, fresh dreams, fiery energy to press forward to serve the needs of all: By your perseverance you will secure your lives

And in that Glory, we shall be reunited with all those who have gone before
In that Glory, failure and portends of hell will be transmogrified into the blessed assurance of immortality

In that Glory we will see him face to face as we enter into the fulfillment of the Incarnation
It is the very glory that comes to us now at this altar
The glory of the Host transcending all trepidation, rising toward New Jerusalem now alive in us
In that Glory we shall be, we are surrounded by Francises and Teresas and Josephs and Johns and Pauls and all the saints arrayed in their wedding garments
They call out to us even now of that coming day

And on that day, on that day I hope to see old aunt pearl again, in a brand new coat

And on that day I hope that at last I can get a whole stick of gum


Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
and the day that is coming will set them on fire,
leaving them neither root nor branch,
says the LORD of hosts.
But for you who fear my name, there will arise
the sun of justice with its healing rays.

Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?
When we consider the various dimensions of priestly life and ministry, as we contemplate the realization of that life and ministry in our years of formation, we may give little thought to the promise of obedience. The promise of obedience is not discussed as much in the seminary formation curriculum as, say, the promise of celibacy or some of the other aspects of the priesthood. Yet, the promise of obedience is often the one promise that makes the greatest difference in the life of the priest. Today, in keeping with the format of my rector’s conferences this year, I would like to focus on the promise of obedience. The same promise is made by the deacon and the priest.
Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?
To begin my reflection this morning, I would like to look at the question of obedience from a philosophical point of view. What is the essence of obedience? The Latin word, obedire, means two things, to hear and to listen. In English there is a slight difference in the meaning of these two words. Hearing is essentially a passive event, involving sound waves moving over the auditory mechanism of the person. As long as my ears are working properly, I can hear. But hearing requires no response. Again, it is passive. Listening is another thing entirely. I listen when I process what I have heard, when I place it in a context, when I, at least at some level, understand what I am hearing. Listening is an active concept, it requires attention and it is dialogical with that which is heard. Passive or active, however, obedire places us in a particular context, the context of relationship. These actions require relationships of varying depths. When I hear, I am in a kind of relationship with something outside of myself, be it ever so feeble, perhaps nothing more than mere sound. When I listen, I deepen that relationship. I am in a contextual relationship, an intentional relationship with the other who makes the sound. Philosophically, I would say the essence of obedience is relationship and by extension the recognition of a necessary relationship in the person. It is also the desire to recognize that relationship is essential to who I am as a person. There are a number of ways in which this relationship can be understood. Sometimes we understand relationships in artificial ways. The gathering of this community is, in some sense, artificial. Most of us have no natural relationship and our coming together is, in a sense, accidental. We are gathered here in some ways because of a contract, a contract for formation that we have made. Our relationships here are certainly very real, but they might be perceived as artificial. We did not really choose to be together. Many of the relationships in which we find ourselves are similar to our relationality here. Our neighborhoods, our schools, our parishes are all a rather haphazard ingathering of folks who may have much in common but are mostly drawn together by the accidents of proximity, bureaucracy or choices of various kinds. However, while the various relationships and communities in which we find ourselves may be accidental, there is a natural element of relationship that must also be taken into account.
Human beings have relationship written in the core of their being. Pope John Paul II in his Theology of the Body renewed this insight for our contemporary western cultural situation. In the modern and postmodern ideal, we are told that we do not need each other, that we can be lone rangers, that we should be completely independent and isolated from the mentality of the “herd”. For the late pope, this cultural message was conflicted because it denied the essential nature of the person as one necessarily in relationship with the other. Relationship is an anthropological truth and many of our modern woes have grown out of an attempt to deny the essential nature of this truth. Obedience, as an expression of essential relationality is the recognition, at a very basic level of what is true about myself. Obedience is telling the truth. Obedience is the expression of the truth that is written in the very fiber of my being. I cannot live authentically without an understanding of obedience. At the heart, this obedience is an intentional hearing the call of relationship that naturally resounds within me and responding to that call by actively pursuing the authentic nature of relationship. Obedience is also an expression of piety in the classical sense of being true to form, true to who I am as a person. It is an acknowledgement of my need for others, a need that is intense, a need that is absolute, a need that cannot be denied without damaging my nature. Obedience is also an expression of humility, of knowing the truth and living the truth of my reality. Obedience is an expression of my anthropological aptitude.
