Real or ideal?
Six of the 37 young men who visited St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, La. on the weekend of Oct. 3. (courtesy photo/Zack Hebert)
On the weekend of Oct. 3, our diocese sent 37 young men to St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, La. The goal was to see and experience the place where our diocesan seminarians are formed to become priests.
As we endured the eight-hour bus ride, I made sure the guys received one essential message before arriving. “Gentlemen, up until now, all of your discernment of the priesthood has been in the realm of the ideal. You’ve been praying about what you think the priesthood looks like in your mind. Some days this appears profoundly heroic. Other days it appears gloomy or lonely. But it’s still only an ideal, in the realm of the ideal.
“Today, you will see the reality. You will be immersed into what the real beginning of the priestly journey actually looks like. You will be on the physical grounds where the men are formed. You will eat the food they eat. Pray in the places they pray. Play sports in their gym and on their fields. Hear the real voices of real teachers.
Encounter truly holy men, and real men striving for holiness. Why is this important? Because when discerning God’s will, what is real must be considered as much as, if not more so, than the ideal.”
What do we mean by this? For every person throughout history, there has always existed the real and the ideal. The ideal of how things should be, and the real of how things actually are. This tension always exists.
For the most part it is always a bit painful. “I should be better. Society should be better. My school should be better. My family should be better. The priesthood should be better. The Church should be better.” But … they aren’t better. They are what they are.
So what are our options? Do we simply sit around imagining the ideal and complaining that reality is not so? Maybe we do. This path, however, usually does not lead us toward the ideal, nor help us deal with the real.
A second option is to see reality through the eyes of providence. God can change the real into the ideal whenever He wants to. However, in His divine wisdom, He allows for reality to be what it is with all of its purifications, confusions, sufferings, and joys.
In facing reality through this lens, the confusing inadequacies of life take on their true meaning and offer us the essential meaning of life: God desires you for Himself, and everything He is doing in, around, and through your life is to sanctify you.
At the end of the day, God allows the real intentionally. All that is taking place providentially in your life is meant to purify you of your ego, awaken you to your need for God, and direct you back to loving Him with all that you are.
God knows how to fix the world. Christianity teaches He has already saved the world. His task now is to do everything in His power to invite you to accept that salvation. To allow the Gospel of Jesus Christ to form your life and make you a saint.
On the final day, this is all that will count: not, did I change the reality of the world into the ideal I have in my mind, but, did I allow God to change my real into His ideal?
For those discerning their path, particularly to a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, the question is not: Where is the ideal place to go? Where will I find the ideal priesthood, the most ideal sector of the Catholic Church? Where is the ideal vocation?
The question is, rather, where is God in my reality, and what is He asking me to do for my real neighbor, about my real sins, for my real spiritual life, and for my real calling?
Father Brett Metzler serves as Chaplain at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth and as the Vocations Director for the diocese. Find his regular columns for the North Texas Catholic here