May 11, 2012 Des O’Donnell desomi@eircom.net Previous article by
Des
Desmond
O’Donnell is an Oblate priest and a registered psychologist in
THE ANATOMY OF A PRIESTLY VOCATION
LIMITS TO ANALYSIS
A vocation to any way of life is a mystery but not in the sense that it
can never be understood. The mystery of a vocation is rather a 'musterion' (Col.2.3)
in the scriptural sense - something which one can never understand deeply
enough. This is because a vocation is an
expression of a relationship with all the complexities of growth between two
unique persons - God and the other. All authentic relationships are endlessly
deep. God's offer of a relationship to
each of us is responded to by a unique person in a unique way - be it marriage,
single life, religious life or priesthood. It is this uniqueness which makes
each vocation something so beautiful that it is always growing and endlessly
rich. No adequate human analysis of this is possible but it is possible to
study some aspects of it in so far as they are observable. In this article it
is hoped to look at a vocation in this way.
TO BE HUMAN IS TO HAVE A VOCATION
First of all to be human is to have a vocation; it is to feel called to
something beyond oneself. It is to feel responsible for making the world a
better place. At the end of a lecture I
asked Victor Frankl what morality was for him as a
Jewish psychiatrist. He told me that he had learned the meaning of morality
from an old Rabbi in the form of three questions: 'If I don’t love you who will
give you the love I denied you ?', 'If I don’t love
you now, when will I give you the love I denied you now ?' and thirdly 'If I
love you for selfish reasons only am I human or animal'. When a person can give the obvious negative
answer to each of these questions he or she recognises a vocation within. As Dag Hammarskjold puts it - ' Any man with a vocation hears the voice of
the inner man; he is called'. Interest in others is basic to mental and
emotional health. Concern for others is not an extra; it is a built-in
anthropological imperative. The journey to neurosis begins when for whatever
reason, one ceases to hear the call to self-transcendence and slides into a
stance of exclusive self-absorption.
TO BE HUMAN IS TO HAVE A VOCATION
It is only when a man has heard this call deeply and lived it out
however imperfectly that he can consider another call to priestly service or
indeed to marriage. To attempt building
a priestly or marital way of life without this foundation is more dangerous
than building on sand; it is building on nothing. We now recognise the importance
of the question 'What have you done ?' above the
question 'What do you intend to do ?'. Intentions are good but evidence is more
reliable. Unless a man has already felt and in some way lived the human call to
serve others he is unlikely to persevere in selfless caring later in life. He is more likely to settle for minimal
obligatory action than to go the extra mile in spontaneous or creative caring
for parishioners. A seminary applicant's parish priest can verify if he has
ever undertaken voluntary religious or secular service before he spoke of
priesthood.
PRIESTHOOD RISKS ABSENCE OF HUMAN VOCATION
Priesthood in the Catholic Church allows for generous giving but it also
permits one to settle for a selfish parameter in lifestyle. Unlike
PRIESTHOOD IS A SPECIAL VOCATION
The desire to become a priest can be described as a graced decision to
incarnate one's human and a christian
vocation in a special way. The importance of this moment of choice cannot be
over emphasised. It is a moment of true adulthood. Viktor Frankl
puts it this way - 'One actualises
himself only in so far as he commits himself to the fulfilment of his life's
meaning'. Van Kaam
writes - 'If I remain open to all lifeforms I cannot
be developed in one'. He also wrote - 'Permanent
commitment is entrance into potential maturity after the indecision and
dispersion of adolescence'.. Gordon Allport puts
it like this - 'Until youth begins to
plan for life, the sense of self is not complete'. Gabriel Marcel is of the opinion that 'Man can know himself only if he is
committed and only the man who knows himself is ready for commitment'. Thus, immature and certainly disturbed
people cannot take this step beyond mere words, beyond conforming behaviour and
beyond ritual. It is a special explicitation of the
'Love one another as I have loved you' and the 'desiderium plenitudinis
essendi' of Aquinas.
FULLNESS OF FREEDOM
Unlike much that is written today, this vocational choice is a moment of
true freedom. Karl Rahner reminds us - 'Freedom is not the capacity for the endless
revision of choices but it is the ability to make a final one and to follow it'. And Dag Hammarskjold rejects modern indecision and prolonged
adolescence when he writes - 'The man who
is unwilling to accept the axiom that he who chooses one path is denied all
other must try to persuade himself that the logical thing to do is to remain at
the crossroads forever. But do not blame the man who does take a path, nor
commend him either'. Speaking about his own life he wrote - 'At some moment I did answer yes to Someone or something. And from that hour I was certain that
existence is meaningful and that therefore my life in self-surrender had a
goal'. He described that decision in
this way - 'To be free - to be able to
stand up and leave everything behind without looking back - to say yes'.
Speaking to the faculty of Fribourg university in 1984, Pope John Paul 11 said - ' Man is free when he is able to make up his
mind in conformity with the highest values …… the ultimate aims'. Only a
discerned decision based on focused freedom rather than instinctual drift based
on survival motivation will keep a man enthusiastic - en-theos - about his chosen way of life
to the end.
