VICAR'S LETTER
17
Sundon Road
Streatley
February 2009
Dear
All
The
news that Sarah Peppiatt, Eric’s daughter, has been accepted for
ordination training prompts a reflection on the nature of the calling to
the priesthood.
There
does not seem to be any standard pattern to such a calling.
Different people use different scriptural analogies to describe
what happened to them.
Some refer to the boy, Samuel, who repeatedly heard a call but for
a long time did not recognise where it was coming from.
Some refer to Jesus calling Peter, James, Andrew, and John to be
his disciples, to follow in his footsteps and to carry on his work.
Some refer to an overwhelming event, like that experienced by Paul
on the road to Damascus.
For
myself, the nearest analogy I can find is in a slightly more obscure
passage.
Found in Ezekiel 13, 1 – 10, it is the vision of the valley of
dry bones, immortalised in the Negro spiritual – “Dem bones, dem
bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord.”
In the vision, God shows Ezekiel a valley full of dry bones.
He orders Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones.
As Ezekiel does so, we are told, perhaps rather too graphically:
“Behold a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to its
bone.”
Ezekiel is then told: “Prophesy to the breath.”
As he does so, breath once more fills the bodies.
“They lived and stood on their feet, a great host.”
The
prophecy was meant to speak about the Israelite nation being re-gathered
and reborn after it had been scattered and destroyed by successive
invasions of the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
But it also speaks to what I dimly remember of the process leading
to ordination.
There were a variety of interests and aptitudes but they had no
common focus.
Then came the horrible realisation that the point at which they all
met was becoming a parish priest.
An idea was born that wouldn’t go away and that in the end had to
be submitted to.
All best wishes,
Roger