This past weekend, we were blessed here in the archdiocese to ordain five men to the priesthood. Besides the beautiful Saturday morning Mass for priestly ordination, it was a weekend full of prayers, Holy Hours, receptions and first Masses of Thanksgiving. We thank God that he has been so generous to give us five new priests, five new shepherds, and five new witnesses to his love.
Most of these men have been witnessing their whole lives. One of the newly ordained, Father Alexander Marquette, was attending St. Timothy Catholic School in Maple Lake when I was pastor there from 2007 to 2012. I recall a particular school Mass when I asked the boys if any of them had ever considered a vocation to the priesthood. Father Alex was in third grade at the time, and his hand shot up immediately. No hesitation. That is being a witness. I’ve asked that question at other school Masses, and sometimes you will see the boys initially look around, to see if anyone else is raising their hand.
Father Alex and the other newly ordained priests are witnesses. They could have done anything with their lives, but they are giving them to the Lord. It is a witness to say, “What Jesus offers us is so infinitely important, I’m going to give my whole life to the Church, to the priesthood, and to others!”
How fitting that our men were ordained on Ascension weekend. In our Gospel this past Sunday, Jesus’s last words on Earth are, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name … . ” Then he quickly adds, “You are witnesses of these things.”
We see an additional reference to witnesses at the end of the first reading. After Jesus ascends into heaven, we hear that the disciples are looking intently at the sky. Two angels appear and ask, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” The implication is, “Why are you standing around? Get moving, you are witnesses now!” This directive is something we recall at the end of every Mass. The priest or deacon says, “Go in peace” or “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” or “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” In other words, “Go be a witness.”
Priests are called to this, but really, all of us are called to be witnesses. To witness, in short, means to give evidence to the truth, and to take Jesus seriously. We are called to witness to who Jesus is and what he has done in our lives. The latter can often be more effective. It is important to speak about who Jesus is, but witnessing isn’t just remembering facts from Scripture or other doctrine. Not only is it less intimidating, but it can also be more effective to simply share with another person how God has blessed you or how you’ve seen Jesus working in your life. If we don’t witness, the opposite can be true. When we don’t take Jesus seriously, then the way we live our lives can be used by others as evidence that Christianity might be false. Our neighbors might say, “Well he goes to church every Sunday, but he certainly doesn’t live like a Christian.”
It was C.S. Lewis who once said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” As Catholics, too often we live our lives as if our faith is moderately important. We say our prayers and go to Mass on Sunday, but our faith needs to influence our Monday mornings and our Friday nights. It needs to influence our business choices and our social conversations. It needs to play a role in our time with family and in our time with strangers. Brothers and sisters, our faith must be infinitely important.
The example of how the disciples lived their lives after the Ascension is good evidence that the faith is of infinite importance. They spread the good news and most of them even gave up their lives for that news. Let us pray that our newly ordained priests might always witness to the truth and that they might always speak the words the Lord desires to speak through them. And let us pray also for ourselves, that we, too, might be witnesses to Jesus Christ.