BASIC RESOURCES REQUIRED
No man can lose himself in this radical way until he has humanly and
healthily found himself. I compare a
vocational choice to the core of an onion.
If it is healthy and mature then every layer which grows from it will be
healthy and will strengthen the core.
But if the core is not basically healthy then no matter how many layers
are carefully placed around it, they will one day fall off because they have
not been integrated to a healthy core.
The immature or unhealthy core does not grow by being wrapped in sheets
of anything no matter how well they are placed or how often they are renewed.
Seminaries cannot cultivate a seed which was never healthily present. Good
seminary training helps the man to integrate his experience into his already
existing identity but no seminary training system will substitute for basic
personal resources. In psychology we call these resources Ego Strength and in
lay language it is called resilience. Eric Erikson
puts it - 'Only basic strength of
personality can guarantee potency to any value'. As bouts of adverse
weather strengthen rather than weaken the layers which are emerging from the
healthy core of the onion so too will the adversities of priestly life deepen
and strenghten an initially sound vocational choice.
ROLE-LEARNING /v/ APPRENTICESHIP
This takes place only when the priest has a deeply personalized value
system. A mere pattern of behaviour or the pressure of a
moral imperative are not sound foundations for a priestly way of
life. Either of these may sustain the
novelty and apprenticeship of a pastoral year and perhaps the honeymoon of a
few years in ministry. But the ability to do priestly things is not the same as
the time-consuming journey of role-learning which guarantees an integrated
priestly life. To confuse apprenticeship with role-learning will result in
eventual exit from any demanding way of life. A priest is basically about
generating, enabling and nurturing meaning in peoples' lives. He must first
have found his own meaning and the values which it enshrines. Only then can he
witness to and facilitate growth in values and meaning in others. Of his
fullness all then receive.
SELF-UNDERSTANDING BEFORE COMMITMENT
Kierkegaard struggled with what God wanted for him - his vocation: 'What I really need to get clear is what I
must do, not what I must know …...What matters is to a find a purpose, to see
what it really is that God wills that I shall do. The crucial thing is to find
a truth which is truth for me, to find the ideal for which I am willing to live
or die'. But it was only after he
had struggled to know himself was he able to make his christian commitment - 'Not until man has inwardly understood himself and then sees the course
he is to take does his life gain peace and meaning'. He reminds us that
while we may model ourselves on another we must walk our unique path alone - 'Frequently when one is most convinced that
he understands himself, he is assaulted by the uneasy feeling that he has
really learned someone else's life by rote'. I have counselled priests who
in their vocational crises could have written these words.
THE WILL OF GOD ?
Kierkegaard touches on something vital but open to serious
misunderstanding when he speaks of God's will.
Contrary to what is sometimes thought, God does not express his will in
a shallow feeling or in an emotional urge or in a blinding flash. Nor is it true that someone else can ever
give us God's will. God's will has to be discerned in a demanding process. This
process ends with discovering what the person himself wants at his deepest,
centred self. And the process is observable. In a way, it is true to say that
God's will is my will at its most unfettered moment of freedom. It does not
seem best that one enters into the intensity of seminary studies in order to
engage with this process. And of course a man desiring priesthood must know
that it is only when his desire meets with the bishop's call that a vocation to
this diocese is present. 'I know I am called' does not finally indicate the
presence of a vocation.
INTERIORIZATION
Social psychologist Kelman says that there are
five steps which one takes in becoming become permanently part of a group - attraction,
affiliation, conformity, imitation, identification and interiorization.
Attraction to priesthood can come
from many sources and this can lead to affiliation
by joining a seminary. This in turn can
be followed by conformity to the
rules of seminary life and by imitation of those admired there. The feeling of
identify when one becomes known as a seminarian leads to some identification with the priestly way of
life. But none of this is vocational commitment until interiorization of priesthood is achieved. During a pastoral year for instance it would
be easy to confuse imitation which is
merely doing priestly things, with interiorization or
role identity. Merely doing what married people do, however smoothly it is
done, is not the same as being married.
MOTIVATION
The quality and strength of one's motivation are vital to any lifelong
vocation. The temptation to seek priesthood motivated by power, privilege,
status, security or to create a feeling of identity can be strong. Erickson was
of the opinion that the level of identity which enables commitment or intimacy
is rarely possible before thirty years of age. In these times when adolescence
is a bio-social phenomenon and therefore is likely to be prolonged, entry into
adulthood could be notably delayed. Other defective motives would be to seek
such forms of self-enhancement as comfort, exhibition or unearned affirmation.
Likewise defective are a desire to do social work, to make reparation for an
alcoholic father, to satisfy maternal expectations or to cover up a confused
psychosexual life. None of these deficit motivational patterns will sustain one
for long today.
