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

My eleven years of seminary training was coming to an end. I was so excited about the endless opportunities the priestly life would be opening to me. At the same time it made me nervous to think about the prospect of starting everything anew. We attended a week long retreat in a nearby Pallotine house in preparation for our ordination. I had already begun to send cards to friends and families inviting them to attend the ordination and First Mass. When I was ordained we had the practice of conducting the ceremony in each one's parish. Now it is conducted in the Cathedral of the Archdiocese. My ordination was in a nearby parish along with three other classmates of mine. I spent the three days before my ordination in prayer and silence in a friend priest's rectory.

I was ordained a priest on April 4, 1997, by Archbishop Cyril Mar Baselios. It was a moving ceremony with so much symbolism and rituals coming from the ordination rite. It included the bishop cutting the hair of the candidate to show his renunciation of worldly fashion and esteem. His long instruction contained admonition to the duties and responsibilities expected of all those who aspire to do the work of the Lord. We were to take two solemn vows – the vow of chastity, and the vow of obedience. At the end we had to sign the document accepting everything by the sign of the cross.

The following day, April 5, I offered my First Mass in my own parish. I had people attending from the neighbouring parishes and also from the parishes I used to visit to teach classes. I don't want to exaggerate, but there were more than two thousand people attending the ceremony. It is normal to have so many people with this kind of celebration in our place when we have more than one billion people trying to do something every day.

There is nothing like an experience of offering the Mass for the first time. I was more emotional than I thought. The Archbishop gave an excellent homily on the role of priests in leading the people, and also the support (especially by prayer) the faithful need to give to their priests.

Immediately after the First Mass, there was a felicitation gathering in the Church. My former teachers from high school and seminary spoke, telling the crowd that, "I was the best student they ever had and there will never be anybody like me again." (That was not what they said when I was a student!) People brought me all kinds of presents which made me think of getting ordained again. It was also an occasion for the whole family to come together.

This concludes the "unending saga" of my seminary life. But I would like to end this summary with the concluding words of John's Gospel: “It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” (Jn. 21: 25 – 25)

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