(Editor's note: This is an excerpt from a homily to priests delivered by Bishop Hubbard at the recent three-day Priests' Convocation.)
During these days, we have been graced and blessed by the sterling presentations of five retired priests, Fathers Jack Jones, Tom Vail, Jim Vaughan, Frank Gilchrist and Bob Roos. Each has shared so movingly and poignantly the wisdom of his many years of faithful priestly service.
All that we have heard these days, both in their formal presentations and informal conversations, has served to remind us of what a great gift we share in the priesthood and of how proud we should be to serve as presbyters in our Church and Diocese.
We need to be reminded of this because it is so easy to lose focus, especially given the negative portrayal of priests and the priesthood that is so frequently presented in the media.
Yes, we have our problems and difficulties, which cannot be ignored or sugarcoated. But it is false to conclude, as so many of the media presentations do, that the contemporary priesthood is predominantly dysfunctional, that priests are largely unfaithful, and that our mission and purpose are slowly disintegrating.
Heroic time
Rather, I believe that quite the opposite case can be made: that ours is one of the most heroic and resilient periods in the 2000-year history of the Roman Catholic priesthood. You gathered here this week and your immediate predecessors are a remarkably tough group of men who have endured a lot and have done it well:
* You have weathered the stormy sea of change precipitated by the Second Vatican Council, and the exodus of some of your closest friends and cherished role models from active priestly ministry.
* You have been subjected to a merciless criticism for taking down communion rails, turning altars around, and empowering laity for all kinds of liturgical and ecclesial roles.
* You have been beaten up from the far left and the far right for moving too slowly or too swiftly.
* You have experienced the shame and ridicule caused by the pedophilia of a few priests, and now are having your ears boxed by the media coverage of homosexuality and AIDS in the priesthood.
* You strive to live a celibate life in a sex-crazed society which places little or no value on this sacrificial commitment.
* You work long hours, at low pay, and often in quarters that can best be described as a second-class motel.
* You have been pioneers, blazing new pathways, forging new frontiers with few road maps, blueprints or role models to follow.
Survivors
Indeed, you are truly survivors, not in the tawdry TV version of that term, but in its finest sense, namely as men who have fought the good fight, who have run the difficult race and who have justifiably earned the prize.
Perhaps what is most surprising of all, for the most part, you have done all of this (and so much more that could be cited) without truly appreciating and celebrating your gifts and strengths, while at the same time being overly focused on your weaknesses, shortcomings and failures.
Yes, it is so easy to lose focus. Hopefully, what this convocation has done is to help us feel better about ourselves and to recapture that sense of pride we should have in this awesome vocation we have received.
Loving priests
Thus, the media to the contrary, know that our people love you. I read it in the letters I receive. I hear it in the unsolicited comments and feedback I get. I see it in the way your people interact with you.
You are truly loved, affirmed and cherished. A tangible evidence of this affection was the outpouring of generosity on the part of our people through last year's capital campaign, which was successful precisely because you presented it and people responded to you, especially to the most popular component of the campaign, the enhancement of retirement benefits for our priests.
Please know that I echo this affirmation, appreciation and support, and I treasure more than my personality or words can express the precious gift you are for God's people and for myself as a collaborator with you in ministry.
More change ahead
As we depart our convocation, what challenges do we face? While many might be cited, let me limit myself to one observation: Looking to the future of priestly ministry in the third millennium, we must anticipate more, not less, change.
The paradigm most of us grew up with can be expressed as follows: in Church matters, the norm is stability. We can expect long periods wherein things remain relatively the same, and occasionally -- and only occasionally -- we will go through short periods of upheaval, turmoil and change, to be followed by long periods of quiescence.
That certainly was true in the Church up to the 1960s, and it was expected that following the fallout from the Second Vatican Council, things would get back to normal. In this model, stability is the norm; change is the exception.
Faster times
However, that paradigm has begun to shift dramatically. Indeed, with the knowledge and technological explosion of the 20th century, the pace of change has quickened at an exponential rate.
Snail mail is out, e-mail is in. Record players and even CDs are out; DVDs are in. Those who aren't prepared to deal with websites, personal computers and LANs (Local Area Networks) can expect to be left behind.
Then there are the ever-new challenges presented by the wider society from cyber-sex to in vitro fertilization, genetic manipulation, embryonic stemcell research, cloning and Dr. Kevorkianism.
