Spirituality

. . . If we want truly to love the Lord, we have to cultivate a spirituality of detachment. We don't cling to worldly goods as though they are our ultimate good. Rather, we let go of them for the sake of God.

Bishop Robert
Barron

One thing I have always savored about the late spring and early summer is that it is ordination season, that time when young men enter into the diaconate and priesthood. It was a particular joy for our entire diocese that, just a few weeks ago, we welcomed three new deacons and three new priests. May they minister among us for many years to come.

I would like to share with you some of what I said to the deacons just before I ordained them. I spoke of the three great promises that they were about to make: to obey, to pray, and to be celibate for the sake of the kingdom. I told them that these are not promises imposed upon them; rather, they are self-defining moves that they make from the depth of their own freedom.

Let's consider each of these, taking obedience first. As part of the ritual of ordination, each deacon candidate places his hands in mine and I say, "Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?" In answering "I do," each man is giving up his career -- which is to say, plans that he has for his own life. He is placing his own freedom within the greater freedom of God so that he might be available for the Lord's purposes. This is an extraordinary thing to do in the midst of a culture that puts such a premium on autonomy. It is an embrace, not of autonomy, but of theonomy, God becoming the norm of one's life. For the faith of the Church is that somehow the will of the Holy Spirit is expressed through the decisions of the bishop, flawed as he might be. When I made this promise a long time ago, placing my hands between the hands of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, I had no idea where it would take me. I also had no idea who his successor would be. But obedience has been the source of deepest freedom and adventure in my life.

The second great promise they make is to pray -- more precisely, to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. I cannot possibly overstate the importance of this promise. Prayer, the raising of the mind and the heart to God, places one consistently, day in and day out, in the presence of God and puts the whole of one's life under the aegis of God. Msgr. Steven Rosetti was, for many years, the director of the St. Luke Institute where priests who are experiencing troubles are treated. He commented once that, though every struggle is unique, there is something that every priest he dealt with had in common: At some point in their lives, they stopped praying. So, prayer is crucial in the life of a deacon or priest. And the particular prayer that each newly ordained is promising to pray is crucially important. I told each man that if he didn't have a nice, sturdy copy of the Liturgy of the Hours, I would personally purchase one for him! In the course of my nearly 40 years in the priesthood, I've worn out four sets. I told them to savor these books, to carry them with them when they travel, to keep them in a sacred place when they are home. I insisted that they must pray the Liturgy of the Hours, all of it, every day, without exception. I told them to pray it when they feel like it and when they don't, when they're in the mood and when they're not, precisely because they are not praying it for themselves but for the Church. Psalm 88, which is included in the Night Prayer for Friday every week, is the cry of a desperate man, someone who has lost everything. I told our newly ordained that, though they might not feel this way when they pray Psalm 88, someone in their parish does -- and they are praying for him or her.

The third great promise is to live a life of celibacy. Why this commitment? There is a very bad argument for celibacy that would go something like this: Sex, the body, and pleasure are all rather tainted, and if you desire to be a true spiritual athlete, you have to leave all of that behind. Well, that's just stupid, and it's completely repugnant to the Bible and to Catholic spirituality. Hilaire Belloc beautifully summed up the Catholic perspective when he said, "Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine / There's always laughter and good red wine." The Church loves marriage, pleasure, sex, children. But there is a balancing principle. Though everything in the world reflects God, nothing in the world is God. Therefore, if we want truly to love the Lord, we have to cultivate a spirituality of detachment. We don't cling to worldly goods as though they are our ultimate good. Rather, we let go of them for the sake of God. This is why St. Francis embraced poverty, and why Mother Teresa lived a life of radical simplicity, and it is also why deacons and priests adopt a celibate life. They choose to live even now the way we will all live in heaven. Celibacy does indeed have a practical value, for it frees men for greater ministry -- and this is why the ritual of ordination specifies that the celibate lives in "lifelong service to God and mankind." But its deeper significance is sacramental: It speaks in the most vivid way possible of the supernatural world that transcends the ordinary one.

As six young men from our diocese made these great promises last month, all of us rejoice with them. Please don't forget to pray for them as well.

- Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and is Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

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