Following Jesus
01.08.2008
I can explain in one word why I am a Columban priest - that word is “Jesus” - but it would take a lifetime to spell out the implications of that word.
I am intrigued by Jesus. He lived most of his life in obscurity, enjoyed a brief surge of popularity when he spoke compellingly of God’s love, told stories that transformed lives, performed miraculous healings and provided food and wine. People experienced freedom and “came alive” in his presence in ways they hardly dared dream …but ultimately his way was rejected as being too dangerous, too risky and he was executed as a criminal and a blasphemer… yet still he lives and continues to inspire people around the world.
This Jesus fascinates me and I am willingly enthralled by him who spent himself to the utmost for God and others and dares me to do likewise.
Just as the body is made up of many parts, all Christians embody Jesus in different ways. Among this variety, priests act in the name of his person. I am humbled whenever I proclaim the words of consecration and absolution and anointing - “my body given for you…” “my blood poured out for you…” “I forgive you …” “I anoint you…” Ministering to others in this way in the first person is an extraordinary privilege that continually draws me deeper into the mystery of Jesus - that is why I am a priest.
This mystery is so deep and rich and broad and high that it is relevant to all peoples of all times and all places, and to all the issues that we face - the search for meaning, the desire for freedom, the thirst for justice, the poverty of two thirds of the world’s peoples, the hunger for reconciliation between peoples and religions, the challenge of the environmental crisis. Leaving the security of the familiar, reaching out to other peoples in other countries, standing in solidarity with them, identifying the mystery of Christ crucified in their sufferings, and with them discovering paths to new life for our one world - that is why I am a missionary.
No matter how far I reach into the depths of the mystery of Jesus there is always more to discover, more to learn, more to savour. Because he is so crucial for me and for the world, no achievement will ever exhaust his mystery and no other person and certainly no other thing matters quite so much. So I readily dedicate my whole self and my whole life to continue to plumb the depths of his all-consuming mystery. I cannot marry since I am already wholly given over to him who first gave himself wholly to me, and in him and with him I am given in service to others - and that is why I am celibate.
This continuous seeking of Jesus is not solitary. I need others to confirm my discoveries, just as they need me to confirm theirs; and I need others to make up for my failings, as they need me to make up for theirs. So I share the search with others who are similarly caught up in this fascination with the person of Jesus, with other celibate missionary priests - that is why I am a Columban.
Encouraging each other, despite our failings, and sometimes all the more urgently because of them, together with the peoples of different nations, cultures, languages and religions here and overseas whom we serve, Columbans seek the coming reign of Jesus into every nook and cranny of our world.
It costs our whole lives, but they are lives worth living, lives well spent, for the satisfaction of coming to know and love Jesus and to be known and loved by Him is beyond measure. n
Fr Patrick McInerney is completing a PhD at present.
