Pope at Mass: Ministry is a gift
to be contemplated
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| Pope Francis preaches at Mass on Thursday (Vatican Media) |
In his homily at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta on Thursday,
Pope Francis says ordained ministry is a gift which should be appreciated and
shared.
By Vatican News
Pope Francis reflected on ordained ministry at Mass on
Thursday, saying Jesus offers this gift to deacons, priests, and bishops so
they might serve others.
The occasion for his remarks was the presence of a group of
priests and bishops celebrating their silver jubilee, or 25 years of
ordination.
The Pope invited everyone to reflect on the day’s first
reading (1 Tim 4:12-16), in which St Paul invites Timothy not to neglect the
gift of ordained ministry.
“It is not a job contract: ‘I have to do it’. The act of
doing is in the second place. I must receive the gift and care for it, and from
there flows all the rest: in contemplation of the gift. When we forget this,
appropriate the gift, and turn it into a function, then we lose the heart of
ministry and lose Jesus’ gaze who looked upon us and said: ‘Follow me.’
Gratuitousness is lost.”
Risk of self-centered ministry
Pope Francis then warned everyone against the risk of making
ministry into a self-centered exercise.
If we do not contemplate the gift we have received, he said,
“all the deviations we can imagine are unleashed, from the most horrible –
which are terrible – to the most mundane, which make us turn our ministry into
being about us, rather than about the gratuitousness of the gift and about our
love for He who gave us the gift of ministry.”
First contemplate, then act
The Pope invited deacons, priests, and bishops to
contemplate their ministry and service as a gift. We do what we can, he said,
with good intentions, intelligence, and “even with a little cunning”, but
always taking care of the gift.
It is human to forget this aspect, said Pope Francis, as the
Pharisee does in the day’s Gospel (Lk 7:36-50) when he forgets several rules of
hospitality as he welcomes Jesus to his table.
“There was this man, a good man, a good Pharisee but he
had forgotten the gift of courtesy, the gift of hospitality – which is also a
gift. Gifts are always forgotten when there is some sort of self-interest
involved, when I want to do this or that thing – always doing, doing… Yes, we
priests must all do things, and our first task is to proclaim the Gospel, but we
must take care of our center, our source from which our mission flows, which is
the gift we have freely received from the Lord.”
God guides the gift
Pope Francis concluded his homily with a prayer for all the
Church’s ordained ministers.
May the Lord “help us to care for this gift, to consider our
ministry above all as a gift, then as service”, he prayed.
In this way, said the Pope, ministers can avoid becoming
“businessmen or do-gooders”.
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