At the level of discipleship, obedience takes on a new dimension. In baptism, confirmation and Eucharist, I am a new creation. My personhood has been changed in a radical way. In Christian discipleship, my personhood takes on new dimensions, the dimensions of being “in Christ”. My character has changed and I am now called to new expressions of relationship. As a Christian, my obedience is now listening to what is true about being a follower of Christ. I have new responsibilities and new intentionalities. My piety and my humility have different emphases although the essence of relationship remains the same. In discipleship, my personhood has to conform to the life of Christ, particularly as it is expressed in the Church. I have a responsibility to fulfill the Law of Christ written in the very heart of the Church’s reality. I have a responsibility to God’s people by my supernatural affiliation with them. I am called to realize that “all are one in Christ Jesus”, that while different members we are of the same body, the Body of Christ. I must act continually for Christ in order to realize the rule of discipleship. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. Obedience to Christ is my authentic self and to act contrary to that truth is to be inauthentic to myself. The natural relationship is now a supernatural relationship and those formerly artificial expressions of community become natural expressions of who I am, brothers and sisters to all, particularly those who are most in need. Who are my mother and brothers and sisters? Those who hear the Word and put it into action.
Finally there is the obedience we express in Holy Orders. The obedience of Holy Orders is an augmentation and an intensification of the obedience owed to the Church through the sacraments of initiation. The Sacrament of Holy Orders is undertaken freely. It is an intentional acceptance of new relationships based upon the new office that I receive when I am ordained. The obedience of Holy Orders is obedience to the Church and to specific persons in the Church. It is a particular relationship expressed through our understanding of the nature of the Church and the means by which the Church communicates our relationship with God. As deacons and priests we make promises of obedience to bishops. Who is the bishop to demand this obedience? Obviously, the bishop does not ask this obedience solely on behalf of himself. We do not make a promise of obedience to the particular personality of the bishop. Rather, our promise of obedience is made to what, or rather to whom the bishop represents. He represents Christ. He speaks on behalf of Christ. His ministry is the ministry of Christ. “the apostolic office of bishops was instituted by Christ the Lord and pursues a spiritual and supernatural purpose.” We make a promise of obedience to this office and this means that we understand what that office represents in the life of the Church, within our larger promise of obedience in the context of our discipleship. Every bishop, by virtue of his office speaks on behalf of Christ. He is also a human person, with a particular personality, particular ideas and opinions. While we do not make a promise of obedience to these aspects of the bishop’s person, it is dangerous to begin to see too strong a dichotomy between the bishop as a man and his office. Our relationship in obedience is the relationship with a person in his office. It is a relationship with the essential nature of his personhood, that is, his being a bishop and having a particular responsibility and role in that nature within the Church. His essence is bishop, but his accidental qualities may be quite varied. He may like certain foods or sports. He may have a particular opinion about one thing or another. Our relationship of obedience is not to those accidental qualities of individual men, but rather to the essential office that makes up the core of each man.
What is the nature of this obedience? The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium gives us some insight here. The term used in the constitution regarding the necessary relationship between the bishop and men in Holy Orders is obsequium relgiosum, religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings of the Magisterium, represented concretely in the life of the deacon or the priest by his relationship with his bishop. Let us now take a moment to review this section of Lumen Gentium
Bishops, teaching in communion with the Roman Pontiff, are to be respected by all as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious submission. This religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will. His mind and will in the matter may be known either from the character of the documents, from his frequent repetition of the same doctrine, or from his manner of speaking.
As we know, the magisterial teachings of the Church are gradated according to a hierarchy of truths. The 1973 document on the ecclesial role of the theologian from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Donum Veritatis offers the following reflection.
