Fr. Justin Kerber, C.P.

Written by Richard Reece

Tuesday, 22 September 2009 10:42

Father Justin Kerber, C.P., radiates joy when he talks about his parish and his pastoral ministry. Yet 12 years ago, when he was assigned to the parish, St. Peter in Greenville, he wept.

Father Kerber can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a priest. “I never entertained anything else,” he says. As a boy in New Jersey, he went on a retreat and met Passionist Father Michael Anthony. “I got there early, and he said, ‘Come talk with me.’ He showed me his breviary, and there were all these dates in the back that he explained to me: ‘This is the date my parents died. This is the date I went to China….’ And he started talking to me about how he was imprisoned for five years and tortured, how he had seen some of his parishioners martyred. And I thought, ‘This sounds like the early Church! This man must really love Jesus. I want to be like him!’”

The youngster begged his parents to let him join the Passionists when he finished eighth grade. His father wanted him to go to high school first. But one night he heard his mother talking to his father in their room. “I don’t want him to leave,” she said, “but I keep thinking about Jesus in the temple saying, ‘I must be about my Father’s business.’” Their 12-year-old son entered the novitiate and was ordained in 1972.

“I joined the Passionists because I wanted a life that emphasized prayer and reflection,” Father Kerber explains. And he wasn’t disappointed. But his abilities were recognized and over the years he was called on to preach retreats, direct vocations, oversee the Order’s finances, direct Passionist students and serve as rector of a monastery. “In 37 years as a priest,” Father Kerber says today, “I never said no. Whatever they ask, I decided, I don’t need time to consider. I’ll take that as God’s Will.”

Saying yes to an assignment as a parish priest was difficult, though. “When I arrived at St. Peter,” he recalls, “I went into the chapel and knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and cried. I prayed for two hours and I said to Jesus, ‘You sent me here. So I am here, even if it’s for the rest of my life. I will do this with all my heart.’

“And twelve years later,” he says, beaming, “behold!” He discovered that he loved pastoral ministry. In fact, he has a list with the names of every baby he has ever baptized, so he can pray for them. “In my first 26 years as a priest I baptized 21 babies,” he says, “but since I became a pastor, 500.”

Father Kerber is adamant when he says, “The priesthood is not a job. It’s a relationship with a person, and that person is Jesus. He is my heart. He is at the center of everything. He is why I want to be a priest.” In 37 years, Father Kerber has celebrated Mass every day but one (due to a surgical emergency). His advice for men contemplating priesthood: ‘Think of Christ’s needs before your own, and center your life around the Eucharist.”

reprinted from NC Catholics Magazine, July 2009

Last Updated on Tuesday, 22 September 2009 14:47