Coincidence = Providence

FROM THE PASTOR
by Fr. George W. Rutler
May 10, 2009

On April 30, Monsignor William F. Guido died peacefully and his soul was committed to Christ the High Priest. He was the third pastor of the Church of Our Saviour, having previously been an associate pastor at the Church of Our Lady of Victory in the financial district. By coincidence, I succeeded him in that parish, never thinking that someday I would succeed him as pastor here. By another coincidence, our new archbishop, having offered Mass here on May 1 for the Sisters of Life, also offered Monsignor Guido’s funeral Mass the next morning. You know my strong view that the word “coincidence” is a vague shorthand for providence. God works all things according to his design and, to the degree that we cooperate with his plans, he makes all things well with us.

As we pray for Monsignor Guido’s soul, we also give thanks for all his efforts in his year here to maintain and prosper this parish when it was burdened with heavy debts. We also give thanks that exactly one week after Monsignor Guido’s burial, Vincent Druding of this parish was called to the Sacred Priesthood. Monsignor Guido was born in 1918. Vincent Druding was born sixty years later. I was born halfway between both. So the priestly line goes on from the Resurrection when Our Saviour breathed on the Apostles in the Upper Room, giving them authority to forgive sins.

Whatever age a man is chronologically, when the priestly stole is placed on his shoulders he becomes 2000 as he is united to the office of Christ the Priest. And however old a priest is chronologically when he dies, he is as young as the youthful Apostle John who recognized the Voice from the shore and said, “It is the Lord!” That is what every priest says each day when he raises the Blessed Sacrament at the altar.

On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, having been ordained in the Cathedral of Saint Patrick the previous day, Vincent offers Mass for the first time on his own, having concelebrated yesterday with the archbishop. To the Eucharistic thanksgiving, we offer our own prayers of thanksgiving for our first parishioner to be ordained a priest for the archdiocese, and for all the young men of our parish now heeding the call of Christ to do the same. Christ asked his first Apostles, “Have you caught anything?” When they cast their nets into the deep (“duc in altum”) their catch was great. So we pray it will be for Vincent, whom we now call Father Druding, and for all the priests who obey God’s command. A nineteenth century hymn recalls what began many centuries ago:

God of the prophets! Bless the prophets’ sons,
Elijah’s mantle o’er Elisha cast;
Each age its solemn task may claim but once;
Make each one nobler, stronger, than the last.

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