FROM POPULARITY TO MINISTRY

The second temptation of Jesus was to be spectacular. Instead, we are called to shared ministry. Nouwen writes, I was educated in a seminary that made me believe ministry was essentially an individual affair. I had to be well trained and well formed, and after six years of training and formation, I was considered well equipped to preach, administer the sacraments, counsel, and run a parish. I was made to feel like a man sent on a long, long hike with a huge backpack containing all the things necessary to help the people I would meet on the road. . . . When I became a teacher I was even more encouraged to do my own thing. I could choose my own subject, my own method, and sometimes even my own students. . . . But Jesus refused to be a stunt man. He did not come to prove himself. He did not come to walk on hot coals, swallow fire, or put his hand in the lion’s mouth to demonstrate that he had something worthwhile to say. "Don’t put the Lord your God to the test," he said. When you look at today’s church, it is easy to see the prevalence of individualism among ministers and priests.

In contrast, Jesus’ second word to Peter was, "Feed my sheep." Three times he asked if Peter loved Him, and three times He mysteriously tied Peter’s answer to feeding His sheep. Nouwen writes, First of all, Jesus sends the twelve out in pairs (Mark 6:7). We keep forgetting that we are being sent out two-by-two. We cannot bring good news on our own. We are called to proclaim the Gospel together, in community. . . . I have found over and over again how hard it is to be truly faithful to Jesus when I am alone. . . . But far more importantly, it is Jesus who heals, not I; Jesus who speaks words of truth, not I; Jesus who is Lord, not I. This is very clearly made visible when we proclaim the redeeming power of God together. . . . Somehow we have come to believe that good leadership requires a safe distance from those we are called to lead. Medicine, psychiatry, and social work all offer us s in which "service" takes place in a one-way direction. Someone serves, someone else is being served, and be sure not to mix up the roles! But how can we lay down our life for those with whom we are not even allowed to enter into a deep personal relationship? . . . Therefore, true ministry must be mutual. When the members of a community of faith cannot truly know and love their shepherd, shepherding quickly becomes a subtle way of exercising power over others and begins to show authoritarian and dictatorial traits. The world in which we live—a world of efficiency and control—has no s to offer to those who want to be shepherds in the way Jesus was a shepherd.

The discipline that will help us overcome the temptation of individual heroism, and will help us to feed Jesus’ sheep in mutual ministry, is confession and forgiveness. Nouwen writes, Just as the future leaders must be mystics deeply steeped in contemplative prayer, so also must they be persons always willing to confess their own brokenness and ask for forgiveness from those to whom the minister. . . . Often I have the impression that priests and ministers are the least confessing people in the Christian community. . . . How can people truly care for their shepherds and keep them faithful to their sacred task when they do not know them and so cannot deeply love them?