What inspired you to be a priest?
Today’s readings remind me of some of the reasons that I became a priest. The first reading from Second Maccabees recalls the story of seven brothers whom the evil gentile King Antiochus tried to force to eat pork under threat of torture. The brothers resisted and were put to death since it was forbidden to eat pork under the Law of Moses. Many times in my own childhood growing up on a hog farm, I too was forced to eat pork. It was not against my religion, and I was not tortured, but I could not leave the table until I had eaten all of my pork cutlets or ham steak or pork roast (you name it, we ate a lot of it). However, in the end I grew to appreciate this and to accept whatever came to my plate. You could say it built character.
In the Gospel, Jesus reflects on marriage and heaven. He said there is no marriage in heaven, “but they are like angels; and they are the children of God.” There was a time in my own life when I thought I too would get married. I had a great job as a software engineer. I had escaped the hog farm of my youth in Seneca, and I was living the good life in Overland Park.
Seriously though, God was calling me, and I had thought about becoming a priest since high school. I took me a few years to accept that I was called, but eventually I realized God was not going to give up, and I needed finish the plate I was served, or God would never let me leave the table. I tried to be as open to God as I could, especially through prayer in Eucharistic Adoration and with the Rosary, and I went to visit a seminary (where men go to be formed as priests). Once I was truly open to God’s will, things fell into place. I was no longer afraid of being a priest but began to desire it. There’s a lot more to the story, but in the end I simply had to trust that God’s vision for me was better than my own vision. Certainly, it is in following God’s will that I have found peace and joy!
-Fr. Greg
