IN the Letter to Priests written recently by Pope Benedict on the occasion of the Year for Priests, he highlighted the saintly life and moving words, all gems and blockbusters of spiritual considerations, of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron for priests.
It’s amazing how this simple priest was so immersed in God, so identified with Christ that in spite of his obvious human limitations and shortcomings, he clearly exuded an aura of holiness that soon fascinated many people.
He was not intellectually gifted, he was not well endowed physically. His temperament indicated signs of fragility. But there was an X-factor about him that even made use of his weaknesses to become a great saint, a most holy priest, a most incisive confessor. He converted thousands of sinners.
His words, deeply theological, infused with faith and charity, were so human, natural, almost of the street language type, that went straight into the hearts and minds of people, both the ordinary and the special or elite. They were at once deeply spiritual, supernatural and common sensical.
To reassure the penitents of God’s mercy, he once said: “The good Lord knows everything. Even before you confess, he already knows that you will sin again, yet he still forgives. How great is the love of our God: he even forces himself to forget the future, so that he can grant us his forgiveness!”
The Pope is now holding him as model for us priests all over the world to follow. Of course, the official reason is that it’s his 150th death anniversary this year (in Church language, it’s referred to as dies natalis, date of birth, since a saint’s death is his birth in heaven.)
But I must say that the triggering motive for the celebration is the scandalous behavior of some priests all over the world that has deeply hurt all humanity. There’s now a deeply-felt need to address the question of how to help all priests become true, holy and effective ministers of Christ.
If only sanctity can be mass-produced, a matter of assembly-line techniques! If only holy priests like St. John Mary Vianney can be just cloned in some laboratories! But we all know this cannot be done. Sanctity, living identity with Christ requires not only hands-on attention and effort. It has to be translated into life itself of the priests.
We have to look for finer ways to help priests become priests through and through, and not just part-time priests, for official use only. For sure, I have met hundreds of good priests. But I’ve also met a growing number of priests, young and old, with strange quirks and weird behavior.
The on-going formation of priests should be given more teeth in terms of more updated structures and cutting-edge programs that really are sensitive to the day-to-day life and challenges of priests. Charity should be the lifeblood of these means.
I get the impression that there are thousands out there who dare to expose themselves to priestly duties without the sufficient spirituality to carry them through. Many do not know how to pray, nor understand the value of sacrifice, the need for continuing ascetical struggle…
Ask them about “plan of life,” as mandated in many Church documents about priestly life and ministry, and you’d get a blank stare many times.
When they get into some predicament, many do not know where to go or are simply left to fend for themselves. Priestly fraternity and family life are good only in theory, not in practice. Fraternal corrections, mentioned in the gospel, are hardly done. The practice of confession and spiritual direction is almost extinct.
I’ve attended some collective means of formation for priests, and I often get a bad taste in my mouth afterwards. They are just so shallow, full of beautiful slogans and pietistic clichés, you immediately get the idea they’re just that—slogans and words and smiles and jokes. They seem unable to graduate from that level.
How to handle this situation is, of course, no easy task, especially for the bishops who have to be on the frontline in this concern. Many things are needed and have to be coordinated. But something has to be done, to arrest the drift to dangerous areas that the clergy is moving these days.
May the Year for Priests occasion a true, massive conversion in all of us priests. May a quantum leap in priestly holiness be achieved!
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