One of the reasons given to me for not retiring next
summer came from a parishioner who said to me: “You cannot retire. You are a
priest. That is your vocation. You keep doing it until the end, until you
drop.”
Well, in fact, I have a number of vocations, and in
retiring from active duty as a parish priest, I will have more time to dedicate
to other vocations, and especially to the search for God.
Some of my vocations or callings:
—As a being-thing (Parmenides)
—As a living being (Genesis 2)
—As a creature of the Creator (Genesis
1)
—As a human being, or being in a human way
(Socrates-Plato-Aristotle)
—As a male of the species (Nature)
—As a Christian (Christ Jesus and the Apostle
Paul)
—As a Catholic (Christ in the community of the
faithful)
—As a student of political philosophy (Plato,
Aristotle, … Voegelin)
—As one drawn to seek God (Prophets of Israel,
Jesus, St. Augustine, St. Anselm…)
—As a Benedictine monk of St. Anselm’s (St. Benedict
and his Rule)
—As a Catholic priest in and for the Church
(ordained to serve the faithful)
—As an American citizen (from birth in the
U.S.A)
—As a citizen of the State of Montana (since
1966)
—As a member of the human community (from birth on
planet earth)
I intend to retire in the near future from full-time
service as a Catholic priest, and if permitted, will do some part-time priestly
duties; if not permitted, then that vocation is shelved. At the same time I let
go of one demanding vocation, I plan to give myself to my callings in several
others, coming together as one: as a human being drawn to seek God through the
study of philosophy. By no means am I “abandoning my vocation.” On the
contrary, I am submitting myself to my calling anew: “Seek the LORD while He
may be found.”…”Seek and you will find.”…”Whom do you seek?”…”Say to my heart:
It is your face, O LORD, that I seek.”… “Who are you, LORD?”
I need more time to dedicate myself to my more
compelling vocation, the one truest to my heart: seeking God, and especially
through the philosophical life articulated by St. Anselm as fides quaerens
intellectum, “faith seeking understanding.” It is my life’s
work.
Socrates: “Now it is time to go—I to die, you to
live. Whoever of us has the better fate is unknown to anyone, except to God.”
