What a Life

Feeding families the Eucharist for 25 years

05/23/2021

1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 Brothers and sisters: No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

I celebrated my first Mass as a priest on Pentecost in 1996, and so this Pentecost of 2021 marks my 25th anniversary, and saying Masses for 25 years. If I had celebrated only one Mass every day for the past 25 years – I have celebrated a lot more than that – I would have said 9,125 Masses by now. There is a little framed saying hanging in the sacristy that connects my first Mass 25 years ago to this Mass today. It reads: “Priest of God, say this Mass as if were your first Mass; as if it were your last Mass; as if it were your only Mass.” That is, don’t just go through the motions of the Mass; rather, realize that every Mass is a miraculous Meal.

People often ask me why I decided to become a priest. I always answer: “Well, besides eating free in Mexican and Italian restaurants, I also wanted to become a priest so I could feed people spiritually, that is, so I could nourish people with the Bread of Life, the Eucharist." One priest jokingly said his superpower was “transubstantiation” – the power to change earthly bread and wine into the heavenly Body and Blood of Christ. The Eucharist is the Entrée the whole world hungers for; and only a priest can provide the Meal of the Mass. That is why I want to be a priest: not only so that you can feed me, but also so I can feed you.

Now the superpower of transubstantiation should not puff a priest up with pride, and our people help us stay humble. A newly ordained priest, a brilliant theology student, was sent as a pastor to a mountain village of very simple people. The neighbors organized a gathering to welcome him, and the new priest addressed them saying: “Brethren, I am here for you. I come with my hermeneutics, and my homiletics, with exegesis and apologetics.” One older parishioner stood up and said: “Don’t worry, Father, I am here with arthritis, diabetes, conjunctivitis and rheumatoid arthritis, but the village doctor is magnificent!” Sometimes priests feed the people hermeneutics and the people feed us humble pie.

Last week the fourth graders in the school sent me and Fr. Daniel emails asking us questions to get to know us. The day before Fr. Daniel has taken his dog, a German shepherd named Lola, over to the school to meet the children. Well, all the emails Fr. Daniel received were about his dog, Lola, except one, where one student asked about me. The question was: “What does Fr. John think about Lola?” We can leave our hermeneutics at home, and just bring Lola to Mass and maybe people will feel more fed emotionally and spiritually.

A priest’s obituary always mentions the parishes he had served, like other people’s obituaries list their family members. I have fed 14 parishes with the Eucharist in 25 years, and I have been fed by them. If I were to die today, here is how my obituary would read. In 1996 I was assigned associate pastor at Christ the King in Little Rock. In 1998 was sent to St. Edward Church in Texarkana and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Ashdown. Two months later I was assigned to St. Joseph Church and St. Thomas Aquinas in Fayetteville.

In 2000 I was named pastor of St. Edward Church in Little Rock. In 2002 I was also made pastor of St. Anne in North Little Rock. In 2005 I was appointed to St. Raphael Church in Springdale. In 2007 I was given the additional pastorate of St. John’s in Huntsville and St. Mary’s in Siloam Springs. In 2009 I returned to St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville for the second time. I called that “my second tour of Fayette-nam.”

In 2013, the bishop assigned me to Immaculate Conception here in Fort Smith and St. Leo in Hartford. And lastly, in 2016 I was assigned pastor of Our Lady of the Ozarks Shrine in Winslow. In 25 years I have not been able to hold down a steady job! But I have also fed 14 different spiritual families, and those families have fed me, like a bride and groom feed each other cake on their wedding day.

Folks, what is your favorite food, spiritually-speaking? I would submit to you there is no meal more nutritious or nourishing, more life-saving or life-giving than Holy Communion. Yet sadly, so many Catholics have stopped coming to Mass, seeking spiritual food somewhere else. Have you ever watched that cooking show called “Chopped”? Well, we priests have prepared the meal of the Mass before the judges of the modern world and the Church has been “chopped” from the stage. At the Last Supper, Jesus held bread and wine in his hands, used his priestly power to change them into his Body and Blood, and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” The Eucharist is the Entrée the world is hungry for, and only priests can prepare it.

Fr. Henri Lacordaire, a Dominican priest, penned these poignant lines about the priesthood: “To live in the midst of the world with no desire for its pleasure…To be a member of every family yet belonging to none…To share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds…To daily go from men to God to offer Him their petitions…To return from God to men to offer them His hope…To have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity…To bless and be blest forever. O God, what a life, and it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!” And after 25 years as a priest, I have to agree: “What a life!” But you are probably thinking: “Yeah, that’s nice. But when do we get to meet Lola?!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!