Do you Frequent the Sacrament of Holy Orders?

In discussions about discipleship, the sacraments are often brought up as helpful ways to strengthen our relationship with Jesus.

This is very valid! Especially in the sacraments, God’s invisible grace is channeled through visible signs. In the sacraments, Jesus is sure to be present.

However, often we limit the graces we can receive from the sacraments — because we don’t actually frequent all of them.

Often, people are encouraged to frequent the eucharist by going for daily mass and adoration. And so too with a monthly confession.

But, have you frequented all the sacraments? For example, have you frequented the sacrament of Holy Orders?

(Just to clarify! I’m not asking you to become a priest!)

Rather, are you seeking spiritual direction from a good and holy priest?

If you were to ask most Christians, they’d probably say they don’t have any regular contact with their shepherd. They might see him around at mass or chat for a while, but they wouldn’t have a real or long-lasting relationship.

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

- Matthew 9:36

Additionally, if you were to ask what they would do if they wanted to intentionally journey as a disciple of Christ, the first few answers would probably be: increasing prayer or developing virtue. Only some people would even mention or think about finding a good and holy priest to have regular coffee with.

Why don’t we think of such things? Maybe we’ve never really thought of it. But perhaps this reflects a very worldly mindset that has been subtly ingrained in us…

Salvation is Not Self-Created

As Catholics, we can fall into the trap of having an extremely prideful understanding of salvation. This mindset say that our salvation is earned by us and that we just have to work hard enough to get it. We think that holiness is a matter of our own personal hard work through prayer and penance. We think we can get to heaven by our own efforts. We don’t really want people to gently point us to where we could increase in faith. We think we don’t need anyone else to tell us what is better. This is an individualistic understanding of holiness: of my sanctity and my salvation using my way.

But that’s not what God really intended.

Indeed, if we did not need help to become perfect, we would not need a saviour. But, we have a saviour — Jesus Christ. And hence we can’t possibly be perfect as we need Jesus to save us. To use Fulton Sheen’s infamous expression: we can’t pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, we can’t even pull ourselves up by our earlobes! We need someone to lift up and out of our sin. We need a saviour.

Luckily, by Christ’s coming into history (the incarnation), he saves us. But, his incarnation doesn’t end after the ascension. It is prolonged and sustained in and through the Catholic Church and in Christ’s ministerial priesthood. The priest is called to be our alter Christus — another Christ. In other words, Christ gave us shepherds in his own image. And he gave us a community of believers that would stir faith in us.

Therefore, Christ’s plan was for us not just to become a holy person, but a holy people. He wants us to learn from each other, to pray for each other, to teach one another, to be in communion with each other and, yes, to bring each other to salvation.

Thus, every time we refuse to be helped, when we refuse to be re-evangelised by our priest, our community or our parish, we are actually refusing the help of Christ himself. In our own selfishness and pride, we are cutting ourselves off from Christ’s graces. In our own desire to save ourselves by ourselves, we struggle while we could have been helped. In our own attempt to gain personal salvation, we isolate ourselves from others. We aren’t viewing things from Christ’s perspective but from our own narrow mindedness.

A personal story might be a useful analogy. When I was in a previous school, I naively would not do my homework in favour of completing assignments that I had personally created. I went over and above what the teacher asked me to do. In my pride, I thought I could make my own study schedule and teach myself the material. However, in hindsight, I realised all my teachers’ exercises were extremely useful and I could have improved so much more if I’d used them. Why did I rely on myself? My teachers had so much experience, were trained in pedagogy, etc. Why did I try to reinvent the wheel?

We also do this in our journey as disciples. Why start from scratch when there are people who have studied the science of the saints? Shouldn’t we ask for the help of those whose job is to make us holy?

Salvation is Community-Supported

Instead of pride, we should adopt a posture of humility and allow ourselves to be taught. We should submit ourselves to Jesus’ disciples and his community. When we allow ourselves to enter into community and allow ourselves to be mentored by a holy priest, our journey in faith will be nourished in ways that were impossible with our own efforts.

