The 1st Sunday of August is kept as the Pastor’s day in gratitude to the yeomen services rendered by the clergy while honouring the patron of the Pastors Saint John Maria Vianney on his feast day. The celebration in Goa has set the tone as it’s also being celebrated at deanery level.
Well, the Shepherd (Pope) of the Church urges the faithful to work towards communion, by greater participation supporting the priest to fulfil the mission of Christ. He advises on listening to one another, commands the clergy to leave their comforts and move to the peripheries to smell the sheep to the extent of giving up using expensive cars! The pastor John Maria Vianney, is a true model for our diocesan priests to live their Sacerdotal Life imitating his practicality or realism.
I was moved while reading: On February 9, 1818, Antoine Givre, a boy herding sheep in the Dombes region, had an unusual encounter. He met a priest striding towards him, like a peasant on the road from Lyons. He was pushing a rickety cart heaped with objects, among which he could make out a wooden bedstead. The priest called to the boy and asked him if it was much further to the village of Ars. Antoine pointed out to him the modest little town before them which was disappearing into the darkness.
As Vianney rose and set out again with his cart, the boy was at his side. When they arrived in front of the poor church, the priest said to him: “Thank you for showing me the way to Ars… I will show you the way to Heaven”.
The day after his arrival he was almost alone as he made his way toward the altar to celebrate Mass. But a few days later, when some came to see what another priest could possibly have come to do at Ars and how he lived, the faithful found him on his knees in prayer before the Tabernacle, as though he truly saw someone; they found him in the same position, morning, afternoon, evening and even at night.
This act of prayer at the Blessed Sacrament is an invitation and introspection to our brother priest to examine their time spent before the Lord in personal prayer besides praying the Lords or breviary; to examine the faithfulness of meditation or contemplation and observe if you directly come to celebrate mass!
Because the example of Marie Vianney became a witness for the people, as when some started coming to his Sunday Mass, they realised they understood what he was saying: he was talking about God, who rewarded the good with Paradise and punished the wicked with hell; of his forgiveness for those who change their way of life, of the joy that comes from him alone.
We do admire the hard work of our priest brothers and on this pastor’s day say a big thank you. May Jesus, the Good Shepherd bless you to shepherd the sheep under your care and your Patron John Maria Vianney, continue to intercede for you who have lived his life according to the heart of Christ and united his heart to Christ’s, to lead, his sheep on the way to heaven not giving lengthy sermons but by way of life.
