My priesthood

The priesthood is love. The priesthood is a share in the life of Jesus. Every priestly ordination, every anniversary of one's own ordination, and Holy Thursday are a special time for deep reflection on one's Priesthood. I think I wanted to be a priest from the very beginning. That desire awoke and grew under the influence of the experience of a genuine Church. In that Church, which was my family and my parish – in the whole setting in which I grew up – it was relatively easy for me to recognise what matters most: Jesus Christ and his mercy. I could recognise him and at the same time experience him in the truths of faith, which were handed on to me with great conviction and power. Those closest to me, our neighbours, and above all wonderful, deeply believing priests spoke of his presence by their lives. In such an atmosphere my desire was born: that everyone should come to know Jesus, that they should live beautifully, that they should be happy.

On the other hand I saw quite clearly the longing of many people to be closer to God. The people I met were accompanied by a hunger for God, a hunger for a change of life, and finally a hunger for holy, zealous and genuine witnesses of Christ. Particularly clear, and touching me personally, was that hunger for a good Priest – a good shepherd. With what reverence and openness of heart people surrounded „priests by vocation”.

Reading about the missions kept deepening my desire: that everyone should come to know Jesus! That adventure of „helping” people to know God and to live with him in their hearts seemed to me the most beautiful of all possible adventures. To take part in everything that can lead a person to God was for me something unimaginably lofty and honourable. I also felt that only on such a path could I be fully happy.

At that time, right up to the moment of the final decision, I never thought about what I would get out of it, in what conditions I would live, whether I would have money and what my home would look like. It was about one thing only: that all those to whom I would go should come to know Jesus. He himself kept letting me feel his wonderful presence. How many signs of his love, how many clear inspirations, how much discreet guidance – to this day I keep discovering new wonders of his love for me in those days. Even then his Church was surrounding me with great love. My vocation was probably noticed. How many people surrounded me with quiet prayer when I stood at the altar as an altar server, how many people offered up their lives, their suffering and material gifts when I entered the seminary. I understood that love fully at the time of my first Mass. Taken from among men and appointed for men. As I entered more deeply into priestly ministry, the Church became for me a home and a world, apart from which I could not imagine any other place on earth. I experience every day how deeply it roots me in my people. By being given a vocation and the grace of the Priesthood, day by day I become the „property” of the world, of the Church, of my brothers and of every person I meet, even by chance. How much the image of Jesus means to me, of Jesus who went about all the cities and villages…, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, healing every disease and every infirmity. And seeing the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Mt 9:35-36). The priesthood is entrusted to men for the good of the Church. The priesthood is love. Woe to the man who would set out to use the Priesthood for his own advantage. Solidarity with people, compassion, sharing the same lot, union with the poor, leading towards the Truth – these are the basic obligations that flow from the nature of the Priesthood. A priest is one who intercedes with God for his people, one who prays for those entrusted to his care. Even if they themselves sometimes stand aside, taken up with their own affairs – he remains before the Most High so that they may have life. The prayer of the breviary, night vigils, fasting, penance and suffering are the lasting „occupation” of a good shepherd. Even if the churches were empty, even if indifference touched everyone, a Priest can never consider himself out of work.

The priesthood introduced me into the world of the power of God's Word. To this day I am an unworthy witness of the power of the Word of the Living God. It is a Word of life! First of all, for me it is like bread that I eat in order to live, to love, to understand, to suffer with dignity, to rise again, to go on in spite of the difficulties I go through. That Word becomes Flesh, that Word is a Person whom I discover anew each day and from whom I draw my strength to live.

As a priest I am bound directly and constantly to the most holy Eucharistic Sacrifice, which makes present the paschal work of Christ. What joy this grace brings, that I may take part in this holy mystery; that first of all I myself may draw new life from this offering of his life, and that I may serve in this wonder of the birth of a new man during the celebration of the eucharistic banquet with the People of God.

To pass on to others the gift of God's life in the holy sacraments – this is the deepest meaning of my whole existence and of my Priestly service. Giving thanks to God today for the wholly undeserved gift of the Priesthood, I remember those whom I baptised, I remember those whom I blessed as they set out together on the road of marriage. With particular emotion I remember those whom I accompanied as they passed to the house of the Father. In spite of the pain of dying and of a wasting illness, or of old age, as their earthly life was going out – through my ministry, by the power of Christ's grace, they were being born to new life. A priest is a father of life!

My priestly sacramental ministry in the confessional goes back to the paschal evening, with the Lord's meaningful greeting: „Peace be with you!”. The power to forgive sins handed on to me by God is terrifying in its content and its might, and indispensable on the road to the Father's house. Who will describe the joy of a shepherd over the sheep he has found, who will describe the joy over the peace and happiness in the heart of a returning son? Many a time my greatest experience has been to feel within me the power of the Holy Spirit in such difficult moments of confession, and at the same time the joy of a witness who sees the change of a heart and new life in returning brothers.

Receive these words of testimony yourself and say a prayer for priests, both those close to you and those unknown to you. Fr Adam