pastores dabo vobis

INTRODUCTION

Pastores Dabo Vobis of Pope John Paul II is an encyclical for apostolic exhortation. In the words of Prophet Jeremiah (Jer 3:15), God promises his people that he would never leave them scattered, he will give them a shepherd to guide them. In accordance to the promise of God, the church is in constant experience of the reality of this prophetic message. Jesus Christ himself is the definitive fulfillment of God’s promise of a shepherd to his people, however, it is entrusted to the Apostles and their successor, by Jesus, to shepherd God’s flock.

The priests are very important for the church to live out in obedience to the Lord’s command: “go therefore and make disciples of all nations”, and “do this in the remembrance of me”. The church therefore should never cease praying that the Lord should send more laborers (priests) in to the harvest (the church). However, Pope John Paul II emphasizes in this encyclical the importance of priests to the church, and the need for the church to nurture vocational call of every generation, and help in discerning the authenticity of vocational call.

THE CHALLENGES FACING PRIESTLY FORMATION AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE SECOND MILLENNIUM

This chapter shows the challenges facing the formation of priests. It equally shows and reemphasizes the humanity of the priests; they are privileged and chosen from humanity to act on behalf of men in relation to God. The priests are from the human community, in an ecclesial context and are called to be of service to it. the privilege of been called from among men to be a priest does not change in essence; the priests of tomorrow, no less than the priest of today, must resemble Christ, because in his earthly life, Christ manifested in himself the definitive role of the priest, by establishing a ministerial priesthood. The ministerial priesthood inherited from Christ is meant to have an endless succession in history. John emphasizes that our witness to the Gospel is a sign of the deepness of our search for God.

However, to be a priest, one needs to be formed. And in this chapter, number eight, the Pope emphasizes the need for openness in the part of the candidates for priesthood, so that their formators can help them discern their vocation well. This is because the contradictions and potentialities of our societies and cultures is lived and experienced by these young ones, and it has repercussions on their personal growth. In the life of the young men today, there are distorted senses of freedom in their tendencies; in their cases they live freedom as a blind acquiescence to instinctive forces and to an individual’s will to power. 

This chapter states the toughness of the young people of our days and the need to help them, thus it states: “the world of young people is a “problem” in the church community itself. In fact, if in them – more so than in adults – there is present a strong tendency to subjectivize the Christian faith and belong only partially and conditionally to the life and mission of the church, and if the church community is slow for a variety of reasons to initiate and sustain an up-to-date and courageous pastoral care for young people, they risk being left to themselves, at the mercy of their psychological frailty, dissatisfied and critical of a world of adults who, in failing to live the faith in a consistent and mature fashion, do not appear to them as credible models”. However, there is still hope in the love of Christ, and our certainty of the lack of substitution for the ministerial priesthood in the life of the church.

THE NATURE AND MISSION OF THE MINISTERIAL PRIESTHOOD

Jesus is filled with the spirit, and thus presents himself so. He is a Messiah, a Priest and a King. These are Christ’s feature upon which Christian eyes should be fixed. In this chapter, the third paragraph, stresses the need for awareness with regards to the nature and mission of the ministerial priesthood. It is equally going to serve as a guide on the pastoral activities of the church. For beneficial reasons, the synod fathers considered it necessary and summarized the nature and mission of the ministerial priesthood in correspondence to the church’s faith down the centuries of its history. The identity of the priest according to the synod fathers has its source in the Blessed Trinity, just like every other Christian identity.

Christ revealed in himself the perfect and definitive feature of priesthood; Christ is a High priest. By the virtue of the sacrament of the Holy Orders, the ministerial priests are representations of Christ the High Priest, and are chosen and set apart in a special way to shepherd the flock of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in service to the church and for the salvation of the world. The priest shares Christ’s consecration and mission in a specific and authoritative way, he is to preach the good news to the poor in the name and person of Christ himself.

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF THE PRIEST

The spirit is not simply upon Christ, it fills him, and the Spirit is in fullness upon Christ both in what he is and what he does. Jesus belong totally and exclusively to God and shares his Holiness who calls him, chooses him, and sends him forth through the Spirit. The Spirit is very important here because it reveals and communicates the fundamental calling which the Father addresses to everyone from eternity. Thus, all Christians are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity; there is equally a common vocation to holiness.

