Ministry As Spiritual Friendship
(Homily for Father Robert Huse’s 50th Jubilee Mass)

Jubilee Celebration: Flanking Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles at Chrism Mass in the Cathedral of the Angeles are (left) Fr. James Brown, OAR (60 years ordained) and (right) Fr. Robert Huse, OAR (50 years ordained) along with other jubilarians.

It is my joy and privilege to have been asked to speak theses words of joyful gratitude for theses our golden years of the priesthood. Standing as we do in the after-glow of Easter, our first thoughts are of gratitude to Christ for having called us to be his special friends. In the recent letter of Pope Benedict, the Holy Father takes great care to explain the difference between a love called EROS and that called AGAPE. But there is a third kind of love called PHILIA. The word is used only once in the New Testament when Jesus asked Peter if he loved him three times with the special love of friendship before he asked him to share with him the care of his flock. Priestly ministry is primarily to share in an intimate bond of friendship with Christ through which he communicates his living love to others.

All three of us [Frs. Robert Huse, Francis de la Vega, and James Brown], each in his own unique way, came to respond to the invitation of Christ in our youth. In God’s mysterious way amid our youthful experiences we sensed an attraction to Christ in his priesthood. This came by way of meeting and observing priests whom we had known. Something about them made us admire them and want to be like them. Divine vocation is never more than an invitation, never a command. Hence there must always be discernment within the youth. And we took the drastic step of opting to come to the monastery to test our vocation. Eventually we made the decision to enter on the way, walking in companionship with Christ.

But the spiritual process involved was one of friendship. All friendship, by its very nature, is designed to reveal one to another. Each of us, in our humanness, reveal who we truly are only in the context of friendship. We reveal our secret self – carefully guarded in our spirit center – only to the degree that we sense someone loves us deeply and sincerely. This is how Jesus revealed the fullness of his divine personhood to those who gave their hearts to him. Love is the only key that will ever open a living mystery, human or divine. I like to think our growth in intimacy with Jesus our friend as our Christhood.

Finally the day arrived for our ordinations and – in the joyful glow of that moment – we felt the touch of the bishop’s hands on our heads, imparting to us a share in the sacred powers that Jesus had once shared with his friends. The sacred instruments of the Mass were placed in our hands, and we were commissioned to effect Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. We were told and felt that we were an alter Christus, another Christ. We had a keen sense that we lived, as St Paul said, “in Christ”.

In those days our priesthood opened out into a church community and world that was vastly different from what we know today. Mass was said in Latin with our backs to the people and we had High Masses, Low Masses, and Solemn High Masses – and Truman was President. Things were perceived as so good in the church that – as they say in Kansas – we thought that things had gone about as far as they could go. The church was enjoying serenity and growth. And then one day Pope John XXIII said what the Church needed was an aggiornamento, a good shaking up to get the dust out, and he called a council. I remember the day when the New York Times had the headline: “Council Takes Up What Is The Church?” My first response was: we have been around for 2000 years and we are now asking what is the Church? Even the bishops had to go back to class to reexamine the rich mystery that is the Church [Story of Irish Bishops]. A whole fresh new faith vision of the church emerged for which Paul VI gave us a blue print (Ecclesiam Suam) and we had some wonderful exciting times building the new Church on the original foundations. We found ourselves saying Mass facing the people and praying in our own tongue. Arguments were had, of course, about communion in the hand and communion under both species. And the priest’s new penance was the ceaseless round of meetings he was expected to attend.

In the midst of this whirlwind the priest continued his task of faithful Christhood, of witnessing the gentle Christ to the world. Like Mother Teresa who said the only Christ she knew was the leper she held in her arms, he ministered to the Body of Christ. When he baptized Christ baptized; when he pronounced the words of pardon, Christ pardoned; when he prayed over those who are ill, it was Christ who prayed through him; and when he spoke the words of Jesus in the Eucharist, Jesus became present. Though all had changed in the Church, the fundamental task of the priesthood continued the same. The priest who remained a deep friend of Christ continued the work of Christ in a new enriched way. [Story: Ann Casey, UN Conference, Twin Lakes, Role of Priests is to keep hope alive in the world.]