When the Magisterium of the Church makes an infallible pronouncement and solemnly declares that a teaching is found in Revelation, the assent called for is that of theological faith. This kind of adherence is to be given even to the teaching of the ordinary and universal Magisterium when it proposes for belief a teaching of faith as divinely revealed. When the Magisterium proposes "in a definitive way" truths concerning faith and morals, which, even if not divinely revealed, are nevertheless strictly and intimately connected with Revelation, these must be firmly accepted and held. When the Magisterium, not intending to act "definitively", teaches a doctrine to aid a better understanding of Revelation and make explicit its contents, or to recall how some teaching is in conformity with the truths of faith, or finally to guard against ideas that are incompatible with these truths, the response called for is that of the religious submission of will and intellect. This kind of response cannot be simply exterior or disciplinary but must be understood within the logic of faith and under the impulse of obedience to the faith.
The promise of obedience is firmly directed toward the existential consequences of this theological teaching. Concretely speaking what is this religious submission of will and intellect? It is first realized in the understanding that my ideas may not be the most important ones to express in a given situation. Other people, particularly by virtue of the office they hold may know more than I do. As a deacon or priest, where do I first turn for understanding particular questions? Relationally, our instinct must always be to the bishop. We are in a necessary relationship with this man precisely for this purpose. The bishop is not the arbiter of disputes, he is rather the first teacher. He holds the priestly office of teacher, the prophetic office of the Church. “The Bishop, through the grace of the Holy Spirit who expands and sharpens the eyes of his faith, relives the sentiments of Christ, the Good Shepherd, as he faces the anxieties and expectations of today’s world, by announcing a word of truth and life and by fostering activity which goes to the heart of humanity. Only in being united to Christ, in being faithful to his Gospel, in being realistically open to this world and in being loved by God, can the Bishop become the harbinger of hope.”
Religious submission means that I submit for religious reasons. Those religious reasons are centered on how I understand the voice of Christ to be speaking in the Church. Religious submission means that I must bracket my ideas and opinions (at least in the first instance) and listen to what Christ is saying, in our circumstances in the person of the bishop. Religious submission of the will means that I do not act in any way that would indicate my lack of full agreement with the expressed teaching of the bishop. I do so not out of a robotic response but out of the conviction that the voice of Christ is speaking even if I cannot yet appreciate what is being said. religious submission of the intellect means that I try to think with the Church. I strive to do so. This kind of submission means that I give the Church, the voice of Christ, the benefit of the doubt with the firm conviction that if I live a teaching, if I strive to believe a teaching, I will understand the logic of faith in that teaching. If I make judgments about what the bishop is saying to me before I strive to live that teaching, then I do so dishonestly. This is a process of assent that I agree to in my promise of obedience. While it is true, absolutely true that conscience is primary in our decision making, an appeal to conscience cannot be primary in our realization of any teaching. In other words, if dissent is possible, it is only possible (and not very probable) after the fact of religious submission.
When we look at the Rite of Ordination, the first thing we note is that this promise is the first one in the rite that is accompanied by a gesture or ritual action. The candidate kneels before the bishop. This is a meaningful sign of the relationship between these two men. One is sitting in a position of teaching, the other is kneeling in a position of learning. With this posture, we acknowledge the essences of the persons making the gesture. They do not stand as equals, we accept this. Their teacher/student relationship is inherent in their persons. Their relative postures are a statement of the truth about themselves. It is a relationship freely chosen, but once chosen is not negotiable. In making the gesture I am choosing to acknowledge that I now live in this irreversible relationship, that this relationship is true in my life. The posture is accompanied by a gesture of holding hands. Holding hands is a very powerful and very prevalent anthropological gesture. To grasp hands is to grasp the life force of the other. To place my hands in the hands of another is to place my entire life at their disposal. It is a gesture of trust, of interchange between the persons. It is the same essential gesture we witness in marriage. It sends the message that the lives of these persons, in their essential personhood is now inextricably bound together.
Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?
Again, we make our promise to a particular bishop, a particular man. Care must be given that our promise is not made to his personality rather than to his office, his accidental qualities rather than his essence. Our attitude can never degenerate to: better the bishop you know than the bishop you do not know. We should admire our ordinary. We must respect our ordinary. It is wonderful if we can be friendly with our ordinary. It is essential that we know who this man is and for whom he speaks. The personality of the bishop can only take us so far. We get into serious trouble when we are attracted to a personality and not to a commitment to follow Christ wherever he goes. The bishop’s successors are as yet unknown, but when our religious submission is to the ideal of Christ speaking in the Church, then the personality of those successors becomes less significant to the commitment we are making.
