Bishop urges new priests to embrace humility
Even amid a soggy Memorial Day weekend characterized by repeated – and sometimes vigorous – rainfall, sunshine won out late on the morning of Saturday, May 24 at Wichita’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which hosted the ordinations of the diocese’s three newest priests.
It was out of the cathedral doors and into that late spring sunlight that Bishop Carl A. Kemme emerged with a swell of priests, seminarians, Knights of Columbus, and Daughters of Isabella from the Diocese of Wichita. Shortly before the throng assembled on the cathedral steps for a group photo, the bishop knelt on the sidewalk before Fr. Grant Huslig, Fr. Joseph Mick, and Fr. Nicholas Samsel to receive from them the blessing of Christ that they had been enabled that morning to impart.
During his homily that morning, Bishop Kemme marveled that Saturday’s ordinations would mark 47 new priests during his 11 years as bishop of the Diocese of Wichita.
“The presence of so many young priests, full of zeal and enthusiasm, is changing who we are; the sacerdotal ministry of all our priests is helping us realize our vision of a community of believers, fully alive in Christ,” he said. “Each day as a bishop, I pray to the Master of the Harvest to send us more laborers for the harvest that is abundant; it seems that our prayers for this intention are being answered. May it always be so.”
Preeminent Virtue
During a homily in which he also lauded the new priests’ parents and acknowledged their sacrifices, Bishop Kemme posed a question to the congregation. “What qualities, virtues, or abilities would you most want to see in a priest?” he asked.
The bishop mentioned prayerfulness and reverence, as well as wisdom from the pulpit and in the confessional, along with administrative skill and rapport with young people, as valuable priestly attributes, but he singled out the virtue of humility as foremost.
That is because, Bishop Kemme said as he cited Venerable Fulton Sheen, a priest is not his own. “He belongs to Christ, to whom he is conformed; he belongs to the Church, the Lord’s bride, for whom he will labor all his earthly days,” the bishop said. “At his ordination, he lays down his life for the Lord in imitation of the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, as the Gospel of St. John relates to us. The priest must willingly sacrifice his freedom, his will, his plans, his hopes and dreams, for the flock of Christ, for whom he is ordained to serve. The priest is not a hired hand, who only works for pay; no, he is a shepherd of the sheep, who must spend himself to his last breath for their well-being. Only with humility can one fulfill this role.”
Humility enables a priest to recognize his strengths and weaknesses, focus on his mission and serve others, including those who reject that service or seem odious, Bishop Kemme continued. “Humility as a virtue is not to degrade or denigrate oneself, as some mistakenly believe; rather it is to rejoice in who you are as a child of God, putting God first, others second and oneself last,” he said. “C.S. Lewis once wrote, ‘Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.’ This is what must be present in all priests if their life and ministry is to bear great fruit.”
Bishop Kemme noted that the ordination liturgy’s ancient act of prostration was a visible gesture that a priest must die to himself and allow Christ to live and work through him, even when it is inconvenient.
“If, as a bishop or priest, there is too much of me in our ministry, then we risk it all becoming pretentious and self-serving,” he said. “A proud and arrogant bishop, priest, or deacon thinking only of himself will result in much damage to the Lord’s flock. It will bear little or no fruit; his service will likely collapse into seeking honors and applause, all of which will fade. There can be little room in our priestly lives for this. We must resist the demons of pride at all cost.”
The bishop concluded his homily by inviting all the priests present, especially the new ones, to join him silently in a prayer:
“Jesus, as your priest, let my life and ministry be less and less about me and more and more about thee, Oh Christ, so that you will be seen in all my actions and heard in all my words, you who are the Good Shepherd, who has appointed me to share in the ministry of leading the flock. And when at last our priestly days on earth come to a close, welcome us who have been adorned by no merit of our own with priestly dignity; welcome us to the heavenly banquet and to the glory of life eternal, which will be ours forever after a life of humble and selfless service. Amen.”