            Specifically, priests are bound to strive for perfection in a special way; by the virtue of their ordination, they are consecrated to God. The life of a priest is marked and characterized properly, by the virtue of his ordination in the sacrament of the Holy orders, to Jesus who is the head and shepherd of the church. However, in this chapter, St. Pope John Paul urges the priest to live the mystery that has been placed in their hands. This is an admonition which the church addresses to priests in the rite of ordination; the priest must continually renew and deepen his awareness of being a minister of Jesus Christ by the virtue of his sacramental consecration and configuration; he is called to express in his life the authority and service of Jesus Christ by encouraging and leading the ecclesial community. Finally this chapter reminds that through ordination; we receive the same Spirit of Christ, who makes us like him so that we can act in his name, and that his heart and mind might live in us.

PRIESTLY VOCATION IN THE CHURCH’S PASTORAL WORK

This chapter relates the scene of John 1:39 and the response of Jesus to the formation of the catholic priesthood; its relevance to priestly vocation. The above gospel passage describes the mystery of vocation. The church is called to contemplate this scene which is renewed constantly down the ages, regarding the church’s history.

In this chapter, St. Pope John Paul presents a genuinely theological assessment of priestly vocation and pastoral work; the call of the priest exists through the church and for the church, and finds its fulfillment in her. Every priest receives his vocation from our Lord through the church as a gift. He equally clarifies the responsibility of the church and the ecumenical community with regards to safeguarding and helping vocations to grow in the church. Vocation is God’s gift to humanity and therefore must be cherished and cared for responsibly.

A very special responsibility equally falls upon the Christian families, which by virtue of the sacrament of matrimony shares in its own unique way in the educational mission of the church, teacher and mother. This chapter equally emphasized the importance of the lay faithful in promoting the pastoral work of priestly vocation. The church is nothing without the priests. Vocation in the church is mostly about seeking, following and abiding. Indeed, a priest is called to live out, as radically as possible, the pastoral charity of Jesus, the love of the good shepherd who ‘lays down his life for the sheep.’ (Jn. 10:11)

THE FORMATION OF CANDIDATES FROM THE PRIESTHOOD

The church draws her inspiration from Christ’s example down the age in her responsibility of taking care of vocations. The church is practically involved in the pastoral care of vocations. In the areas of priestly formation, there is special importance for the capacity to relate to others, it is fundamental for a called to be a man of communion. In summation, this chapter looked at the area of priestly formation, the human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. It equally considered person’s responsibility for catholic priesthood.

Human formation when carried out in the context of anthropology leads to spiritual formation, and an essential element of spiritual formation is the prayerful and meditated reading of the word of God (lectio divina), this is equally well expressed in the council’s decree Optatam Totius; spiritual formation also involves seeking Christ in people, and there is need to rediscover the joy and beauty of the sacrament of penance. The intellectual formation has its own characteristics but it is deeply connected with the human and spiritual formation. The pastoral formation is the summation of the whole formation imparted to a candidate for the priesthood; all the other formations have fundamental pastoral character. These formation processes aims at making candidates for priesthood true shepherds of souls after the example of Jesus Christ, teacher, priest and Shepherd. The Parish is important for a candidate to obtain his pastoral experiences; there is equally a need for a candidate to be aware that the church is a mystery and a communion, it is going to help his sense of responsibility, and make him carry out his pastoral work with a community spirit.

However the agents of these formations includes the church and the bishop, the seminary as an educational community, the professors of theology, communities of origin and associations and youth movements, and the candidate himself.

THE ONGOING FORMATION OF PRIESTS

In this chapter, St Pope John Paul tries to remind us that formation is ongoing; it doesn’t end. There are human reasons that call for the ongoing formation of priests. This formation is needed for the pastoral growth of the priest. Maturity can only be attained through constant formation. The priest needs to be constantly updating. Pastoral charity is the heart and form of this ongoing formation of priests. The object of ongoing formation is understood as a conscious and free decision to live out the dynamism of pastoral charity and of the Holy Spirit who is its first source and constant nourishment.

The ongoing formation is natural and absolute, it is a necessary continuation of the process of building the priestly personality. It helps the priest to overcome the temptation of reducing his ministry to activism which becomes an end in itself, to the provision of impersonal services. In the ecclesiological context the ongoing formation of priests is considered in relation to the priest’s presence and activity in the church as mysterium, communion et mission.

CONCLUSION

            God’s promise of a shepherd to his church is still living and at work in the church, and the church is ready to respond to this grace. God’s gift requires a united and generous reply: God’s people should work and pray tirelessly for priestly vocations. The church however, responds to grace through the commitment which priests make to receive the ongoing formation which is required by the dignity and responsibility conferred on them by the sacrament of the Holy Orders.

            The priestly formation can be referred to Mary, who has responded better than any other to God’s call. Therefore, priests are called to have strong and tender devotion to Virgin Mary and show it by imitating her virtues and praying to her often.