Having examined the content of the promise, it may now be helpful to briefly look at ways in which this promise might be compromised or made more difficult. Of course, challenges to obedience are as individual as those who make promises, but some trends might easily be delineated. I see four: Residual narcissism, Cacophony, Pride, and a Lack of Respect.
First, residual narcissism. We hear a great deal about narcissism today. We know that a clinical diagnosis of narcissism as a personality disorder is relatively rare. Residual narcissism, however is much more prevalent and is often the outcome of the conditioning of a culture bent on radical individualism and selfishness. Clerical circles seem to be awakening to the effects of narcissism in the lives of priests in ways previously un recognized. Very simply, narcissism is the inability to view the world outside of one’s self. It is chronic selfishness, at times, seemingly incurable self reference. Everything in my world view proceeds from my particular interests or the ways in which phenomena impact me. Everything must be created in my image, all activities should center on me. At some level we find chronic narcissism humorous. The old adage of, “let’s stop talking about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think of me?” is a bit tired but certainly also has a ring of truth in it. Narcissism, when it can be overcome, is very difficult to overcome. It lies at the heart of other modern chronic conditions such as pornography and even overweeing social networking. Narcissism, by its nature threatens relationships. Narcissism is problematic for the average person, it is fatal to priesthood. A person with chronic narcissistic tendencies cannot be a priest because priesthood requires a perspective of the other, a regard for the other, a respect for the other. Priesthood is about compassion, suffering with the other. A personality that allows for neither suffering nor the other cannot effectively be a priest. Narcissists cannot make a meaningful promise of obedience because there is no ability to truly listen and respect someone else. The narcissist may look obedient, he may even look hypervigilant in obedience, but it only works as long as he is satisfied with the outcome. Any challenge to the narcissistic worldview and the priest revolts. Narcissism has many forms but intellectual narcissism is perhaps the most dangerous for the priest. I know more than anyone else. I know better than anyone, including my bishop, including the Church, including Christ.
Second cacophony. I cannot hear the authentic voice of Christ speaking through the Church and through the bishop if I surround myself with other voices, if I inundate my world with sounds that conflict and cause consternation in my ability to hear and to listen. Simplicity is required for authentic hearing. How often, when trying to pay attention to a particular speaker have we had to silent errant voices around us? A good question to ask ourselves is: What do I pay attention to in my daily life? What vies for my attention? It is hard to hear the voice of Christ when our soundscapes are filled with the cacophony of lies, of popular culture, of competing voices. We cannot listen to Christ if we are continually trying to tune our ears to other musics, perpetually trying to get reception on stations inimical with our vocations as Christians. Obedience in the Church and in the Sacrament of Holy Orders is geared to one goal: to make us saints. Pope Benedict recently said to Catholic students: “When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others.” Christ in his mysteries, when we truly attend to his mysteries, opens our horizons in ways that external cacophony never can.
Third, Pride. In the world of the priest, pride often manifests in our inability to say we were wrong. Perhaps this is a particular masculine issue as well. No promise of obedience is ever perfectly lived any more than discipleship is ever perfectly lived. We err. Virtue lies not in ever erring but in our ability to admit we were wrong and to make amends. Often we make serious mistakes in following through with our obedience. Those serious mistakes become grave errors when we will not admit our fault. My experience has been that many who leave the priesthood do so because their pride has been hurt in having their opinions overruled by the authentic teaching office of the bishop.
Finally, lack of respect. Respect from the Latin, respectus literarily means to look again or to regard. It means taking more than a cursory glance at a thing or trying to sum up a complex reality with a simple formula. Respect is an ideal that applies to almost every relationship we have. It may indeed be said to be at the very heart of the Church’s sacramental understanding. “Things are more than they seem to be” is an ideal that I apply in almost every pastoral circumstance. I look for depth. I search for breadth. I look beyond the obvious. I do not take everything for face value Lack of respect is a failure to look again, to contemplate what we are doing, to make hasty judgments. Decisions about how to proceed in a pastoral environment must be made carefully and reflectively. When I am in doubt, it is my responsibility to consult others, particularly when I am in a relationship of obedience with the others. A lack of respect is manifested in my not caring about what the opinions of those significant voices might be, or to even acknowledge their significance in my life. It is to live a superficial life.

