5th Sunday Ordinary Time
A Homily - C Cycle - 2003-2004
First Reading - Isaiah 6:1-2a, 3-8
Psalm - 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
Second Reading - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
or 15:3-8, 11
Gospel - Luke 5:1-11
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While
the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was
standing by the Lake of Gennesaret. He saw two boats there alongside the
lake, the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets. Getting
into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a
short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from
the boat. After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into
deep water and lower your nets for a catch." Simon said in reply, "Master,
we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I
will lower the nets." When they had done this, they caught a great number
of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in
the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so
that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he
fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful
man." For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and
all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were
partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you
will be catching men." When they brought their boats to the shore, they
left everything and followed him.
Our
readings for this Sunday highlight the calling of several significant
individuals in salvation history: Isaiah, Sts. Peter and Paul and Sts. James and
John. If you consider the contributions of these giants of the Scriptures,
we could say that their lives were heroic, inspiring and absolutely crucial to
the spread of the Gospel, each in their own different way.
What
is unique about each of these five men, is that they were specifically called by
God to perform certain tasks for Him as part of His plan of salvation for all
people. Their vocations provide us with an opportunity today to consider
an issue that sadly remains unsettled in the minds of some Catholics and that is
the issue of the all-male priesthood. By way of this homily, I would like
to elucidate the Church's theology and reasoning behind our all-male priesthood
so that each of you can articulate our orthodox position on this matter and why
the Holy Father declared this issue closed for discussion in 1994 in a document
On the Ordination of Priests as being reserved to men alone (Ordinatio
Sacerdotalis).
At
first glance, the notion of an all-male priesthood seems so unfair, so
prejudicial against women. The thought would be: In this country,
women can vote, they can own property and file for divorce. Women can
aspire to pretty much every kind of career that a man can perform, with some
limited exceptions. So, it stands to reason that a woman living in this
country should be able to aspire to the priesthood, an institution dominated by
men, but whose barriers can be broken down. After all, we have things like
professional sports teams for women now, an idea once thought impossible until
recent years. Won't it just be a matter of time before the all-male
hierarchy of the Church catches up with civilization and gets with the times?
Women have gifts to contribute to the Church, so why shouldn't they be able to
exercise positions of authority? Citing the dearth of priests facing the
Church, there may be very qualified women who can fill the needs for pastoral
work. Is it really just to deny women this right to the priesthood?
While
the aforementioned arguments seem persuasive on the emotional level, they are
fatally flawed on the theological level and here's why:
1. The priesthood is neither a
right nor a career - it is a calling, a vocation, taken from the Latin vocare,
which means "to call." There are dozens and dozens of careers but only
three vocations - the single life, the married life and the priestly and
religious life. Sure, some professions like medicine or teaching and other
altruistic careers may involve a discernment of being called to a particular
kind of work, but in this context the word "vocation" means a stable state of
life. After all, one could be a priest with a medical degree or a license
to practice law. However, one can't be single and married or a priest and
consecrated to the single lay life.
2. Not only is the priesthood
a calling, it is God Himself who does the calling and he called men to the
priesthood. The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, true God and
true men instituted the priesthood as an all-male institution. He could
have called our Lady or any of the other women that He knew to be priests but He
did not. Women seemed to be more qualified - it was women who stood by the
foot of the Cross and it is a woman whom we honor as the Immaculate Conception
and the Mother of God. As for the Apostles - they ran when Christ needed
them the most. They showed no fortitude when our Lord faced His Passion -
it was only St. John who witnessed to the end. It seems then the Apostles
were little qualified to perform their mission - the women were much more
courageous in the face of adversity. This is what is so significant about
the calling of Peter in our Gospel today - he says to the Lord, "Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man." Christ knew Peter's flaws and his future sins and
yet these did not prevent our Lord from making Peter our first Pope. So,
it is clear that vocation, not competency or merit is the key ingredient to
God's choise that only men serve as priests. Scripture makes it clear that
our Lord chose men and only men to be His priests.
3. When it came to dealing
with women, it was not as if our Lord was bound by social convention, either.
After all, He had women friends; He was found alone at the well speaking with a
Gentile woman, a Samaritan women - the sworn enemies of the Jews. Such an
action was considered extremely taboo by the Jews. Social convention never
thwarted Jesus from fulfilling His mission. Some say that women would not
have been listened to by the cultures of the time - that they would not be given
a fair hearing because they were second-class citizens and so Christ's decision
to call only men was really culturally-conditioned. Guess what? No
one listened to the Apostles either. Eleven of the 12 of them died as
martyrs.
4. Others posit that Jesus
could not have known that the Church would face a lack of priests in the 21st
century and thus have a need for women, much more educated than they have ever
been, to fill-in the ranks. To deny that Jesus knew exactly what He was
doing at the Last Supper would be to deny his omniscience. To deny his
omniscience would be to deny his divinity and to do that means that there is no
way He could have risen from the dead. If He did not rise from the dead,
then St. Paul was right: our faith would be in vain.
5. Charges that the Church is
anti-woman because of her prohibition of women's ordination are specious at
best. Ask the Red Cross and the United Nations and they will tell you that
no other institution does more for women and children around the world than the
Catholic Church. Catholics are the only Christians who honor a woman as
already enjoying heaven both in body and soul in the person of our Lady.
And it is largely due to the Catholic Church that efforts to protect women and
children from the evils of abortion and contraception have had any success in
the world.
6. Lastly, when priests
exercise their sacred ministry, they act in persona Christi - in the person of
Christ. Maleness is a part of who our Lord Jesus was and is. God
desires to image the male figure in the sanctuary and in the sacraments, as
mirrors or icons of God the Father feeding his children with the sacraments.
God the Father desires other fathers, his priests, to continually manifest His
divine Fatherhood in the world. That's why only men can be priests - it's
not because they are more qualified or holier or better suited for the work.
It's because of what priests are called to be - icons of God the Father.
When
we consider all that the Church has laid out for us in her teaching on the
reservation of ordination to men alone, we see the result of 2,000 years of
wisdom that continues to guide her path. We do well to pray for the
conversion of heart of those Catholics who work tirelessly to attempt to change
the very priesthood that our Lord instituted. Rather, we ought to pray
that the gifts of women in the Church be utilized in their proper way and
moreover, let us pray that the Lord will send many, many more faithful servants
of her word and sacrament in raising up new priests for the Third Christian
millennium. With the assistance of the prayers of the Blessed Virgin
Mother, may those men called to the priesthood imitate her purity and her total
obedience to the will of the Father.
Praised
be Jesus Christ. Now and forever!
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