The
priest: first son and then father of many
Msgr. Massimo Camisasca
Founder of the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of
St. Charles de Borromeo
Vatican City (Fides Service) - For twenty two years I
have been involved in the formation of young men for the
priesthood and I have followed in detail the itinerary of over a
hundred priestly vocations, authentic or only presumed, and made
many discoveries with regard to the origin and the development
of a vocation in the heart and mind of a boy or a young man.
The first thing I realised was that although almost all my boys
entered the seminary after obtaining a university degree or
working for a while, the first signs of a vocation had appeared
very early: between the age of 10 and 15 years. What happened
however was that a series of other adolescent interests,
passions and encounters stifled that initial intuition. However
what would seem to contradict not necessarily suffices to
destroy a seed sown by the Lord. We are all familiar with those
streams that after flowing from the source for a few kilometres,
hide between the rocks and seemingly disappear for ever. In
actual fact in these underground itineraries the waters are
enriched with precious mineral salts. Those streams often
reappear among the rocks high up in the mountains they flow down
to the valley and continue their path as mature and solemn
rivers. In this way a vocation which appeared to have been
buried reappears through the grace of a new encounter. In
childhood, adolescence and youth the decisive encounter is often
that with a priest.
Usually God does not instill the idea of the priesthood, rather
he arranges a meeting with a priest. In other words a boy begins
to think about the priesthood because he is fascinated by the
totality he sees in the priest. What impresses him is not so
much what the priest does but what he is. And who is the priest
for a boy? He is a father. In the priest a boy sees a man who
shows by what he does his special concern for people, not just
for a few aspects or fields of their life but a disinterested
concern for the person, the personal destiny. This is how God
brings the boy to consider a priestly vocation.
We live in a society in which the figure of the father, the
figure of one who leads with authority his son to fight the
battle of life with a positive, constructive spirit, is
disappearing. The fruits of this absence of the father figure
are seen in the increasing insecurity of young people, the ever
more delayed exit from adolescence. The boy is fascinated by the
priest’s maturity, the authoritativeness of his proposal, by the
fact that he faces life. Although he lives beside him the priest
has something which the boy has not and desires to have, he is
something which he is not and desires to be. The majority of the
boys at my seminary were impressed by the presence of priests
who instead of extracting them from their ordinary life,
accompanied them, showing them how studies, tender feelings,
plans for the future, can be all the more wonderful and true, if
you follow Christ.
It is from the inside of a ordinary life that a person
recognises the extraordinariness of Jesus. Precisely this is
what impresses a boy: to see in the priest not a specialist in
prayer, in liturgy, not even an organiser of games and outings,
but a true man who has discovered the most authentic development
of his intelligence and fullness of his affective life in
Christ. There is also the fascination of the celebration of the
sacraments seen as something mysterious and strange, yet
captivating.
Why does the discovery of a new father figure lead a young man
to recognise his own vocation? Because he senses that virginity
means being father of many, it is a real possibility for his
life, a possibility of beauty, utility and happiness. For a boy
it is very important to see the priest in action in his own
community. His paternity in fact reveals itself in the priest’s
work of guidance, in the charity with which he accompanies
people day after day towards the realisation of their life.
Observing this father, this guide as he goes about his duty, a
boy prepares the soil for the seed of a vocation which the
Spirit may place in his heart, a desire to be, as the priest,
father, guide and witness.
(Agenzia Fides 15/12/2006; righe 47, parole 716)
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
Copyright © 2006 SCTJM
