Called to be a servant of God

newly ordained priest reflects on how he came to his vocation

Reprinted with permission from the National Catholic Register

“It isn’t about me,” Father Jeremy Kucera says when asked about his priesthood.

Fr. Kucera explains what has been the hallmark of his life. Beginning as a young man, continually seeking the will of God, and now as a priest, he has always tried to follow Christ’s call to lay down his life, in order that Christ might live in him.

Fr. Kucera grew up in Silver Lake, Minnesota, on a small dairy farm. It was here that his parents laid the foundation of his Catholic faith by their example.

“I remember being at the tail end of the 40 hours devotion, and kneeling down with my dad,” Fr. Kucera describes; “I thought to myself: if what’s on that altar is so important that my dad will kneel down, it must be pretty important.”

Being sent to Catholic schools almost his whole life gave Fr. Kucera the gift of learning about his faith on a daily basis. It helped strengthen the foundation that his parents set, and although he never really questioned his faith in God, God seemed to want to take him deeper.

When he was a freshman in high school, Fr. Kucera developed an infectious condition that grew so rapidly that after his treatment, the doctor told him he came within an hour of losing his life.

“I started to ask myself the hard questions: Why am I here? Why do I matter? I knew in my head what the answers were, but I didn’t really know yet in my heart.” A few years went by, and Fr. Kucera continued to ponder those questions.

Then, during his junior year of high school, a friend invited him to

go on a Teens Encountering Christ (TEC) retreat. His friend persuaded

him to go by telling him that he would escape farm work for a weekend, and he could scope out girls. However, Fr. Kucera found something a little more important than an enhanced social life.

“I saw that our relationship with the Lord starts now, it’s not something that can wait,” he explains. “And encountering Christ is so crucial. It is where that relationship is really nurtured.”

After the retreat, he became more involved with TEC and with his youth group. As his heart began to take in the great gift of life that Christ offers, it started to dawn on him that God might be calling him to a vocation to the priesthood. Then one day, as he took a walk late at night, a feeling came over him. “It must have been the Holy Spirit,” he says. “I was walking one minute, and the next minute I was crying like a baby, because I just knew in my heart: God was calling me to be a priest.”

After high school graduation, Fr. Kucera entered the St. John Vianney Minor Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, continuing to grow in his response to his vocational call.

For the final six months of his time

in the minor seminary, he studied in Rome, Italy. It was here, becoming friends with dedicated priests from around the world, that Fr. Kucera began to understand the sacrifice God requires of us in our Christian life.

“The priests I knew showed me that our relationship with the Lord develops and grows. Really, by following Christ, we embark on what Fr. Robert Barron describes as ‘the strangest way’. In order to live we must die.”

By the time he entered the Major Seminary that fall, he was jittering with excitement, anxious to embark on his own strangest way.

When the day of his ordination came, June 12, 2004, Fr. Kucera didn’t think much in the way of backing out. “I was so excited to be a priest, to follow and persevere to where the Lord was calling me. It was so wonderful and overwhelming. . . to want to preach and celebrate the sacraments day after day, and to do it all for Him.”

Since then, Fr. Kucera has been busy serving his first assignment: Associate Pastor at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Marshall, Minnesota. And what is his favorite thing about being a priest so far? He doesn’t miss a beat. “Every-thing,” he replies emphatically, “celebrating the sacraments, preaching, being with the kids, spending time with those who are sick and dying . . . everything.”

And for those times that he falls, he calls to St. Peter.

“St. Peter is such a gift,” he explains. “Especially for a priest. To remember him when I fall, how he got back up again. I remember how close a connection he had with the Lord and yet he still denied him and had to look him right in the eye. I look at the Lord in the eye everyday at Mass, and I remember St. Peter. It’s great that we have one of our greatest saints being the putz that he is. And I love him for it!”

Barb Verly, a parishioner at Holy Redeemer, appreciates Fr. Kucera’s love for his priesthood and his love and devotion to the Eucharist and all the sacraments the most.

“During one Mass, Fr. Kucera gave a homily on the sacrament of Reconciliation,” Barb explained, “he said: ‘You guys aren’t giving me much business in the confessional,’ and he quoted scripture showing that he has apostolic authority to forgive sins.”

In his non-verbal moments, Fr. Kucera’s body language allows Christ to speak to the hearts of many. “When he consecrates at the Mass,” Barb says, “he holds the Holy Eucharist and Precious Blood up for a really long time, so we can all look and say ‘Yes Jesus, that’s really you, I believe it’s you’.”

In an effort to find God’s will for Holy Redeemer, Fr. Kucera is initiating a few new groups this year. He regularly meets with college students from the nearby Southwest Minnesota State University for dinner, he is looking into starting a Theology on Tap series for young adults, and later this year, he is leading a mission trip for the parish youth to Guatemala.

“It is obvious to everybody how much he enjoys being a priest,” says Father Robert Wyffels, a priest and old friend of Fr. Kucera who taught him when he was a high school student.

Fr. Kucera enjoys ministering to people, to be sure, but he has no illusions about his role in their life.

“When I am present for people, it doesn’t need to be Fr. Jeremy present, they are just happy that a priest is there. And it’s that humbling reminder that it’s not about me.”