Text: Canon Pat Browne reflects on 40 years of priesthood

Fr Pat's ordination 16 June 1974

Fr Pat Browne preached during a special Mass at Holy Apostles, Pimlico, central London on Friday, 20 June, to mark the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.

In All Hallows seminary, Dublin, Pat Browne was studying to be a priest in Atlanta, Georgia. He began his homily by recalling that it did not work out like that:

'In the totalitarian state where he lived which hated the church, the parish priest used to walk across the town square at exactly 10 to 10 every morning.  The policeman who hated religion watched him do this day after day? One day he confronted him. 'where are you going?' he asked. 'I don't know' the priest answered. 'of course you do' said the policeman. 'don't give me cheek. Perhaps a few hours in the jail will help you remember' He took the priest to the town jail and just as he was putting him into the cell he asked him again. 'where were you going?' No answer!

As the door closed the priest was heard to mumble:

'you see - you never really know!'

It is so true. . . . I learned very early on to go with God and he would take you where he wanted you to be.

And so he has for forty years made London his home. He explained to the packed congregation the essence of his experience of the priestly vocation:

One of the wonderful things about being a priest  is that you are invited to go into the life of another person, to a place where you have no right to be. It is holy ground.  It is where the soul meets God in the most personal and private dialogue. You are allowed in. What a privilege! What a blessing for the priest. What an honour.To be welcomed in the front door of that holy house which is the soul of another human being, that sacred space in them which is reserved for God. But they welcome you cos you come in his name. This is the privilege of what it is to be a priest.

Yes, sometimes there is refusal too."If they rejected me they will reject you too."

"the servant is not greater than his Master.

"Either way it is a privilege to go to another in his name.And so much of it is to give what one first has received. Understanding in moments of weakness.Forgiveness in moments of failure.

Encouragement in moments of doubt.

All of these the priest has himself been in need of, continues to be in need of, and receives. In order that he might know what it is to be unconditionally loved and in his turn to be the mediator of that to another from a loving God through the Sacraments and Prayer.

Who would not be a priest!

I thank God tonight for this gift of priesthood and for all those who have helped me to do it well, when I have done it well, by their example, by their receiving what I have to offer, and by the gift of their own faith and love mediated back to me.

In giving what I have, I have received more than I could ever have hoped for.

The minister is ministered to, by this ministry!

As a priest one is often asked, what might you have done, have been, had you not been a priest. The honest answer for me is... there is no worthwhile alternative.

I love being a priest.  Don't get me wrong. I've had my bad times like everyone else. But, you know there has never been a day in those 40 years where I even thought, let alone said, I should never have got into this. 

The greatest gift a priest can give a community is to share with them his and their weakness and strength. He can only do that if he is open to true human love and above all open to the Other:

The deepest love consists in having the strength to offer who I really am and accept the same from the other in a way that each one builds up the other and enables them to become the best of who they can be. This is nurturing love.

The One who is best at it of course is God. He reaches out to me. He has made himself vulnerable in exposing how he would like me to be part of his life. He became like me, human, in order to win me over, with a human heart, a heart that could be hurt, a heart that could be broken, one that might be rejected. And by many, he was.

But he did this because he loves me.

Each day as life and situations challenge me as it does all of you, the Lord is asking me in the middle of those situations as he asked Peter,

Pat do you love me?

I answer tonight and pray that I will always do so,

Lord you know all things, you know that I love you.

See also:
ICN 24 June 2014 Celebrations mark 40th Anniversary of Canon Pat Browne's Ordination www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=25020