MOTIVATION IS MIXED, GROWS AND CHANGES
Ideal motives do not arrive quickly nor do they remain powerfully
present with constancy. It is important to recognise that motivation is a
process; motives grow and decline in strength and purity. While recognising
that a basic core motivation ideally remains, we know that no motivation is
entirely rational or spiritually pure; all motivation is mixed. Imperfect motives can be improved along the
way. In psychology we speak of a motivational shift meaning that one might not
be a priest now for the same reasons for which one started. Ideally this shift is towards more perfect
motives and not towards thinking 'to dig I am unable and to beg I am ashamed'.
This leap forward takes place ideally with spiritual accompaniment in a
seminary and often in moments of crisis as in the middle years. The simple
desire to imitate an admired priest, to lead people at the altar or to help
people by preaching can be a first step towards the formation of a healthy and
holistic motive for priesthood. More selfish initial motives, which are often
unconscious, are less likely to change.
NEGATIVE PREDICTION EASIER
Negative prediction is usually easier than positive. It is much easier
to predict that a man will not make a success of marriage or priesthood than to
predict his success. This is because it is much easier to name qualities, which
if absent, will cause him to be dysfunctional or to leave priesthood. If a man
cannot relate easily to most people - men and women - he certainly will not be
successful in priesthood. If he has significant communication problems with
others, the same is true. Similarly the lack of healthy psychosexual maturity
sustaining the gift of celibacy points to an unhappy life ahead. If he cannot
see authority as co-operative discernment, a life of collision with superiors
and those he serves lies ahead. Should
his defective faith-experience lead him towards extremes of secularism or
fundamentalism his priestly leadership will be seriously defective.
A PRIEST'S PRIMARY ROLE
Often forgotten is the ability to speak well in public and to enjoy it.
The Pope said that preaching the word - not administering the Sacraments - is
the primary activity of a priest. If
a man clearly lacks the ability to speak in public and to enjoy it, the
presence of a vocation to proclaim the Good News is hard to see. Low
intelligence, emotional immaturity, addictive tendencies and poor physical
health are likewise negative predictors.
LEADERSHIP
It is clear that priesthood today calls for leadership which is
supportive, collaborative, creative, courageous and challenging. All modern
leadership is forced to move from being transactional - managing the present,
to being transformative - enabling the future. While the presence of leadership
ability may not always be easy to discover in a seminary, its absence should be
easy to find. A competent psychological examination can accurately discover the
presence of any of these talents but any observant vocational director can
easily enough observe their absence. One vital quality for leadership today is
dedication to one's lifelong education. If a student is not a reader he will
become like a doctor who has not 'kept up' - with this difference that his
incompetence will result in less obvious but more serious results in the people
he serves.
A VOCATION OBSERVED
Following Jesus' words to potential followers - 'Come and see' (Jn. 1.29) - there is wisdom in having an applicant live
closely for some time with an observant priest who will challenge rather than
nurse him, before his request is considered by the vocation team. The discovery
of negative indicators at this time can save the applicant much anxiety from a
useless struggle in the seminary and from considerable trauma when he has to
leave. It can also save a formation team
much valuable time which can be spent on promising candidates and it can
prevent waste of the generous money of St. Joseph's Young Priests' Society. If
on the other hand during his training and especially during his pastoral year
he manifests these five qualities demanded by modern leadership he is worth any
investment in time and money.
LATER CRISIS
None of this guarantees that a man may not later have to renew his
vocation in the face of his own weakness or in the face of the discouraging
responses from people which are particularly present today. If a healthy
motivational pattern has emerged before ordination then these times of trial
can be moments of great growth in a vocation. A crisis in any vocation is
normal, even healthy. As Jesus sat under the palm trees in the garden at
VOCATION = AVOCATION
It is only when the healthy core and other aspects of identity are well
integrated that total commitment becomes possible. There emerges then a
strength based on the oneness of the person committed. Robert Frost puts it
poetically -
'But yield who will to their separation
My object in life is to
unite
My avocation and my
vocation
As my two eyes make one
in sight'
Only where love and need
are one
And work is play for
mortal stakes
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven or for future's sake' (Two Tramps in Mudtime)
Avocation - what one does naturally must be one with what a person feels
the obligation to do. Love, which is giving, and need which is receiving must also both be one. To say 'I did not really
want to become a priest but God is calling me' is a contradiction.
AN ENJOYED PRIESTHOOD
A fruitful priesthood must be basically an enjoyed priesthood; it must
be living, speaking and acting as one really desires to live, speak and to act
even through suffering. A priest must have logos
enabling him to sustain reasons for his way of life. He must also have ethos - the transparent moral character to persuade, but he must
finally have pathos - the ability to touch
feeling, to move people emotionally from his own experience. After any
encounter with his people but especially after his homilies, a priest should be
able to say - 'I have told you all this
so that my joy may be yours and your joy complete' (Jn.15.11) On Vocation
Sunday 2002 Pope John Paul 11 said - 'Let
us not forget that the strength of every vocation lies in….. the
joy of serving others…… and in the generous devotion to one's own ministry'.
Only in freedom, generosity and joy is the priestly 'deed really done for heaven or for future's sakes'.