On Being a Priest-Priest - A Priest Forever, #35

35

The sacrament of Holy Orders is going to be conferred on this group of members of the Work who have had very substantial experience, perhaps over many years, in medicine, law, engineering, architecture and many other professional activities. They are men whose work would allow them to aspire to more or less prominent positions m society. They are being ordained to serve. They are not being ordained to give orders or to attract attention, but rather to give themselves to the service of all souls in a divine and continuous silence. When they become priests, they will not allow themselves to yield to the temptation to imitate the occupations of lay people — even though they are well able to do that work because they have been at it until now, and have acquired a lay outlook which they will never lose. Their competence in the various branches of human knowledge such as history, natural sciences, psychology, law and sociology is a necessary feature of this lay outlook. But it will not lead them to put themselves forward as priest-psychologists, priest-biologists or priest-sociologists: they receive the sacrament of Holy Orders to become nothing other than priest-priests, priests through and through.

Comment:
I am particularly drawn to the last line, where "...to become nothing other than priest-priests, priests through and through." Most of us would agree with the sentiment, even though, in practice, it would look different from man to man. The line which, I imagine, would not be so agreeable to all is, "They are not being ordained to give orders or to attract attention, but rather to give themselves to the service of all souls in a divine and continuous silence." There is a hesitation that I see everyday in my own life and among priests as a whole to want to blend in with the parish as opposed to blending in with Christ. So many of us wish to have a place to just "be guys," a place which often has nothing to do with being like unto Christ. Of course, we all need to be men and we need to be able to express ourselves in a masculine way, but there is never an excuse for hiding our priesthood. As much as we ought not be the "psychologist-priest" as St. Josemaria says, we also ought not be priests who, in our casualness, make others feel like we are "off duty." Here is a little something from St. Anthony Mary Claret on this point from his autobiography:

Text:

At that time I was giving a mission in the cathedral of Segovia to the clergy, the nuns, and the people of that city. One day while all were at table it was mentioned that the former Bishop, a man of marked zeal, had exhorted some priests to go and give missions -- an exhortation which they fulfilled to the letter. After having walked a fair distance, these priests began to get so hungry and thirsty that they decided to stop and have lunch, since they had brought some food and drink with them. Meanwhile some people of the town to which they were going came to welcome them, but finding the priests eating, the people lost their esteem for them, so much so that those missionaries were unable to make any headway in that town. So the story goes at any rate, although I do not know how it originated. All I know is, that it was as a confirmation of what had been told me by Jesus and Mary.