Tonight we gather here to celebrate and express our gratitude for fifty or more years of enjoying this wonderful gift of the priesthood of Christ. The years have been a privilege and a joy. As we cast a glance back through the years, our memory is filled with many precious moments and countless personalities that have enriched our lives. Each of us is aware of the debt of gratitude we owe to those who, in God’s providence, sustained us and encouraged us along the way.

The first ones we wish to thank are our parents. Eighty per cent of the formation of a priest is done by his parents who form his heart and personality through their diligent love.
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Story: When Pius X was made a cardinal, Pope Leo XIII gave him a ring beautifully encrusted with jewels. His mother was ill and was not able to attend the ceremony. So he went to their farm home to show his mother his ring. He laid his hand with the ring on her pillow. She laid her hand with her simple gold band next to his and said: “You would never have that unless I had this.”
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All three of us come from Nebraska, where even today there is a generous supply of vocations. Fifteen of the first American vocations to the Augustinian Recollects came from Omaha and eight of them from Creighton Prep.

I knew both the families of Father Huse and Father De la Vega. I remember visiting Fr. Huse’s father in the hospital before his untimely death. And I knew Father Frank’s parents through working at Holy Ghost parish. His mother was very proud of her four sons. Father Huse’s mother – when I was pastor at Holy Ghost – became a close friend. I so enjoyed her company. Anywhere that there was something good to be done, she was there.

Seeing our three mothers, I can see why Mary had such great influence over her son, and how Jesus thought of his mother even in his last hour.

In our priestly careers, each of us had a unique experience – Father Frank in teaching, I in canon law and youth ministry, and Father Bob in teaching science and in music.

I should like to speak for a few moments about Father Bob, who is the younger man of this “Holy Trinity” and the principal one upon whom this celebration centers.

I think that the theme of the gospel tonight (Jesus serving breakfast to his friends) captures Fr. Bob’s wonderful dedication of service to the community. Without recognition, he has through the years faithfully given generously of himself in whatever role the community needed.

His love for music and the liturgy is phenomenal. He almost goes into ecstasy when he finds a piece of music that radiates the Christian message.

A good example is the Bach Cantata built on the Easter sequence that was sung in today’s Mass. He will tell you that Bach wrote 250 cantatas and this is his fourth and best, a perfect expression of Easter joy. He also retranslated the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria that will be sung later. And he says his translation is much closer to the original.

I had a unique experience with Fr. Bob when we were living together at Norfolk, Conn. Tanglewood, where the Boston Pops spends its summer, puts on a concert every Sunday afternoon. We, with many others, packed a lunch and sat on the green surrounding the orchestra. One moment, as we listened to a great crescendo in the music, Bob turned to me and said: “They left out six bars in the second movement.” I said: “To think that I have lived so long and did not notice that.” The next morning the critic in the New York Times said: “They left out six bars in the second movement.”

Sometime later Arthur Rubenstein was giving a concert in Hartford which I attended with Fr. Bob. Mr. Rubenstein pulled the two of us out of the reception line and invited us to his dressing room for a chat. It was a delight to see him and Fr. Bob share their love for Music. They had been friends for several years.

I asked Fr. Bob what was his favorite task in priestly ministry. He said: care for the sick. His life bore witness to that in that regularly, on his weekly day off, he would visit Fr. Albert Polt [died, 2001] at Nazareth House and play music for him and the other patients. One time he seemed to get no response from the sick priest, but one of the nurses pointed out to him that Father Albert was marking time with his toes although he was completely paralyzed.

Old priests, to paraphrase an old soldier, do not really retire; they just fade away, waiting for the embrace of their friend Jesus in eternity. In the words of Lacordier: “O what a wonderful life and it is yours, O priest of Jesus Christ!”

Fr. James V. Brown, OAR

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