Question 65

6) Role of Priests and Deacons 

Most Catholics identify closely with their pastors and deacons, since they see and hear them on a regular basis.  Thus their role as spiritual leaders and moral guides is very important.  The priest and deacon are to bring God to the people and the people to God.  They bring God to the people by first coming close to God themselves through regular prayer, lectio divina and meditation.  They know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as real persons in a relationship of love, and they gradually come to know the mind of God for His people.   

The priest and deacon have a prophetic (teaching) role, as well as a priestly (liturgical) and kingly (the service of authority) role to perform.  This prophetic role takes the shape of teaching the people the great plan of God for all major human affairs.  This teaching deals with both faith and morals.  The teaching includes everything God teaches in divine revelation and through His Church, without adding anything, or subtracting (or ignoring) anything.    The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes these teachings in the four pillars of the faith: 1) what we believe in our Faith; 2) the Sacraments which give us divine strength to live the Faith; 3) Morality which explains how we are to put out Faith into practice meeting the real challenges of life; and 4) how we celebrate and nurture our Faith in prayer and worship. 

Prime teaching time is pulpit time during the Sunday divine liturgy, when all the faithful are gathered together to hear the Word of God, and to learn how to apply it to their daily lives.  Priests need to re-examine how well they use this precious time.  What most Catholics know about their Faith comes from the pulpit.  Most Catholics do not read much Catholic literature.  Many get their information about the Church from secular sources, with its own distortions.  The pulpit is the only sustained source of Catholic teaching for most Catholics. 

The task of the preacher is to clearly proclaim the mind of God for His people for the living out of the Christian life.  The Word of God both consoles the afflicted, and challenges the comfortable.  The preacher allows God to speak through him.  Sometimes this can be difficult when man’s ways conflict with God’s ways. Sometimes the prophetic task enacts a certain price.  The preacher announces God’s plan for His people, not the preacher’s plan.  The preacher accepts the fact that God teaches us today through His Church, and that the faithful have a right to hear the Church’s teaching in its full richness.  It is not for the preacher to determine what the people are ready to hear, or do not want to hear, or what they do not need to hear.  The sole task of the preacher is to proclaim God’s Word, God’s plan for His people, using contemporary genres of expression and examples that help the people grasp this plan.  Then the power of God’s Word works its miracle. 

Preaching deals with both faith and morals.  When Jesus proclaimed the Gospel, He also explained how the Gospel applies to the challenges of daily life.  We are not only to hear the Word, but also to build our lives upon it.  Jesus teaches us how to pursue the good, and to become rich in the sight of God, while exposing and resisting the evil.  When dealing with evil, we are to use only the means that Jesus himself would allow.  Speaking the truth in charity is certainly one such means. 

Every age has its own set of problems, to which the preacher must apply the Word of God.  How does this apply to contraception, sterilization, abortion and widespread divorce?  The dynamic of preaching on these issues is the same as preaching on any other moral evil.  The moral guide proclaims God’s plan for us as human beings, as bodied-persons.  This involves a true understanding of a Christian anthropology.  What is a human person?  This plan includes such human events as marriage, spousal love, and families.  It involves many other things, e.g., works of charity, social justice, world peace, a just distribution of wealth, etc.  But the social gospel was not meant to replace the gospel for the individual.  The pulpit is not the place for political expediency, addressing only politically correct issues.  Morality deals directly with the individual, and only then with such abstractions as society, nations, and the world at large. 

When Jesus dealt with morality, He did so in terms of moral principles.  Examples of these are the Ten Commandments and the various principles drawn from them.  “What God has put together, let no man take apart” pertains directly to the indissolubility of marriage.   When the preacher today addresses morality, he also sets forth moral principles.  But he must also provide the rationale behind the principle, which explains its reasonableness.  Just as Jesus appealed to both the faith and reason of his audience, so also must his representative today.  Thus, if contraception is always wrong, then we must explain what makes it wrong, and so abhorrent in the sight of God.  This presupposes that we understand what God’s plan is for the spousal act within marriage, what it was designed to express and accomplish.  If we can grasp for ourselves, and explain to others, the full richness of God’s plan for spousal love, how fulfilling and beautiful it is, then people can easily see that any deprivation of this magnificent gift is wrong, and should be avoided and shunned. 

6) Role of Priests and Deacons (cont.) 

