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FATHER MATHEW C. GEORGE
REFLECTIONS ON MY DECISION TO BECOME A PRIEST

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, the Church has announced a special year of priests beginning on June 19, 2009. Even though all baptized Christians participate in the Royal Priesthood of Christ, the ministerial (ordained) priesthood is established to serve the people of God. With all the changes happening in the Post Modern world, the nature and role of ordained ministry is a big topic of discussion. My intention here is not to explain all those issues but to analyze my own priestly vocation in view of the ministry I do at St. Thomas a'Becket.

I have to admit that I never had an extraordinary experience of God calling me to become a priest. But in my ordinary life, I believe God sent some extra ordinary people to discern my priestly vocation. It is my family - from the parents – that I learned the basic lessons of faith. Mine is a traditional Catholic family. Like any other Eastern Catholics of India, we claim the patrimony of St. Thomas . At home, avoiding dinner was easier for me than skipping the evening prayer!

Our catechism classes were on Sundays and I enjoyed every bit of it. One of my classmates from my Catechism class is also a priest in my Archdiocese. My induction into the altar server group made me closer to the Church. When I was in high school, I used to serve at mass almost every day. The Church was a half hour walk from my house, and I used to recite the rosary on my way to the Church. When I had school assignments I used this time to learn things by heart. My village Church is on a small hill and I could see the cross on the top of the Church from far away. Actually I would be walking towards the Church looking at the cross, so I ended up doing what I was looking forward to doing. Now I don't have to walk to the Church; I am in the Church.  

Being an altar server actually put me in a privileged position and made me closer to the parish priest. The parish priest would be another element in discerning my priestly vocation. He was very close to the people and was ready to help anyone at any time. People asked for his advice, prayers and directions. Everyone in the parish felt that he was a member of their family. Slowly I began to think that I wanted to be somebody like him. His closeness to God was expressed in his closeness to the people. Whenever he went to other parishes to do mass or to preach, we accompanied him. The children from those parishes watched us following the priest with a little bit of jealously. We cleverly "manipulated" the situation into showing that we were "special children from another world." Once in a while the priest asked me whether I was thinking about becoming a priest. The truth is that I never thought about becoming anything else. My joining the seminary after the high school was a more natural progression than anything extra-ordinary.

Read part 2 of Fr. Mathew's seminary story
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