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| photo: www.primeroscristianos.com |
Homily by Archbishop Stephen Brislin, President of SACBC
on the feast of St John Vianney (04 August 2018)
I’m not much of an art critic, but like everybody else there are certain pieces of art that I like and certain pieces that I don’t. And one piece of art that I really don’t like is the picture of St. John Vianney that hangs in the seminary in Pretoria. I really don’t like that picture because it makes him look quite weak, sort of wimpish, in my opinion. But I suppose it captures him in a way; he was a weak student. He also ran away from his parish at least four times, I think.
He was ordained as a type of an exception and only because of the intervention of some who saw in him this great pastoral zeal and pastoral ability. An excuse was made for him that, even if he was not succeeding very well in his studies, he was worthy of being ordained because of his pastoral ability.
He was a pastoral priest, just as I have been described as being a pastoral bishop. Archbishop Daniel and I once compared notes and he said he too has been described as being a pastoral bishop. We agreed that what people meant by that is that they think we are quite nice people but have no brains!
While that painting in John Vianney seminary perhaps does capture the saint’s weakness, he was also a person of great strength. To be fair, his weakness in studies was largely because he lacked the opportunity of education in his childhood and youth because of the French revolution and the persecution of the church at that time, so he was only able to study late in life.
He was strong because even in the time of persecution he persevered in his faith, and clung to the faith, never allowing the fear and the danger of the persecution to overcome him.
He desired to be contemplative, and really wanted a contemplative life, and because of that he tried to escape from his parish. But, at the same time he was strong in overcoming his own feelings and his own desires, putting the needs of people first.
He was self-sacrificing, particularly in the confessional, and he was known as a caring and compassionate confessor and pastor. He was certainly an instrument of God’s healing grace, which of course every parish priest should be and the parish itself should be a place of healing and compassion. That’s why John Vianney is the patron of parish priests. He captures, in a sense, both the weakness and the strengths of priesthood.
We priests are only too aware of our weaknesses, our incompetence in many ways, and our dependence on God. We work with many diverse people, some very educated people, some very knowledgeable people, and all we have to bear is the message of Christ that has been entrusted to us. And so we are weak, and yet at the same time we are strong because we allow Christ - hopefully at least - to work through us. And it is the strength of Christ that we bring to people.
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