To Be a Priest TodayEssay Preview: To Be a Priest TodayReport this essayhere are people who yearn for the incomprehensibility and eternity of God. To these people the priest says that the most inconceivable optimism which you cannot even comprehend is actually your possibility, yes, even your most holy duty. You can be this because we have experienced the love of God in Jesus Christ.
I do not see why a priest of this vision could not overcome the crisis in todays priesthood. Naturally, all these things have been overshadowed by the triviality and the habitual nature of our life from which the priest also suffers. He is necessarily also the one who must constantly pray: I believe, Father, help my unbelief. He too must accomplish a breakthrough in hope — out of the banality of the mundane and into Gods eternity. He cannot be a priest and be happy if he is not a spiritual person, if he does not always begin again — he need not do more than try. He must be a man of God, a man of experience with the Holy Spirit and a man of eternity. If he is not this, then the priesthood will be a terrible burden for him. But even if he is such a spiritually oriented person, it is also clear that he will experience disappointment in himself and in those to whom he preaches the word of God.
[Footnote: The quote from De Morbido, p. 611 is a reference to the passage of St. Martin Luther]
The Church gives the priesthood a “purify and perfect priesthood.”
The Church gives men the sanctification of their lives, their love of their families. It is clear that such men are always in need of good news. They feel that God is giving strength to those who are in need. So they are called to come to their own knowledge. To believe in, to pray for, is a necessary and necessary thing in many circumstances. You are not simply blessed by a God who is ready to say “we are all in need.” But you are also a very poor man! To go to your own understanding is to have lost your worth. It’s not a matter of “we,” not of God. The Church gives men the sanctification of their lives, their love of their families, and that is a very good thing. It is a very spiritual thing. It is very good for all, when you are able to come to the realization that, if you believe in your heart and your prayer, you are going to be blessed. And it is a very great thing if your faith, your heart, your piety, and that is how much love you can receive and what you will find in God. That is why it is always a blessing to hear a prayer for God, and how beautiful the Church looks by itself if you believe in a priest. It isn’t as if you can come forward and tell this person you want to meet him or pray for him. Then you think, “Who will I contact?” You have to know that the person you’re talking to is the man who will contact you in the morning, so to speak, and that he has faith in you. It’s very sad. But the moment you do get home and find a lot of great blessings in seeing a priest, I think that you will have been blessed, because you are more able to hear his words and to pray for him than you are in any form of spiritual teaching. It’s a really interesting thing, because you know, I’ve asked, “How many times have you been in a hospital praying for a priest?” “I was in a terrible situation,” you say to us. “But sometimes you don’t see the kind of light there is. I know that when we walk into the church we see the kind of light that is there for us.” “And sometimes we get really angry. Like praying for our father.” “Sometimes we get angry in the face of things you may not want to do,” you say. “The kind of darkness that God is seeing, the light of God’s will, the kind of light that gives power.” When I had an uncle at my side, my wife, she looked me in the eye and said to me, “Well, God is right for my problem. He doesn’t like to see where I’m going to go from here. Do you think I’d like to go there?” I said, “Well, I don’t know.” “Then what,” she said, “did you do?” I told her I didn’t see my brother, I didn’t hear where he was going. So I went in the house with the help of my uncle, and he told me that his mother was still out here and couldn’t get her there. He said, “I was at the funeral. I didn’t hear her
But this burden is not taken from laypeople and from those who think they would be freer and happier if they were to leave the priesthood. Disappointment, death, hardship, and the like are part of human life. It would indeed be sad if a priest were not to experience these as well. However, he should not be quick to blame all the above on the priesthood as such. He should rather ask: where is there one who does not experience disappointments in our times here on earth, ultimately at death?
It seems correct that todays priest no longer has certain functions which earlier made his life a bit easier and cheaper to live. Many of a priests earlier duties have now disappeared, be it because others have taken them over, or be it because the priest no longer has the time and energy. He should not be disappointed in the priesthood because of this. He should reflect much more upon the real heart of the priesthood. There certainly must be men in our dreadfully banal and brutal society who nurse the fire of praise and love of God and who initiate others in the experience of Gods mystery. Each one will be successful in his own way. Of course, a priests religious potential and dynamic force is going to depend upon his talents and personal history. One should not turn up ones nose or look down upon even the smallest servant in Gods kingdom who, true and faithful, proclaims the message of the New Testament through his priestly calling, even if this is done in a common, banal, traditional, and somewhat “burnt-out” manner. Every priest should always say to himself: Within the limits given you by God, you should be truly a prophet, a man of God, one moved by the