Fr. Tom Cassidy, provincial superior of the U.S. province, gave the following homily at the Retirement Mass for Fr. Jan de Jong, at Sacred Heart School of Theology, on April 27:
Today’s readings, I believe, fit our celebration of Jan’s retirement from service as rector of Sacred Heart Theology as well as his years of teaching moral theology. The first reading from Luke’s Acts of the Apostles speaks to us of God’s call of Paul — it’s a vocation story. And the Gospel from St. John is a continuation of our reading of Chapter 6 and speaks to us of Jesus offering of himself to us as the Bread of Life — it’s a Eucharistic story. The Eucharist is central to our Catholic faith and is likewise foundational to the charism of the Priests of the Sacred Heart.
Imagine, if you will for a moment, that you are a fly on the wall of Fr. Tom Knoebel’s office, or better yet, a bug in his phone and you are listening in on this conversation. “Hello Fr. Tom, I believe I have been called by Jesus to become a priest and I need help finding a bishop so I can come to your school.” Naturally Fr. Tom has heard this before and asks his caller to briefly give an account of his vocation story.
“Well, Father, I was walking down the street with some friends of mine and suddenly we saw a bright light in the sky and the next thing I know I’m flat on my back and hearing this voice. Now my friends saw the light but they couldn’t hear the voice and the voice told me I was being called to be a priest and I should call you at Sacred Heart School of Theology so I could begin my studies.”
Now I’m not going to put words in Fr. Tom Knoebel’s mouth, but I suspect he might tell the caller he would think about it and pray that he may never hear from the caller again. For in truth, in our day and our times vocations certainly do not come as dramatically as Paul’s encounter with Christ on the way to Damascus.
But God’s call does continue to be given and heard. Each one of the students here at Sacred Heart School of Theology has heard that call and is testing that call with the help of the faculty and staff, as well as with the help and discernment of his vocation director and bishop back home.
Instead of heavenly bright lights and the voice of Jesus, in our time and our place that divine call comes as an invitation made known to us by our fellow human beings. It comes when someone says: You know you should consider priesthood, I think you would make a good priest. One of the best examples I heard of that human invitation when I served here as rector was described by Fr. Chuck Huck of Crookston, MN.
His calling from God came from his wife. He tells of their conversations as she was dying from terminal cancer. They talked about what he should do when she was gone. Should he get remarried, should he stay single. And then one day she said to him: “I think you would make a good priest.” And from that seed began Chuck’s journey to becoming the pastor of St. Joseph’s in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota.
Perhaps we would have more vocations if Jesus would strike men down with bright lights and personal conversations. It would certainly be the easy way out for God. But that’s not the way God chooses to operate. As St. Thomas reminds us, grace builds on nature. Vocations depend on human agents. Someone has to stand in God’s place and plant the seed just as Chuck’s wife did for him when she said: “You know you would make a good priest.”
Once that seed has been planted then it’s up to a place like Sacred Heart School of Theology to nurture and water that seed. We are here today to honor Jan and to thank Jan for his part in the many vocation stories he helped nurture during his years of service as rector in addition to his years of service as a teacher of moral theology.
I believe we can honor Jan best by realizing the human dynamic in a vocation story. That is to say, it begins with an invitation and in our day and our time that invitation must come from you and me when we see someone to whom we can say: You know, you would make a good priest.
Today’s Gospel continues the dialogue between Jesus and those who could not understand that HE is the bread of life. This Jesus, who on the night before he died, would take bread and wine and handed on to his disciples and all who would follow them the bread that becomes his flesh and the wine that becomes his blood. It is through the Eucharistic banquet that we are about to celebrate that brings you and I into an intimate relationship with Jesus and through Jesus we come to the Father.
The Eucharist is dear to the heart of all SCJs. Our founder, Leo John Dehon, reminds us that the Eucharist is not a one-hour event — it is the never ending Mass. We must live the Eucharist 24 hours a day. Just as we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist we must take that Jesus to others so that they in turn will encounter him. If we don’t live Gospel values then the Eucharist is truly a hollow event devoid of its meaning.
If Jesus told Paul when asked “Who are you sir?” with “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” is Jesus not saying the same thing to us when we fail in our Gospel values? I don’t think I’m speaking out of school in saying the Eucharist is at the same time personal and communal. Personal in that we encounter Christ, and communal in that it demands we bring Christ to others by living the Gospel Values.
Let me close by quoting from The Gift and the Giver by Edward Farrell. It is a reminder that it is the encounter with Jesus Christ that is central to the Eucharist and if we are not careful we can confuse the gift and the giver.
We ask for a piece of sand
and he gives us a beach.
We ask for a drop of water
and he gives us an ocean.
We ask for time
and he gives us life eternal.
And it is so easy for us
to fall in love with the gift
and forget the giver. *
* Source: Prayer Is a Hunger quoted in In the Stillness Is the Dancing by Mark Link SJ
