It is a “beautiful annual event” that each particular Church is invited to celebrate, in communion and reciprocity of prayer, it prepares us to implore the Lord for the gift of holy shepherds, according to his Heart. This is how the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests is defined in the letter published by the Dicastery for the Clergy this Friday, June 7, 2024. The date was suggested by the Vatican body (formerly Congregation) and instituted on March 25 of 1995 by Saint John Paul II, “so that the prayer offered for the sanctification of priests obtains as a reflection the gift of holiness of the entire People of God, to whom their ministry is ordered,” they write.
The letter, which is signed by Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung sik, Prefect of the Dicastery, and by Monsignor Andrés Gabriel Ferrada Moreira, Secretary, resumes Pope Francis’ invitation to priests to “take special care of our humanity.” They describe it as “a beautiful and pressing challenge, to preserve the freshness of our ministry and to be the increasingly ‘a bridge and not an obstacle’ to the encounter with Christ, transparency, and reflection of his saving humanity.”
In the text, they recognize that “much has been said and written about the importance of the human dimension and emotional maturity in the life of the priest; we are also aware of the many signs of fragility that are manifested in this area.” They also state that “in all ecclesiastical and social contexts there is a lack of education in feelings and emotions, as well as the presence of affective illiteracy and non-effectivity; some speak of a globalization of indifference, of a growing cynicism, along with narcissism and self-referential”.
At the same time, they assure: We all know from experience how it is a source of true joy to be able to fully live our humanity and our relationships, infusing them with love, gratuitousness, beauty, truth, goodness and authenticity, spirituality, art, music and poetry, which are all fruits of the work of the Spirit of the Risen Lord who blows where he wants and always arouses amazement, wonder and pleasure, a charge of trust and hope.
Cardinal Heung Sik and Monsignor Ferrada wonder how we can care for humanity “to also help it to bear fruit in this way, if not by turning once again to Jesus and the Gospel of him.” “We know, they affirm, as the Second Vatican Council reminds us, that Jesus ‘loved with a human heart’ and that ‘he who follows Jesus Christ, a perfect man, also becomes more of a man’.” Likewise, they maintain that “in the link between the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and this Day we want to find the motivations to rekindle the gift of God that is in us, asking for the grace to internalize even more in ourselves and in our lifestyle the same feelings” of the Heart of Christ “These, in fact, they add, as Pope Francis has reminded us, are the true and effective contribution to a new humanism (cf. Congress of Florence, 2015), the antidote against the dehumanization that can infect us too.”
In the text, they show that every day they experience how their heart suffers a division within, “by which each one can say with Paul ‘I do not do what I want, but what I hate'” (Rom 7, 15).
“Our heart is fragile and complicated, but beautiful…. It is a battlefield, a «mixture» of mud and spirit, a guardian of infinite desires and an icon of limitation to the point of sclerocardia, but at the same time a place where one experiences an immense love of which one is flooded and of which one is capable, which has as its ultimate source God himself, the Trinity of love. Yes, because it is God who has modeled our heart, created and recreated it, pouring into it his love by the Spirit so that it may be in the image of the Heart of his Son, capable of loving according to the same height, width and depth (Eph 3, 18-19), to the point of being able to say: it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives and loves in me (cf. Gal 2,20), with the same measure of his love: to love without measure” (St. Agustin).
“Our human heart itself is, therefore, the place where Christ wants to continue coming, dwelling, palpitating to the point of allowing himself to be pierced with love and by love, in imitation of him,” they express. In turn, they consider that “the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Christ is a precious occasion to remember at the same time the misery and smallness of our hearts, but even more so the infinite and regenerating mercy of the Heart of God, manifested in the Heart of Jesus”.
Towards the end of the message, they make it clear that “to take care of our humanity we cannot, finally, not also turn with confidence to the Immaculate Heart of the Mother: we are sure to have in Her a most pure mirror in which to satisfy the longing of a free heart” and willing to listen to and put into practice her invitation: ‘Do what He tells you’ and we will become shepherds according to the Heart of Christ, immersed in the Father and in people.
Cardinal Heung Sik and Monsignor Ferrada conclude their words by emphasizing that they want to implore the Lord of all goodness for the gift of so many vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life for the Kingdom, of lives given that know how to be transparency of the holiness of God, witnesses rejoicing in the love of the Father and the Heart of Christ rich in mercy for every creature. Let us pray for all priests, let us care for them and always support them with our affection and closeness.