What do these reflections on the promise of obedience mean for us here and now? I hope one message I have communicated this morning is that we are all under obedience, we are all necessarily in relationship. At the anthropological level, we are under obedience to the nature of our human being. At the discipleship level we are under obedience to the Word of God with whom we have come into relationship through the sacraments of initiation. I cannot deny this obedience if I am to maintain integrity as a Christian. As a seminarian, you are already preparing for the particular form of obedience that comes with Holy Orders. Here in this seminary, we prepare for this listening, this intensity of relationship and this respect. It is not possible to make a meaningful promise of obedience on the day of ordination, if we have never considered the consequences of obedience in our daily lives. How do we interact here every day? Do we give the staff and faculty, men and women who are acting even now on behalf of your bishops the benefit of the doubt? Do we have what Saint Benedict called the “ready step of obedience”? Or is our attitude one of constant criticism and questioning? Do we dissent first and reflect later? Our attitude of obedience, even here is not nourished by a personal affiliation or friendship with the staff. Our attitude of obedience is nourished by my willingness to listen to the voice of the Lord. It is putting Christ in the center of my formation by putting Christ in the center of my life. Of course, this is what we do here. This is what we are aiming for here. This is what we must accomplish here, recognizing our need for continued growth and development. Obedience as understood in the sense in which we mean it in Holy Orders is not a new obedience. it is a fine tuning, a nuancing of the obedience we owe to Christ, and to the obedience that is inscribed in every human heart. In this way we understand that obedience can only make sense in the context of prayer. Prayer is the solidification of that primary obedience, that primary relationship that gives all particular forms of obedience meaning. If I do not pray, I cannot make sense of hte promise of obedience, because it has no context. If I pray, then obedience takes care of itself because I have already put myself, trained myself to put myself at the disposal of someone greater than myself. The mighty God through whom all our lives gain meaning, through whom all our hearing and listening gains wisdom. To this mighty God be all glory and power in the Church, now and forever.

A Treatise on Homiletic Method by Fr. Denis Robinson, OSB
Monday – O no I have to preach on Thursday
I mean, Hurray I get to preach on Thursday
Wonder what the readings are? IPhone - Enter Password – Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap
Good, Safari, Google, USCCB Teadings – No Readings (fat thumbs)
Good, October, wait November, wonder what happened to October
Focus, Focus - Expand Expand
November 4 Good, Expand, Expand
Scroll Down - Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15, Lost sheep, lost coin
Rats - Didn’t I preach on that a few weeks ago?
Foolish Shepherd, Foolish Woman, Foolish God – Yada, Yada, Yada
Darn – Anything else – Probably not
Scroll up – First Reading
Brothers and Sisters – We are the circumcision - What – I don’t think so
Scroll down
Last resort – Psalm
Generic, Generic, Generic – Sorry God
O Feast day – Charles Borommeo
Ouch – He who put the bore back in Romeo
Archbishop of Milan I hate Milan – nice cathedral though
Focus - Ah Ha - Maybe there’s a deacon preaching
Run upstairs because I can never find that schedule – Note to new secretary
Take the elevator – Jiminy Christmas I’m fat
Why are those organ builders making so much noise?
O my they have the cabinet on the thing – moving fast
Focus - Rats – Wessmann Maybe I could threaten a deacon
Back downstairs - Next – Next – Next – Wait Archbishop Rodi- Outlook Open
Tarn – He’s leaving after morning prayer – OK - Running out of time - Three to five minutes
This is going to be a complete disaster
What a bust, what a loss, what a …
And I used to be such a good preacher …
Wait a second – wait a cotton-picking second – Where’s that phone
Scroll – scroll - scroll
What did St. Paul say?
Whatever gains I had,
these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ.
More than that, I even consider everything as a loss
because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.