June 18, 2023

On Saturday, June 3rd, a seminarian from our parish was ordained to the priesthood at St. James Cathedral in Seattle by Archbishop Etienne. The next day, Father John Paul Tomassi celebrated his first Mass here as a priest. We rented a couple of 55 passenger buses to travel up to Seattle and back on that Saturday, and hosted a reception the next day for Fr. Tomassi after his first Mass here. I heard the word “joy” a lot that weekend, yet the word that kept rolling around in my mind was “beautiful.”

The whole weekend was just beautiful. From the charity and anticipation of the people riding up on those buses to Seattle; to the profundity and glory of the ordination liturgy at the Cathedral; to the giddiness and fatigue of the people riding back on those buses; to the joy and hope of Fr. Tomassi’s first Mass; to the victory celebration at the reception afterward – it was all just beautiful.

Historians have claimed that in the Middle Ages, up to 2% of the population were in monasteries, and 1 out of 40 men was a cleric [deacon, priest, bishop]. Just think of the sheer numbers of clergy of all ranks and ministries, and consecrated offerers of the opus Dei [work of God] this would amount to! It explains the well-known historical facts about the golden age of monasticism, when Europe was covered from one end to the other with thousands of monasteries. Today, Catholic men and women are simply not taking seriously the primacy and ultimacy of the Kingdom of God. If a sizeable minority does not live out this primacy and ultimacy, the rest of us will not actually believe it. In this sense, through the witness of their lives, the clergy and religious are carrying the rest of the Church on their shoulders. Infidelity, sloth, and lack of generosity in responding to the Lord’s call become a catch-22: by not seeing the witness, fewer people respond, and when fewer people respond, little or no witness is given.

It is so rare today to have someone set out along the long, arduous journey to the priesthood or religious life – and to persevere to ordination or solemn vows. So to get a chance to see the end of the journey is an amazingly poignant moment, once in a lifetime for many. When I think of stories that have brought me to tears, Les Miserables for example, my tears aren’t those of defeat but of victory. The protagonist might die but in laying down their life, life for many others is gained and hope for humanity is restored. Of course that’s the story of Jesus Christ too; by the laying down of his life, God is glorified and humanity is redeemed. It isn’t defeat that we tear up about when we ponder someone’s great sacrifice, it’s the heroism of that sacrifice and the hope it brings. When we see Fr. Tomassi persevere to ordination and the hope it provides for the Church (after ten challenging years of seminary formation), we are profoundly moved to ponder God, the things above, and eternal life. We are moved to ponder our own walk with the Lord too and to step it up.

I’ve attached some pictures from that beautiful weekend. You can see the joy, hope, and beauty that I speak of in them.

May Almighty God Bless You,