Adsum
{Tunc dixi: Ecce, venio. In capite libri scriptum est de me: Ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem tuam.
Then I said: Here I am. For it is written of Me in the scroll of the book: To do, O God, Your Will.
Heb 10, 7
Today in this small chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, we are celebrating a votive Mass ad vocationes ecclesiasticas servandas, for the preservation of clerical vocations. More broadly, we pray and offer the Holy Sacrifice that the Divine Majesty may deign to grant numerous laborers for His harvest, and that, once called to work in the vineyard, they may remain faithful to their ministry.
Excita, Domine, in Eccesia tua spiritum pietatis et fortitudinis: qui dignos altaribus tuis ministros, et verbi tui strenuos assertores efficiat. Stir up, O Lord, in your Church the spirit of piety and fortitude, that it may render the ministers of your altars worthy and steadfast defenders of your word.
The Collect of the Mass calls to mind the need for two of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: piety and fortitude. Yet it is precisely piety and fortitude that are lacking today among priests and clerics: they do not know how to adore, how to pray, how to stand firm and fight the bonum certamen, nor how to lay down their lives for their Lord. The “ministers of Redemption”—as the Prayer after Communion calls priests—no longer know immensæ tuæ caritati pura mente servire, how to serve God’s immense love with a pure heart, because their souls are all too often blinded by attachment to the world, the flesh, and the devil. After all, why face the difficulties and sacrifices of the clerical state when everyone is saved regardless of the religion they practice—or indeed, by virtue of belonging to a false religion? Why deny oneself in order to follow Christ if acts of prostitution and idolatry—to use a scriptural expression—are merely different facets of the same ecumenical and irenist polyhedron conceived by the warped minds of the Conciliar-Synodal Church?
Even good priests, in such difficult times, feel abandoned, frustrated, and tempted to cast off their clerical garb when their own Bishop and brother priests are the first to ridicule their fidelity, treat them as pariahs, and marginalize or ostracize them simply for daring to act like priests. Some of them have managed to remain faithful despite immense difficulties; it is for them that the Exsurge Domine Foundation exists. Members of Familia Christi, along with other priests and religious who have experienced the “mercy” of the Jesuit and the Augustinian, have found a refuge, a safe harbor, and a Shepherd to guide, encourage, admonish, and hearten them; they have found brother priests who share not only their fidelity to the Gospel but also the fierce persecution inflicted by Superiors and the resolve to resist unjust orders. These are brother priests who have endured the desolation of abandonment, as well as the cynicism and cowardice of certain fellow clergy, yet have also experienced the generous welcome of the faithful.
For this reason, today we not only implore Heaven for holy vocations but also pray that the Master of the vineyard preserves those who continue to answer Adsum, following the example of the Divine Master, even and especially when the moment draws near to ascend the Cross, to stretch out one’s arms to be nailed to it, and to feel one’s heart pierced by the sharp lance of some zealous courtier. Si quis vult venire post me, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me (Lk 9: 23). Abneget semetipsum: deny himself. For a Priestly Vocation is a call to reign from a throne of infamy, wearing a crown of thorns and the scarlet robe of madmen. It is a call not only to embody the Eternal Priest but also to become one with the Divine Victim, to make oneself a stripped altar for the sacrifice.
And you, dear brothers, have the task within the Body of the Church to pray for your priests, imploring the Consoling Spirit to guard, protect, and inspire with holy zeal those whom He has chosen to be stewards of God’s Grace. Offer, then, your Holy Communion today for this intention, remembering that without priests there would be no Mass, and without Mass there would be no Blessed Sacrament—which tomorrow we shall honor with particular solemnity in the chapel dedicated to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, which I shall bless. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
3 June MMXXVI
Feria Quarta infra Hebd. I post Octavam Pentecostes
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