their lives. And more often than not,
if I can remember the occasion they
are referring to, what they heard is
not what I meant to say. I suppose I
could be bemused or even annoyed
by this; instead I take it as welcome
evidence that the Holy Spirit is using
me as an instrument through which
people hear what God wants them
to hear.
The love of Christ urges us on!
Enter #437 at VocationMatch.com
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You give out the Good News
Akin to that are occasions when
I manage to say something useful
during a pastoral encounter that I
am dead certain I couldn’t have come
up with on my own. Again, in those
moments, the presence of the Holy
Spirit seems palpable. And when I
preside at the Eucharist, I am the
instrument of Christ, who is the real
priest. I love being a priest because
the Mass is a distillation of what it
is to be human. After the gospel and
the Eucharistic Prayer, what is there
left to say about human nature? And
as for culture, the Mass is imbued
with cultural riches that reach back
through the Middle Ages to ancient
Rome and Athens to Mount Sinai and
beyond. An epic poem or oratorio
could be written about nearly every
phrase and gesture. In fact, countless
artists, knowingly or not, have taken
inspiration from the themes, shape,
and textures of the Mass.
For instance, I teach a course
about the Catholic novel. For years
I have been telling my students that
when they have an essay to write for
class and are stumped for a topic,
there are two questions that can be
fruitfully discussed in relation to any
Catholic novel. The first is: What is
the good news that the novel holds
out? No matter how bleakly the hu-
Franciscan F r iars, TOR
Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – Loretto, PA
www.franciscansTOR.org
Enter #232 at VocationMatch.com
man condition may be depicted in a
Catholic novel, there will invariably
be some element of hope on offer.
The second question is whether the
main character is ultimately saved.
The condition of his or her soul is
what really matters.
It has occurred to me only
recently that these two questions
correspond to the two main parts of
the Mass. The good news is a kind
of gospel. It is analogous to the
Liturgy of the Word. The theme of
whether the protagonist is saved is
ultimately grounded in the Liturgy
of the Eucharist in which the Body
VISION 2013
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