“Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. 16.7).
“Can you believe it? Joe Bloggs, that used car salesman, famous for selling junkers to unsuspecting little old ladies has offered himself for the priesthood, claiming to have received a call from God? If the bishop asks me for my opinion, I’ll tell him in no uncertain terms what I think of Joe Bloggs!”
Friday was the feast of St.
Matthew, whose reputation and level of respect in the eyes of his fellow Jews
was very likely several levels lower than Joe Bloggs. At least in our modern example, Joe Bloggs
could be avoided by those who knew of him; however, Matthew was a hated - using
that word with its full impact - a hated tax collector, one who could not be
avoided.
Even though it was recorded
for posterity that Jesus actually walked up to Matthew and called him while he
was “sitting at the receipt of custom” as the Gospel tells us, that would have
made his apparent change of occupation and lifestyle no less suspect in the
eyes of his countrymen than would Joe Bloggs in our current example.
Of course, ultimately, the
proof is in the pudding as they say.
Matthew, along with his brother Apostles, with the obvious exception of
Judas Iscariot, began to experience a profound change from that point
forward. Undoubtedly, being in the
Divine Presence would have been a powerful catalyst for effecting positive
changes in the lives of those men. And
yet, our Lord, and his Apostles taught us that by our Baptism we are
spiritually renewed, “born anew from above” as Jesus attempted to tell Nicodemus
in the garden in John Ch. 3, we are made children of God by adoption, we are
filled with the Spirit of our Lord, we receive a special outpouring of
grace. Which is to say, no less than the
Apostles, all of us are fully enabled by God to become similarly transformed.
The special outpouring of
grace on individuals is not limited to Baptism.
We understand there to be additional special outpourings in other
Sacraments: obviously, the Holy Eucharist; but, as it relates to our topic of
that which is meant to effect positive changes for special purposes in an
individual’s life, Confirmation and Ordination.
Ordination is a Sacrament
that is bestowed upon very few individuals; but before we come back to consider
that in the cases of Joe Bloggs and Matthew, let us spend a few minutes on
Confirmation. Clearly based on actual
examples as recorded in Scripture, Confirmation, in this sense on a par with
Baptism, is a Sacrament for all Christians.
It is usually referred to as the “completion of Baptism.” Which is not to say that Baptism is
incomplete in itself, but that in Confirmation, God completes what He has
already begun in an individual by an additional special gift of grace.
The vehicle for grace is God
the Holy Spirit. He is given in Baptism,
He is also given in Confirmation and again in Ordination; it is the same gift
in each case, but with a difference. The
gift in Baptism is a general one, the gifts in Confirmation and Ordination are
particular ones for special purposes applicable to certain states of life
within the Church.
In the case of Confirmation,
as mentioned a Sacrament for all Christians, when the Bishop lays hands on each
candidate, we pray that the individual will be strengthened with the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit as articulated in Chapter 11 of Isaiah: wisdom,
understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, true godliness and holy fear. There are of course many other spiritual
gifts from God; we might think of the extraordinary gifts as articulated by
Now just as the gift of
grace, the presence of God the Holy Spirit can be resisted in Baptism, so too
it can be in Confirmation. While in both
cases the Holy Spirit is given, there is no guarantee that this will
make the person permanently sinless in the case of Baptism, nor automatically
holy in the case of Confirmation. God
will not force His will upon anyone; He is always waiting patiently for us to
respond to His promptings, His special outpourings of grace. Baptism and Confirmation are special instances
of such; and knowing that, there should be special attention paid to
preparation for both, even in the case of infant Baptism where the parents and
Godparents are called upon to make promises on behalf of the child.
When the gift of grace and the special gifts bestowed in Confirmation meet with a heart that is both prepared and eager to receive them, and even more so is intent on the fulfilment of God’s will in his or her life, then those around such individuals gradually see the process of sanctification, the lifelong process of becoming holy, evident in that person’s life. St. Paul speaks of the proof of such cooperation with the grace of God’s Spirit in Galatians, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5.22-23a).
We are all called to such
holiness and in Baptism and Confirmation, and further sustained by the Holy
Communion of the Body and Blood, we are fully enabled to achieve the same if we
succeed in turning our wills to God.
What about Ordination? What about individuals like Matthew and Joe
Bloggs? Well certainly, no less than any
of the rest of us, they too will have received the same outpouring of grace and
the gifts that we have in Baptism and Confirmation. But theirs is a special calling for which an
outpouring of the Holy Ghost is bestowed for a special purpose - the conferring
of spiritual functions, primarily the Sacraments and the grace to perform
them. Chief among those is participation
in the Divine mysteries, the Liturgy, The Mass, The Holy Eucharist, Holy
Communion. Here the priest, if he is
true to his calling acknowledges with the utmost humility the nature of his
being an alter Christus, offering himself at the altar in such a way
that he becomes invisible and the faithful do not see him, but rather Christ
Jesus. The same demeanour is not
misplaced outside of the Sanctuary.
We know that, with the
exception of Judas Iscariot, Matthew and the other Apostles, having been
profoundly changed by the working of grace in them, were ultimately very
effective in thus bringing the world to Christ.
Insofar as we have any records in the Gospels, without exception they
all deflect any praise or credit away from themselves, emphasizing that it is
the Spirit of the Risen and Ascended Lord working through them.
So if Matthew, despised as he was, why not Joe Bloggs? If his presumably questionable character shows no sign of change during the years of his having his apparent vocation tested, then perhaps Mrs. Smith would be quite justified in telling the bishop just what she thinks about Joe Bloggs. However, if over that period it is observed that in Joe there is clearly a flowering of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; and most especially if he deflects attention away from himself and towards Jesus, then we might be considerably more circumspect.
Perhaps God called Joe
because Joe, being familiar with a segment of society with whom we respectable
citizens would choose not to rub shoulders, Joe knows intimately how they
think, and therefore can be much more effective at bringing such people to
Christ than a private school grad who has never got his hands dirty (sic). Matthew wasn’t the only one of the 12 who
would have been viewed as unacceptable in the eyes of good religious Jews; in
fact, none of the 12 met the prevailing standards and prejudices of the day.
And that was certainly
nothing new for God. Our opening
quotation from 1 Samuel is the episode where God sends Samuel to Bethlehem to
anoint His chosen one from the family of Jesse.
Samuel, upon seeing Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, was convinced that surely
this tall, handsome man must be the chosen one.
Nope, Joe Bloggs.
We must resist the same
temptation to judge others, whether, in our eyes they apparently quite
inappropriately are professing a call to the priesthood or something else,
whether they are other members of the Church who make the tea differently than
we would, or whether they are citizens at large with whom we apparently have
very different understanding of morality and faith. And although none of us is so omniscient as
our Lord to know what is in the heart of any given person, we might do very
well to emulate someone like our former Diocesan, Robert, who was always given
to looking at the good things in others.
“Did you know that Joe Bloggs, that car salesman, volunteers at the soup
kitchen two mornings per week, and is a Big Brother on weekends?
“Look not on his countenance
or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looketh on the heart.”
PARRY SOUND ST JOHN’S 2007 +CR