IC: I, 25; 31^st Sunday A, November 3, 2002

The Word of the Lord in the Scriptures selected for this day are directed to our understanding of the role of the priest or bishop as a religious leader. On account of the bad publicity the Church has suffered in recent months, this biblical message takes on a special urgency and poignancy. I want here only to collect the main thoughts before passing on to the Imitation of Christ.

In God=s scheme of things, positions of authority, whether in the Church, in the family, or in government, are not given for the ego-building of the leader but for his needed service to the body of persons concerned. Thus a priest is a servant and a representative of Christ who communicates >God=s things= for the people: offering for them the Lord=s sacrifice; giving them His flesh and blood; teaching them His pure truth; and so on. When a priest does his duty well, this is a happy circumstance for the Church as it is also a cause of merit for the individual priest. But if a priest teaches falsehood instead of the teachings of the Church or fails to provide Christ=s medicinal sacraments, well... our readings have some terrible things to say. The Church is suffering today because liberal minds have perverted some priests who have worked abominable deeds...and I refer here not to those things that the media has seized upon, horrible as they are, but the far worse things such as the poisoning of people minds by dissent from the pure doctrines of Christ, the teachings of the Church; by the sacrilegious or irreverent performance of their sacred ministrations. These are far more contemptible than the matters that receive greater notoriety. I wish that people (and the media) were more outraged over the many perverse doctrines that are uttered and the persistent unbecoming conduct at Mass, than over the few crimes of high profile.

What a striking contrast in Saint Paul=s message, where he shows the priestly ideal in amiable terms. He writes: AWe were gentle among, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we shared not only the gospel but our very selves. Working night and day we proclaimed the gospel.@ Thank God that the proportion of good priests to bad is greater and the majority of Christ=s flock worldwide is still fed with the pure milk of truth and the solid food of the sacraments!

For both clergy and laity alike, there are no exemptions from the rule of life that we call Athe gospel.@ Everyone has to observe the law of God. ABe watchful and diligent in the service of God, and frequently consider why you have renounced the world.@ This is the opening of the 25^th chapter of the Imitation. We made baptismal vows that pledged renunciation of the devil, of his works and of his display for the very reason that we might live spiritual lives: I=m not talking about priests especially here, but about everyone. A call to holiness of life. Fears or the sorrows due to life=s burdens should never deter you from your course. What we need a greater diligence and zeal. Self-pity and laziness paralyze the soul. The greater the difficulties we have, the more determined we need be to fight: God never sends us out unarmed to do battle!

The Imitation offers some advice: AKeep before you the likeness of Christ crucified. As you meditate on the life of Jesus Christ, you should grieve that you have not tried more earnestly to conform yourself to Him.@ And then he concludes this segment:

Always remember your death and that lost time never returns. Without care and diligence, your will never acquire virtue. If you begin to grow careless, all will begin to go amiss with you. But if your give yourself to prayer, you will find great peace, and your toil will grow lighter by the help of God=s grace and your love of virtue. The war against our vices and passions is harder than any physical toil. Watch yourself, bestir yourself, admonish yourself; never neglect your own soul. The stricter you are with yourself, the greater is your spiritual progress.

We do need to have a spiritual shock treatment once in a while. If the troubled state of things in the Church does anything to us, it ought to make us the more committed to the Catholic way of life, the way of the saints, the way, indeed, of Jesus Christ. The defeating news that comes to us from without is nothing unless we defeat ourselves interiorlyCand that, to our ruin.

Be true Christians, be devout Catholics, become saints!