When Jesus dealt with morality, He did so in terms of moral principles.  Examples of these are the Ten Commandments and the various principles drawn from them.  “What God has put together, let no man take apart” pertains directly to the indissolubility of marriage.   When the preacher today addresses morality, he also sets forth moral principles.  But he must also provide the rationale behind the principle, which explains its reasonableness.  Just as Jesus appealed to both the faith and reason of his audience, so also must his representative today.  Thus, if contraception is always wrong, then we must explain what makes it wrong, and so abhorrent in the sight of God.  This presupposes that we understand what God’s plan is for the spousal act within marriage, what it was designed to express and accomplish.  If we can grasp for ourselves, and explain to others, the full richness of God’s plan for spousal love, how fulfilling and beautiful it is, then people can easily see that any deprivation of this magnificent gift is wrong, and should be avoided and shunned. 

God’s plan for the spousal act is that a husband learns how to make the total personal gift of self to his beloved, with no conditions, no reservations, and nothing held back.   This includes his fertility.  His wife accepts this magnificent gift.  Then she, in turn, makes the total self-donation of herself to her husband.  This is a total giving, total self-surrender, with no conditions or reservations.  And this includes her fertility.  Her husband accepts her exactly as God designed her, and the magnificent gift she offers to him.  The great model for all husbands is Christ, who gave himself totally to his bride, the Church.  Because of his great love for her, He spared nothing for her.  He laid down his life for her.  Genuine spousal love, then, requires self-sacrifice, desiring what is best for the other, and placing one’s self in the complete service of the beloved.  This is a portrait of real love.  This is what sex was meant to express. 

How does the preacher prepare himself for proclaiming this message from the pulpit?  First of all, he must come to know God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family comprehensively.  He does this by praying over the relevant Scriptures, immersing himself in the major documents of the Church on these issues, and studying the expositions and analyses of faithful theologians.  There is a wealth of good writings available on these issues.   (A 9-page listing of resources including books, articles, CDs, audiotapes and websites can be found at www.nfpoutreach.org. Click on “Some Resources.”)  The theology of the body is very useful in gaining a comprehensive grasp of God’s plan for us as bodied persons, and also for acquiring a language to use from the pulpit. Sample sermons and “helps for your homily” are also available from NFP Outreach’s website. 

There is certain pedagogy to be employed here.  Simply put, we lay a foundation, and then build upon that foundation.  The foundation is presenting God’s plan for morality.  At the foundation level, we present sermons on such topics as “What is Conscience, and how do we form it?” “What is a true sense of freedom, vs. license?”  “What is virtue, and how do we grow into it?”  “What is sin and vice, and how do we make a conversion away from them?”  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pillar III, has all the pertinent teachings necessary for these topics. 

A second level of homilies can then begin.  “What is God’s plan for marriage?”  Helpful resources are: The Catechism’s exposition of the sacrament of marriage, Gaudium et Spes #47-52, and related materials.  “What is God’s Plan for the Family?”  One great single resource is Familiaris Consortio, “The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World.”  The task of the homilist is to assimilate the teachings of these documents for himself, and then find suitable ways to share this with his congregation. 

After a series of homilies on the above-mentioned topics, then the people have the tools they need to understand “What is God’s Plan for Spousal Love?”   Humanae Vitae and the Theology of the Body are very helpful here.  A synopsis of this is provided in FC #11.  Our people are more than ready to hear this message.  They will understand it immediately.  Usually their first comment, upon hearing a sermon on these topics, is “Why have we not heard this before?” 

The primary task of the clergy with regard to promoting God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family, is to provide clear teaching and pertinent homilies.  We explain God’s plan for these aspects of human life; we present the moral principles and explain their meaning.  We indicate how they are to be lived out in daily life, and the benefits that come from this.  Then the burden falls upon the laity, who are the vast majority of the Church.  It is the laity who will provide the factual teaching of NFP.  Couples teach other couples.  If there are medical problems, these are immediately referred to NFP trained nurses and doctors.  Couples also do the lion’s share of the work in preparing engaged couples for marriage.  But the laity is waiting for the announcement of God’s plan for these important issues, and encouragement from their clergy to assume the responsibilities of the lay apostolate. 

There is a clear division of labor here.  The clergy and religious have a very limited, but crucially important, role to perform.  They are to proclaim God’s plan for marriage, spousal love and family.  That is their training and their competency.  Then the burden falls upon the laity, who are 99.9% of the Church.  They will do all the rest.