By journeying with people that are more mature in faith, little things are transmitted. The particular intensity of a priest’s meditation before mass. The joy a religious nun radiates. How your mentor feeds the homeless on weekends. You have a tangible role model. A true sacrament to live up to. A visible sign channeling God’s invisible grace to you. Something to aspire towards.

“The priest continues the work of redemption on earth… If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die not of fright but of love… The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus”

- St. John Vianney

By attending community sessions, you learn more about the faith and obtain precise and pinpoint instructions that you can apply. Instead of sifting through a hundred books before realising only five of them really made a difference, you can ask your community members or priest instead.

In community, you are even connected to the wider diocesan networks and become aware of things that are happening in your region from the different community members who are involved elsewhere. There were so many times where I became aware of fascinating conferences and talks through community members that I wouldn’t have otherwise know.

And even during moments when you are in spiritual desolation, you have people who can console and encourage you. Just like tribes of Israel headed through the Sinai, you don’t have to travel alone to reach the promised land.

Once you immerse yourself in the life of the Church — the mystical body of Christ — your faith life takes off with a new trajectory.

How to Frequent All the Sacraments

With the previous points in mind, here are a few suggestions:

Frequent the Sacrament of Holy Orders

• Find a good and holy priest for spiritual direction. Or at least a spiritually mature elder. Spiritual direction allows you to have a deep and personalised conversation on your life and where Jesus might be leading you. Good priests will be able to diagnose quickly what areas your spiritual life needs more attention in. Furthermore, a good spiritual mentor can help you make better decisions in life. There have been some moving spiritual conversations that I’ve had with my mentors and I even broke into grateful tears during one!
• Attend an ordination mass. The ordination mass is a powerful event. According to Fr. Brett Brannen in To Save a Thousand Souls, “newly ordained priests often tell [him] that they actually can feel an internal change after ordination… They discover that when they are in a desperate situation — for example, with a family in the hospital after a terrible car accident — the Holy Spirit gives them the consoling words they need to say. When the stand in the pulpit, they can sometimes feel the Holy Spirit giving them confidence and strength, whereas before they had greatly feared preaching.” Later he writes that he has also seen ordination affect those in the congregation, “one priest told me that his father decided to become a Catholic soon after his son’s ordination. His father had been married to his Catholic wife for thirty-five years… Only a few months after the ordination, after all those years, he began RCIA.” By attending ordination mass, we expose ourselves to such grace!

“And if thou see a man of understanding, go to him early in the morning, and let thy foot wear the steps of his doors.”

- Sirach 6:36

Frequent the Sacrament of Matrimony

• Know a holy and loving Christian couple. This can truly alter your worldview. So much of how we perceive the world and behave towards others is influenced by the families that we have in our immediate life. Seeing a husband compliment his wife. Seeing a wife in admiration of her beloved. Seeing both sacrifice for their children and their wider community. Even if you are not called to marriage, seeing couples love each other like how Christ loved the Church can change your life.
• Know a holy Catholic family. Ask to be received at their house from time to time for a meal or to play with the children. See how they love each other and pray with each other.

Frequent the Sacrament of Baptism and Confirmation

• Journey with a community. Saints, like grapes, usually come in clusters. When we are together, joys are multiplied and distress is diminished. In community, we can become further formed in the faith and learn how to love like Jesus did. Even when they get on our nerves, we learn how to forgive and expand our hearts in love. We learn what it means to be a family with Jesus at the center of it all. In the words of Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exultate, “when we live apart from others, it is very difficult to fight against concupiscence, the snares and temptations of the devil and the selfishness of the world. Bombarded as we are by so many enticements, we can grow too isolated, lose our sense of reality and inner clarity, and easily succumb. Growth in holiness is a journey in community, side by side with others… Living or working alongside others is surely a path of spiritual growth. Saint John of the Cross told one of his followers: ‘You are living with others in order to be fashioned and tried’”

Frequent the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick

• Okay. Maybe don’t frequent this one too much.

In closing, I pray that, just like the paralysed man, you allow yourself to be carried to Jesus!

A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

- Mark 2:1–5