August 1, 2010 THE UNFINISHED IMAGE
From the archives…
Many years ago a young mother came to me with a poem. “Do you think it’s any good?” she asked. “Good?” I answered, “This is excellent! You have a gift. You must continue to write poetry.” She did. I encouraged her to publish. She has, many times, in fine journals.
Many years ago a young man came to show me his drawings. He is a sculptor. “Is it any good?” he asked. “Yes”, I replied. “It has a spirituality to it. This is not just figurative work; it says something about the soul. Keep working.” He did. Today his pieces of sculpture adorn a city.
These two experiences bring me a certain satisfaction. Oh, I know both poet and sculptor were good enough to be published anyway in time. Yet, there is a certain sense of spiritual fatherhood that lingers in this celibate priest; a certain sense of cultural authorship.
It’s not why I became a priest, however. As deeply as works of poetry and art move the human heart, faith, virtue and character move it more deeply still. It’s when I encourage these movements of the heart that I feel most like a priest. So, I preach. So, I admonish in the confessional. So, I use the classroom to display, as I understand them, the ways of the Lord.
So…Nick kept his obligation sacred, so he came to serve the 8:00 a.m. Mass each day of the week, even though it was summer vacation. Molly not only attended the evening program introducing a new youth ministry; she brought along her friends and took applications to pass out. A young family had been away from the Church. “I know your Sundays are hectic,” I said to the parents, “but that’s all the more reason you need the Eucharist to put you in touch with God at the center of your life. Attending Mass as a family will not disrupt your peace, it will restore it.” Now they occupy a pew in the front every Sunday.
Readers, permit an aging priest to take some satisfaction in the spiritual fatherhood to which ordination calls him.