Preparing to Shepherd: Intimacy and Mission

Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”, “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15-16).

From the eternal mind of God’s plan in saving the fallen man from his divine identity, that is, created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27), thus, created in Love, since God is Love (1 John 4:16), it has always been clear that Love will always be the key to restoring man’s fallen identity through, with, and in the very priesthood of Christ, which according to Saint John Marie Vianney is the “love of the heart of Jesus.” This is why preparing shepherds to shepherd the People of God comes only through intimacy with Christ, “who loved us first, that’s why we love” (1 John 4:19).

The entire seminary formation is about intimacy with Christ so that the Church can fulfill the mission entrusted by Christ to her, that is, to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Mathew 28:19). “You have got to be a ‘man of God’, a man of interior life, a man of prayer and sacrifice. Your apostolate must be the overflow of your life ‘within’ (The Way, no. 961, St. Josemaria Escrivà de Balaguer). Indeed, the Church affirms, “Since the priest-disciple comes from the Christian community, and will be sent back to it, to serve it and to guide it as a pastor, formation is clearly missionary in character. Its goal is participation in the one mission entrusted by Christ to His Church, that is evangelization, in all forms (Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis, no. 3).

In the seminary formation, this overflow of one’s interior life is facilitated through the love of Jesus as an integrated vision in preparation for the priestly life’s four dimensions: human, intellectual, spiritual, and pastoral. Accordingly, “the fundamental idea is that seminaries should form missionary disciples who are in love with the Master, shepherds with the smell of the sheep, who live in their midst to bring the mercy of God to them. Hence every priest should always feel that he is a disciple on a journey, constantly needing an integrated formation, understood as a continuous configuration to Christ” (Ibidem).

The love of Jesus in the human dimension of the priestly life means that the seminarian should identify himself with Christ the Beloved, “to develop his personality, having Christ, the perfect man, as his model and source” (Ibidem, no. 93). With regards to the intellectual dimension, the seminarian, getting to know more profoundly the content and object of his love, Christ, can “proclaim the Gospel message to the people of our own day in a way that is credible and can be understood” (Ibidem, no. 116). The spiritual dimension of loving Jesus in the seminary formation is “directed at nourishing and sustaining communion with God and with our brothers and sisters, in the friendship of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and with an attitude of docility to the Holy Spirit. This intimate relationship forms the heart of the seminarian in that generous and sacrificial love that marks the beginning of pastoral charity” (Ibidem, no.101), which will enable the seminarian “to demonstrate the same compassion, generosity, love for all, especially for the poor, and zeal for the Kingdom that characterized the public ministry of the Son of God (Ibidem, no. 119). (Fr. Robert Adam F. Cajipo)