In my early years as a priest, I did not dare to have it, thinking that a good priest must always be home early, but I must confess that, as time goes by, having a frequent nightlife becomes increasingly important in my life. With a few years of priesthood behind me, I can testify that there is no healthy priestly life that does not have its good doses of nightlife. But, as you can already suppose, before the Sanhedrins are scandalized (from Sanhedrin, the judges, those who criticize, Spanish saying note), the priest’s nightlife is different from that of the world. It is all that pastoral work that, spontaneously or for the good of souls, ends up being carried out more naturally (and fruitfully) during the night. I did not invent it; Our Lord Jesus inaugurated it when He received Nicodemus and when He spent the night in prayer.
Thus, this nightlife, which fills the priest’s life with strength and meaning, presents itself in many ways: the most obvious and frequent are the celebrations of funerals for the deceased, accompanying families in those moments; even if it is late at night or at dawn, never leaving those families alone. It has happened to me many times to start funerals at 11:00 PM or at 6:00 in the morning.
Another nighttime activity is visiting the sick and the dying. My advice is: better to go late than the next day. It is painful to know that a person has died without the sacraments because we said, “I’ll go tomorrow.” It has happened to me to go to the hospital at dawn or to go out to see seriously ill patients in “difficult” neighborhoods and end up attending to many patients when I had left for only one.
I believe the most beautiful case I have experienced along this line is that of a person dying of cancer, unbaptized, who had survived cancer six times before. I wondered why God had allowed her to suffer so much; I answered her that, due to the hardness of her heart, she had never sought God in her pain, and that He had allowed her to live until that day to die as His daughter. Contrary to what many might believe, my answer made her very happy. I stayed with her for several hours, giving her a condensed version of the catechism, I asked if she wanted to die as a daughter of God, she said yes, and I baptized her; she died happily a few days later, her daughter told me, listening to the rosary.
During the day, a thousand things — the cellphone, the office, the parish, meetings, etc. — would not have allowed me to do what I could do at night. Blessed nightlife.
Other types of nightlife are: spending the night with Our Lord, bringing food, blankets, or comfort to the poor and homeless, accompanying people from one’s community at their funerals, not only in the rite. The working world is so harsh that, for some people, everything is easier at night if one is available; it has happened to me to bless houses at 9:30 PM, provided the whole family was present. Once I gave a marriage presentation at 9:00 PM because only at that hour could the couple attend without having to ask for another work permit.
So far, some examples of how fruitful the night can be for a priest; I dare say that there is something in the night that makes the soul more disposed to God, just like Nicodemus’ soul. The night, given to God in this way, ignites and strengthens the priest’s soul when he disposes himself to it. It is not about deliberately seeking that everything happen at these hours, one is simply available when the Spirit and souls call us at those hours, like the friend who asked for three loaves.
The Spirit hovered over the darkness to give light to the creation of the world: let us not fear the night, to be a light that gives life to many souls for Christ.
Amen.
Father Álvaro Salvador Gutiérrez Félix
Pubblicato con il permesso dell’autore Alvaro Salvador Gutierrez Félix
(sacerdote messicano)
Published with permission of the author Alvaro Salvador Gutierrez Félix
(Mexican priest)
Publicado con autorización del autor Álvaro Salvador Gutiérrez Félix (sacerdote mexicano)
https://elpadrematrix.blogspot.com/
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