A though provoking reflection from Joe Sankovich, resigned priest in Tucson, AZ

 A though provoking reflection from Joe Sankovich, resigned priest in Tucson, AZ...Pat Callahan Seattle, WA

First Weekend of June

06/07 June in 2026

Virtues Applied to Daily Living/4

 

Our focus last week was patience.  We spent a few moments laying a foundation and identifying situations where patience calls for action, yet also requires a measured response to circumstances and to the individuals involved.  For me that realization came to life last Sunday morning as I sat listening to a homily on love, comparing, almost involuntarily, the love of Divinity with the ways in which human beings express and demonstrate love.

 

The more I listened, the more irritated and frustrated I became, feeling challenged to express a contrary message about love in a meaningful way.  In some ways I was still living with my fifty year perception that I was, and perhaps still could be, a better homilist than the one to whom I was listening.  And then two things happened.  First, I recalled my own writing on patience and spent a few minutes thinking about how I needed to put my own words into practice.  Second, I realized that if I could develop a response grounded in patience, I might be able to share my thinking in a positive way and thus make a small homiletic contribution.  And that is exactly what happened.

 

This experience, and the realizations that flowed from it, lead naturally to the virtue I wish to surface this week.  Perseverance is that virtue.  It simply means staying with the work of becoming whole.  As I look at these few days between last Sunday and today, two experiences have shaped my thinking.

 

The first was a letter from Mother John of the Cross, prioress of the Carmelite Monastery in Loretto, Pennsylvania.  The second was a conversation with Jeff Moore, a new director of Catholic cemeteries in a diocese with which I have had a working relationship.  Each helped me frame the two sides of this week’s meditation.  On one side is perseverance itself; on the other is the honest question of whether perseverance always means “sticking it out.”

 

I wrote to Mother John after visiting Loretto’s Carmel in late April, sitting in the chapel and remembering the Eucharist I celebrated for the cloistered community shortly after my ordination in the early summer of 1970.  Sitting there surfaced the question that all priests who have resigned continue to face throughout life after priesthood.  Did I make a mistake?  Did I not give it a fair chance?  That is the reality of the flip side of perseverance.  And whatever one’s path in life, that question is universal.  It may arise in a marriage, a career, a vocation, or even a college major.

 

My conversation with Jeff reinforced this reflection.  At age sixty-two he found himself unemployed with no immediate prospects.  He responded to a message from his daughter, who told him that an unexpected opportunity would surface and that he needed to take it seriously.  And so it came to pass: a position as director of Catholic cemeteries.  He never gave up in his search for employment, yet he allowed the vision of what that might look like to unfold in an unexpected way.  His perseverance led to a surprising and positive outcome.

 

Perseverance is not stubbornness or willpower.  It is the steady willingness to remain engaged with the slow work of virtue.  It is the virtue that keeps us from abandoning the interior journey when it becomes uncomfortable.  It is the habit that allows patience to bear fruit.

 

We seem hardwired to reach conclusions, define expectations, and develop criteria within which we will or will not act.  We become all-knowing and self-righteous in defending these positions because our origins and culture program us to expect immediate rewards and visible results.

 

Without being grounded in patience, without the hard knocks that build patience, we fail to recognize that change and interior growth are slow, often invisible, and sometimes painful.  Without perseverance, compassion evaporates, humility collapses, and patience becomes passive waiting rather than active receptivity.  Perseverance is the antidote to discouragement, distraction, and the temptation to return to self-interest.

 

The work of self-examination is demanding, especially when we are facing critical life decisions.  Constant media noise, political posturing, and reactive discourse pull us away from interior steadiness.  Most of us still carry the baggage of unfinished business, old wounds, and unhealed memories.  Too often this manifests as impatience masquerading as efficiency.  We look for quick fixes rather than doing the work, especially when that work requires a supportive community.

 

Discernment requires time, repetition, and revisiting the same questions with new honesty.  Perseverance keeps us from rushing to answers or forcing clarity.  It teaches us that truth often emerges slowly, like dawn rather than lightning.  And the healing required to move forward happens best in community.  Perseverance is strengthened when we witness others staying with their own unfinishedness.

 

Does resignation from ordained priesthood need to be a lasting emotional scar?  While it may remain present in the subconscious, it does not need to dominate the story of one’s life, especially when that life has unfolded into new opportunities for generous service and for contributing to the common good.  No guilt, no shame.  Community support assures us that we are not alone in carrying burdens or seeking growth.