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Alumni ('14) Father Jacob Martini

Most everywhere else when I tell people my journey to the priesthood, I have to include an “origin” story as part of it. The great thing with telling it now is that many of you already know me or my family, or are actually my family. I think also you might be able to appreciate with me the words of St. Paul, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.” By this, Paul is recognizing the great treasure that is divine life, God Himself, dwelling within his broken humanity. It is a treasure that he is unworthy of but is freely given by God in a personal way. My story, though I did not actively kill Christians like Paul, is similar. I am so vastly aware of my own unworthiness to before the Lord and yet it is in my weakness that His glory may be seen.

If my journey could be summarized it would be this, all my life, even when I rejected Him, turned away from Him, ignored Him, or did not know Him, He has been faithful, He has been good; my priesthood is just a response to the generosity of God.

My journey has been one of just taking one step closer to Christ each day, with special care from our Blessed Mother. We are blessed in our community to be surrounded by so many good priests. When I was in grade school, I remember Fr. Loftus would visit the classroom on Wednesdays. When he would visit, he promised to give candy to any student wearing the Brown Scapular. I had also heard that if you die wearing the Brown Scapular that you would not go to hell. So, I thought to myself, “candy and no hell?? That’s a pretty good deal!” and started wearing the Brown Scapular in 4th grade. It was not until later that I learned that there were other things that had to be down as well, such as pray daily, living virtuously, and a specific fast. My prayer life was nothing extraordinary, just 2 Our Father’s, 2 Hail Mary’s, and 2 Glory Be’s. (I was in 6th grade when I started doing this and the number of prayers equaled 6.) 

The example of my family, coaches, and teachers cannot go without mention as well. It is from my family that I owe any good that I have done. Their example, their care, and their own virtue have formed me into who I am today. I am positive it is because of the rosary that my grandparents pray every day that Our Lady has been involved in my life. My parents and my brother, most especially, pushed me to be my best in everything, even when I would not listen to them. I would not be as patient as I am today had my sister not annoyed me so much growing up. Just kidding, Mallory. Mallory, as other younger siblings do, taught me patience from the MANY games and tournaments that she had to sit through. One thing that always struck me though, even when we would travel on vacation or for a tournament was the priority of going to Mass over the game. My coaches always understood and it taught me to always put first things first. As easy as it would have been to sleep in, especially for them who were up late, doing laundry, and awake first, even if we showed up a few minutes late to Mass we were there. If they would have seen Mass as optional, I would have seen it as unnecessary when I grew up. 

At Marquette, I remember Mr. Hall taking us to adoration every week. I remember having weekly adoration that I went to during study hall, even if most of the time I was doing my homework in there. I remember the priority that was put on prayer before and after games, the Friday morning Mass at St. Columba as a team, and the team rosary in the grotto before the start of the season. My senior year I remember the late Coach Tim Jobst teaching us about the Peace Rosary. It wasn’t that different from what I was praying every day (4 Our Father’s, 4 Hail Mary’s, and 4 Glory Be’s = 12/12th grade), so I decided to start praying that every day. In preparation for senior retreat, I remember being encouraged to give something up or to do something extra, like we’d do in Lent. I decided to pray a rosary each day, normally on my way to school, for each part of the retreat. At the same time, that year Msgr. Halfacre said to me, “you know, Jacob, you’re a good guy, but do you want to become a great man?” I’m not sure how anyone turns down that invitation, so I started meeting with him on Tuesdays during lunch.

All this set the stage for senior retreat. On one of the nights, we were in adoration. And there. Before Our Lord present in the Blessed Sacrament. I encountered Him. My whole life in CCD and at school I had learned about Jesus Christ but that night I encountered Him and my life could never be the same. All of the things that I had learned in school finally made sense in the Person of Jesus Christ. To use an illustrative example, Christ came through like a roundhouse kick to the face and I’ve been left picking up the pieces ever since. C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity says, “I believe in Christ as I believe in the rising of the Sun. Not only because I can see it but by it, I see everything else.” I was overwhelmed with a feeling of peace, joy, happiness, love, of being loved that I had never experienced before. It led me to say to myself, “if this is what it is like to follow Christ, why would I do anything else?”

After the retreat, I continued my prayers and practices, and one evening in May in prayer a memory came to me. It was from when I was a sophomore serving my brother’s Baccalaureate Mass. As we (the servers, deacons, and priests) were coming out of the rectory to process in to Mass, Msgr. Halfacre said to me “you know, one of these days, you are going to be doing what we’re doing.” Of course, as a sophomore, I laughed it off, but now at the end of high school, the thought did not go away.

I’ll admit. I was afraid. There was part of me that did not want to answer this call outside of me from the Lord. I resisted as much as I could, trying to explain it away, listen to my desire to be a father and have a family, and overall to show God that I was unworthy of this call. How can the Lord be calling me to be His priest, I thought. During my college years and even in seminary, this thought remained with me. (In fact, today I am still unworthy of this call.) Though I was involved in extracurricular activities during college, I remember the people at the Newman Center having this joy that I wanted. Their witness reminded me of how Christ looked at me in the Eucharist that March night in high school. What great love, patience, and mercy He had with me. It is like the call of Simon Peter in the Gospel of Luke. At the sight of the great miracle that was just performed, Peter by a grace of the Holy Spirit was made aware of Who was standing before Him. The One who knew him better than he knew himself who said, “do not be afraid,” and in the Gospel of Matthew, “follow Me, I will MAKE you fishers of men.” In prayer, I promised to take a step deeper into those areas of my heart that I did not want to look, so one day when He asked me to be His priest I would be ready. 
It was/is then a daily process of conversion. A daily offering to the Lord my day and asking “how can I love You better this day?” Because ultimately, all I’m doing is offering back what is His. It is a returning of all I have and all I am to Him. It is a daily response of love to love as the fire of divine love purifies me. The only response to this type of love is “yes” and to give Him everything. All that we try to keep, we will lose. But what is offered on the altar each day at every Mass throughout the world? That will be sanctified, filled with life, blessed, and then bestowed upon us.

This is not a gift that I wish for just myself, but for all to come to know with what great love God has for them, most especially my family and friends. It is for this reason that I chose the quote from St. Augustine on the back of my ordination card. Insert quote. St John Paul II says it perfectly though when he said, “it is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.”

But, it is as I said at the beginning. I am only a man, an earthen vessel, that contains this treasure that belongs to God and not to me. The only way I can repay the Lord for His goodness to me is by “taking up the cup of salvation and calling on the name of the Lord.” (Ps 116:12-14 ) Hopefully, you too respond to this Love, this living and vibrant faith, that you may know the joy that comes with a relationship with Christ through His Church. All I can do is invite you to “come and see a man who told me all that I ever did.” (Jn 4:29)
May the Lord who has begun this good work in me bring it to fulfillment.