Of course, there is the change being created by the declining numbers of priests, growing numbers of deacons and lay ministers, and parish closings, mergers and consolidations. The pace of change is increasingly dizzying, and the idea of joining a monastery or entering into early retirement becomes all the more attractive.
The way it is
When and where will it all end? When can we again wake up tomorrow and find it a lot like today? The answer is probably never.
Thus, the key to coping with this unrelenting change is to understand and accept the fact that in the new paradigm, change has become the norm and not the exception. If we are to survive, we must make this adjustment.
A recent survey conducted by our bishops' conference revealed that 75 percent of the laity surveyed had not yet felt the effect of the reduced numbers of priests. How can that be? In our own Diocese, we have gone from 430 active diocesan priests in the 1960s to approximately 180 today. And we are not atypical.
The answer I believe is simple: We are laboring mightily to keep things as they were. We are changing only as we are forced to change. Our fewer and older priests are trying to accomplish what many younger priests did a generation ago. In short, we are trying to accomplish an impossible task -- and are killing ourselves in the process!
Accepting change
What is needed, then, is a more developed theology and consequent understanding of change; a theology and understanding which enables us to accept the reality of the ever-increasing pace of change, to be comfortable with it, and to be leaders and managers of change rather than its victims.
We, in other words, must always be open to new challenges, new vistas and new horizons. We must become comfortable in relating to our God of surprises. To do this will require a conversion of heart, a new way of thinking and acting.
Lest we wring our hands and cry out, "Woe is me," let us remember that we are not the first generation who have had to deal with traumatic change and paradigm shifts. The history of salvation is replete with the stories of heroic people responding to the challenging needs of their time: Abraham faced with sacrificing his son Isaac...Moses torn by fidelity to God's directives and by the obstinacy of the chosen people...Mary seeking to reconcile the announcement of the Angel Gabriel with her solemn commitment to virginity...Jesus begging that the cup of suffering be removed from Him, not, however, as He willed but as the Father willed...Paul confronting Peter on the perplexing question of whether gentiles were to be bound by Jewish dietary laws...the monks of Western Europe and Northern Africa keeping alive the flames of faith during the Dark Ages...Catherine of Siena challenging the pope on the need for reform...Ignatius of Loyola combating the awesome threat posed by the Reformation...Isaac Jogues and his companions enduring martyrdom in their quest to evangelize our native Americans...Maximilian Kolbe laying down his life to spare a fellow prisoner at Auschwitz...and Pope John Paul XXIII defying the advice of Curia officials by opening up the windows of the Church at the Second Vatican Council.
Boldly going
Those and so many other examples that could be cited serve to illustrate that the problems and tensions we face are not necessarily the most serious of all time, but only seem so because we have not experienced the problems, challenges and crises of other periods in Church history.
Therefore, we must face the present and the future not with fear and apprehension, not with timidity, indifference or complacency, but with the hope and optimism that come from knowing that we are God's people and that the Lord will never abandon us but will always be present to us and give us the guidance, the insights, the strength and motivation we need to develop effective ministerial and pastoral responses to meet the challenges of our day.
Every generation in the Church faces its own unique challenges. We today are faced with the challenge of coping with the paradigm shift that moves from stability to change. We do so in a time of great social upheaval when the forces of secularization are eclipsing the Christian vision of life which has prevailed in western civilization for centuries.
Time of hope
In the face of this challenge, and the tension and pain it produces, some have become discouraged and disillusioned. They experience only the confusion and turmoil borne of renewal and change. With age-old moorings cut off, they conclude that the situation is hopeless or impossible.
Quite frankly, I do not share this bleak outlook. I am convinced that we are living in one of the greatest periods of renaissance in the long history of Christianity. There are certain times in the life of the world and our Church when the Holy Spirit has been poured forth abundantly, creating a new vision and a new horizon, which give shape and direction to humankind and civilization for generations to come.
We, I believe, are living in precisely such an age, in a new Pentecost. As priests in the Church, we have a golden opportunity to become involved at the heart of this reawakening, of being forerunners of the Church of tomorrow, of being molders and builders of new theological language and ecclesial structures which speak to our contemporary society and which ensure a fresh hearing for the Christian message.
It will take all of the zeal, talent, maturity, vision and love we possess to respond to this call as God desires and as the challenge itself so urgently demands. I am confident that with the leadership, wisdom, pastoral experience and commitment of you, the members of our presbyterate, we can embark upon a future filled with hope, one based solidly upon the life stories of our ancestors in the faith and open to the ever-new possibilities which our unpredictable but always faithful God holds in store for us.
May it be so.