![\"waiting.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/waiting.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSo then,\u00a0what is decisive for our faith and our vocation? What do we need? Fr. Giussani\u00a0repeatedly indicated that “the forgetfulness of the ‘I’,” the absence of authentic\u00a0interest for one’s own person is the “supreme obstacle to our human journey”\u00a0(Alla ricerca del volto umano, <\/i>Rizzoli, Milano 1995, p. 9). Instead, true love\u00a0for oneself, true affection for oneself is what leads us to rediscover our\u00a0constituent exigencies, our original needs in their nakedness and vastness, so\u00a0as to see ourselves as relationship with the Mystery, entreaty for the
\ninfinite, structural expectant awaiting. Only people so “wounded” by reality,\u00a0so seriously engaged with their own humanity can open themselves totally to the\u00a0encounter with the Lord. Fr. Giussani affirms, “In fact, Christ offers Himself\u00a0as the answer to what “I” am and only an attentive and also tender and\u00a0passionate awareness of myself can throw me wide open and dispose me to acknowledge,\u00a0admire, thank, and live Christ. Without this awareness, even that of Jesus\u00a0Christ becomes a mere name” (At the Origin of the Christian Claim<\/i>,\u00a0McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal 1998, p. 4).<\/p>\n
“There is no response\u00a0more absurd than that to a question one hasn’t asked” wrote Reinhold Niebuhr.\u00a0This also applies to us when we uncritically submit to the influence of the\u00a0culture in which we are immersed, which seems to favor the reduction of\u00a0humanity to our biological, psychological and sociological antecedents. But if\u00a0humanity is truly reduced to this, what is our task as priests? What use are\u00a0we? What is the sense of our vocation? How can we resist a flight from reality,\u00a0taking refuge in spiritualism or formalism, seeking alternatives that make life\u00a0bearable? Or wouldn’t it be better, obeying the cultural climate, to become\u00a0social assistants, psychologists, cultural operators or politicians? As\u00a0Benedict XVI reminded us in Lisbon, “Often we are anxiously preoccupied with\u00a0the social, cultural and political consequences of the faith, taking for\u00a0granted that faith is present, which unfortunately is less and less realistic.\u00a0Perhaps we have placed an excessive trust in ecclesial structures and programs,\u00a0in the distribution of powers and functions; but what will happen if salt loses\u00a0its flavor?” (Homily at Holy Mass at Terriero do Paco of Lisbon, May 11,\u00a02010).<\/p>\n
Therefore, everything depends on the perception, first of all for us, of\u00a0what humanity is and what truly corresponds to our infinite desire. The decision\u00a0with which we live our vocation therefore derives from the decision with which\u00a0we live our being men. Only within an authentically human vibration can we know\u00a0Christ and let ourselves be fascinated by Him, to the point of giving Him our\u00a0lives to make Him known to others. “Why does the faith still absolutely have a chance of success?” then Cardinal Ratzinger asked himself, and answered, “I\u00a0would say because it finds correspondence in the nature of man. […]\u00a0 In\u00a0man there is an inextinguishable nostalgic aspiration toward the infinite. None\u00a0of the answers sought is sufficient; only the God who has made Himself finite,\u00a0to lacerate our finiteness and lead it in the breadth of His infinity, is able\u00a0to meet the questions of our being. Therefore today as well, Christian faith\u00a0will return to find humanity” (Fede, Verit\u00e0, Tolleranza<\/i>\u00a0[Faith, Truth,\u00a0Tolerance<\/i>] Cantagalli, Siena 2003, pp. 142-143).<\/p>\n This certainty that Benedict\u00a0XVI testifies to continually even in the face of all the evil we bring upon\u00a0ourselves or cause others – just think of the pedophilia issue – invites us on\u00a0a journey to rediscover and deepen our understanding of the reasonableness of\u00a0the faith: “Our faith is well-founded, but this faith needs to come alive in\u00a0each of us […]: only Christ can fully satisfy the profound longing of every\u00a0human heart and give answers to its most pressing questions about suffering,\u00a0injustice and evil, concerning death and life hereafter” (Homily at Holy Mass\u00a0at Terriero do Paco di Lisbon, May 11, 2010). Only if we experience the truth\u00a0of Christ in our life will we have the courage to communicate it and the\u00a0audacity to challenge the hearts of the people we meet. In this way, the\u00a0priesthood will continue to be an adventure for each of us and thus the\u00a0opportunity to testify to our fellow women and men the answer that only Christ\u00a0is for the “mystery of our being” (G. Leopardi). Thank you.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Father Juli\u00e1n Carr\u00f3n is a priest of the Archdiocese of Madrid and he is the President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation centered in Milan, Italy. He was appointed by Benedict XVI to be among the experts at the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God and he is a consultant on the Pontifical Council of the Laity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Father Juli\u00e1n Carr\u00f3n, published the following commentary on priesthood in the \u00a0L’Osservatore Romano (June 9, 2010), at conclusion of the Year of Priest. I\u00a0will never forget the impact of a question at a spiritual retreat with some\u00a0priests in Latin America. I had just finished saying that often our faith lacks\u00a0the human, when a priest approached … Continue reading Priesthood: “First of all, authentically human,” Fr Carron suggests<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,74],"tags":[31956,31912,2432,1818,32104],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25632"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29619,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25632\/revisions\/29619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
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