The following homily was given by the Rector – Father Anthony Percy – on Sunday 30th Aug 2009, the 22nd Sunday of Year B

Gratitude is the thing that brings us the most grace. … I have learnt this from experience; try it, and you will see.
St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Karol Cardinal Wojtyla was elected to the papacy on the 16th October 1978. He stepped out on to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and greeted the world with, “Be not afraid.”

French journalist, André Frossard (former atheist; converted in the presence of the Holy Eucharist; author of God Exists: I Have Met Him) wired back to a French newspaper:

This is not a pope from Poland; this is a pope from Galilee!

Subsequently, Frossard interviewed Pope John Paul II at length and these encounters appeared in a book entitled, Be Not Afraid. I remember – quite distinctly – one thing in that book. It was the pope’s definition and interpretation of apostolic celibacy. John Paul II said:

I am alone so that others won’t be alone.

St. James in his first letter (verses 16-17) speaks of the “gift” of God. “All that is good, everything that is perfect” is “given us from above.”

Over the years the Church has understood clearly that there are three “goods” of marriage. Husband and wife share in the good of fidelity, sacrament and children when they enter into the vocation and sacrament of marriage. The marriage is for the good of the spouses and the good of the children.

The gift of celibacy is given for the benefit of the recipient, too, but more so for the benefit, up building and encouragement of the Christian community. “I am alone so that others won’t be alone.” Celibacy serves the Church intimately and directly – including marriage and family. Celibacy is for the “sake of the kingdom of heaven” (Cf. Matthew 19, 16-30).

Since it is a gift, thanks should be offered for it. Of course “laws” do surround this gift, but first and foremost celibacy is a gift of apostolic origin (Cf. Stefan Heid, Celibacy in the Early Church, 2000, p.40-57; Christian Cochini, S.J., Apostolic Origins of Priestly Celibacy, 1990, p.3-7).

Giving thanks for this wonderful treasure will have, to my way of thinking, two significant advantages. First, giving thanks for the gift of celibacy while we are in the formative process will help us to discern the gift offered. It may be that we find giving thanks difficult. This may be an indication that I don’t have the calling to apostolic celibacy and priestly ministry. The operative word here is “may.” There could be other reasons for this inability to give thanks. Recourse to the spiritual director would be wise.

Second, giving thanks will help us persevere in our priestly and celibate vocation. Jesus promises us that if we leave everything behind, we will be rewarded not only with eternal life, but a hundredfold in this life (Cf. Matthew 19, 16-30). We need to take time to see the “hundredfold” and to give thanks to God for these divine “caresses.”

In my reading recently, I came across some correspondence between St. Thérèse of Lisieux and her sister Celine (Cf. Timothy Gallagher, The Examen Prayer, p.178-179). Celine writes that Thérèse once said:

Gratitude is the thing that brings us the most grace. … I have learnt this from experience; try it, and you will see.

Indeed, we need to “try” giving thanks much more often. To give thanks to God for the great and small things in life is essential and fundamental. As a good priest friend said to me on Friday afternoon, “Oh, even more than that, it will lead you to be a saint.”

Gratitude, then, for all we receive – especially the things that we thought were the contrary, but especially for the gift of celibacy. It is a gift given so that “others won’t be alone.”

And we will discover that as we go to those who are alone we realise that we are, in fact, not alone. Rather, we experience that we dwell in the presence of the “Father of all light” and that we live with and for the “children of light.”

Amen