It is hard to think of more fitting readings for me to have as I celebrate my first
weekend at my first assignment as a priest. Jesus says in the Gospel: “The harvest is
abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers
for his harvest.” Growing up this Gospel was always followed by a call to pray
steadfastly and fervently for more men to be willing to respond to the call to the
priesthood. Little did I know that when I prayed for more laborers for the harvest, that I
was praying for myself. Little did you know that when you prayed for laborers that I and
my six brother priests who were ordained with me would be the ones who God sends. If
you ever wonder whether or not God hears your prayers for more priests, well the
evidence that he is listening stands before you. As I look back over my life, I can see the
slow work of God at work in me, calling and preparing me to say yes to his invitation to
follow him as his priest. As I start my ministry here at St. Johns and St. Josephs, I would
like to share with you, how the Lord called me and some of how I see my role as a
laborer, working to bring in an abundant harvest for the Lord.
For some basic background information, I am the youngest of 10 siblings and am a
cradle Catholic. I grew up on family’s dairy farm and did all of the standard Catholic
things. We would always go to the 8:30 mass on Sunday, we prayed before meals, and we
would occasionally pray together as a family during the week. I was always taught to say
some prayers before I went to bed each night and that would form the backbone of my
prayer life. Now my family was also unique because my twin older brothers, who were
11 years older than me, both went to seminary and would be ordained priests when I
entered high school. This combined with the fact that one of my uncles is a priest and
would always come to farm on his day off, meant that I was constantly around priests and
people interested in being priests. There was no doubt in my mind that God had a plan for
my life and that I should ask him about what he wanted me to do.
Sounds like a lot of keys for success are present and you would be right, however,
the problem is that I have always been a bit of stubborn person and this combined with
the fact that I never wanted to be a priest when I was young meant God had some work to
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do. The first time I heard God calling me to be a priest was in sixth grade. I attended the
local catholic school and that day instead of riding the bus home, I was waiting in the
Church for my Mom to pick me up. As I waited, I was praying and I asked God what I
was supposed to do with my life, which had become a habit at this point and to my
surprise I received an answer. The idea popped into my head; you could be a priest. In the
moment I was kind of on board and was like, yeah, I guess I could be a priest. I had seen
my uncle time and again faithfully praying his prayers on the farm and I had seen that my
brothers and their seminarian friends were happy, and it didn’t seem like such a far-
fetched idea. But then my brain caught up with my heart. All the reasons why that would
be a bad idea started coming to mind. I was not holy enough, I did not like praying or
going to mass that much, I want to get married one day, and the list went on. The end
result of that time was I convinced myself that I just made up God speaking and I have no
interest in being a priest. From then a pattern established itself. I would ask God what am
I supposed to do with my life and priesthood was somehow come up and I would
immediately dismiss it and this attitude would last all the way until my junior year of
high school.
During my junior year, I was confronted with every high schooler’s favorite
question: What are you going to do when you graduate? Fortunately, I had an idea, I
enjoyed drafting and architecture and was taking a college architecture class at the time.
So that became my answer, and I started planning my future around it. It was all running
smoothly until one night in November I was milking cows as was standard for me on the
farm. The problem is that at this time I was milking cows by myself for about 3 hours
almost every night and milking is really boring, so all I would do is think about my future
and what my life would look like as an architect and how it would all unfold. Normally
that was fine but that night I had a realization that changed everything. I realized that if I
became an architect, I would enjoy it, it would be fun, but that there would be something
missing from my life. I could not have told you what that thing was, but it was obvious to
me that architecture was not going to cut it any longer. This shook me enough that I was
finally willing to honestly turn to God and start asking him what would actually make me
happy. When I did that, he gradually began to show me the deeper desires of my heart. I
realized that I had a deep passion for my faith and particularly for sharing my faith with
others. I realized that I loved the sacraments and especially confession and wanted other
people to experience the grace and mercy that I had encountered there and in my
relationship with Jesus.
I was finally open to the idea that God might actually be calling me to be a priest.
For much of my life I had told God that I would do whatever he called me to do, but
suddenly I was praying that prayer about going to seminary and for the first time I really
meant it. I believe that this is what you want, and I will go. As soon as I finished that
prayer, I experienced a peace and joy that have stayed with me to this day. I am so
grateful that God has called me to share in his priesthood and to serve you. My desire for
you is that you would know the Lord and his love for you. That you would see the grace
of God at work in you and in the world as strongly as the 72 did in the Gospel. The
harvest is indeed abundant, and the Lord is looking for laborers to go out and bring in
those who need him. Pray for more men and women to open the deepest desires of their
hearts, the desires that the Lord has placed within them.
Remember that he has also called you to be laborers in the vineyard. Pray for
conversions in your families and workplaces. Take the time to have those simple
conversations where you speak about how God helped you through a difficult time or
something that impacted you from Mass or scripture. Just as the Lord sent the 72 ahead to
prepare every town he intends to visit, he is sending you to the people that he wants to
visit. Be generous in preparing the ground so that a rich harvest might be brough in. Love
those around you enough to share Jesus with them.