Feast of Saint Bartholomew
Day of Recollection, SMSU Faculty
Roland Park
August 24 2026
An Appointment Letter
Years ago, almost 50 to be exact, I was settling into my first priestly assignment. One evening, the pastor produced from his files a letter of appointment he had received from Cardinal O’Boyle years before. It was sparse and to the point. It read: “You have been appointed Assistant Pastor of St. John Parish. You are to report for duty on July 2, 1963 at noon. The Pastor has been informed and he will be expecting you.”
Well, I must admit that assignment letter left me cold. It’s not that there was ill-will on the part of church authorities. The times were different and so too was the understanding of obedience. I failed to see human kindness in that letter, at least on its surface. But my pastor, a truly wonderful priest, went on to explain that there was grace in accepting whatever assignment was given, cheerfully and generously. He told me about the unexpected joys of that assignment, and the graces he received in trying to do God’s will without reserve. I guessed, probably incorrectly, that he shared all this with me because I came from a pandered generation formed more by Carl Rodgers than St. John of the Cross. But his point was spot on. With the call comes the grace.
The Call of Nathanael
I leave it to you Scripture scholars to sort out how it is that someone named Nathanael is really Bartholomew. The point I’d like to focus on is into today’s Gospel is this: that, with the call, there is grace. Nathanael encounters Jesus who seems to tease him good-naturedly. With evident affection he calls Nathanial ‘an Israelite without guile.” Which prompts Nathanael replies, “How do you know me?” To which Jesus replies, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
I hope I’m not engaging in eisegesis when I say that Jesus’ call to Nathanael carried with it a wonderful grace. Jesus didn’t just meet Nathanael; he encountered him and engaged him. Is it too much to say that, in calling Nathanael, Jesus touched his soul? And he touched his soul, not by performing a miracle or by uttering an oracle – but in a simple, affectionate conversation.
With the Call Comes the Grace
Let us bring this Gospel episode into the present. The seminarians whom you encounter every day feel they have been called. They may feel strongly that God is calling them to become priests or they may be wrestling with doubts or even looking for the exits. But somewhere in there is the thought that God has called. But how does God call? Is it the call of an army sergeant or a draft board? An order that runs roughshod over human weakness and emotion? Or is it not more like the call of a lover to the beloved, the lover of souls calling a particular soul to a particular vocation? With St. Bernard, we’re better off casting our lot with the Song of Songs!
For what is our role? Is it not to enter into prayerful dialog and discernment with these good men who have been lately plucked from the ways of secular society? Is it not our role to pray with them and for them, to listen deeply, to ask the Holy Spirit to guide them in the ways of truth & love? We are not just helping them decide if they should be priests. We are helping them discern not only the call but also the accompanying graces. Yes, along with the call, comes the grace: the grace that contains an implicit call and the implicit grace in the call. A seminarian may not readily see this in a moment of discouragement. You may find yourselves helping him discern the graces he is overlooking.
A Necessary Quality for Formators
To walk with another on a vocational journey requires of us a radical openness to the will of God in our own lives. How easy it is, once we have been ordained or once the course of our professional life is set, to be swept up in the busyness of our responsibilities, in the accomplishment of our tasks, and in our hopes for opportunities that may come our way. Nothing wrong with being busy, doing our work, or seizing the day . . . unless it impedes us from opening ourselves to God’s plan, saying like we really mean it, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done . . .” Funny, isn’t it, how seminarians know whether or not we’re doing this!
To walk with discerners, we have to be discerners, confident discerners, faithful discerners, who know and believe that God will not lead us astray and that to follow God’s will for our own lives is to experience the fullness of joy and peace, here and hereafter. After all, those whom we met in the Book of Revelation, in that city where the names of the twelve apostles are inscribed, follow the Lamb unreservedly and experience a fullness of life and joy that even the most sublime words cannot describe.
In the end, we want to help the men entrust to us to embrace God’s will and the graces God gives. We need to form great priests, priest who can say the Our Father without blinking: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” To form such priests, we must daily ask for the grace not to blink ourselves!