A Sunday Thought About Priests
We live in a time of great confusion in our dear Holy Catholic Church. One source of that confusion is our priests - good, not so good, and bad.
No, I'm not being "judgmental" here. Just observing. Observing and responding to what I see, to those priests with which I've had experience since the great conflagration following Vatican II that enveloped and destroyed so much of what was good and beautiful.
In the burned out husk of our Holy Catholic Church men studied for the priesthood. Their formation suffered. In some instances, they were malformed. In many cases they were mis-formed, much of that by way of being misinformed.
Again, it's just what I've observed over the years. And while I've dealt with outright bad priests in my own way, I've felt the sting of those whose formation was sorely lacking. These were, and are today, basically good men who simply were not given the benefit of the centuries of the wisdom, good counsel and traditional formation that resulted in so many good priests in so many churches in so many parts of the world.
Recently, one of those basically good men displayed behavior likely borne of the deficient formation he received when the modernists ruled the seminaries in the Latin Rite church. (The Byzantine Rite seems not to have suffered this plague of modernism - so far.)
Maybe you know what I'm talking about. If so, here's something that clearly delineates for us what makes a good priest, and what a bad. It was written by St. John Eude - a great priest, missionary, and spiritual writer. I found this reprinted in Father Z's blog recently:
Bad priests are a sign of God’s anger
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. Instead of nourishing those committed to their care, they rend and devour them brutally. Instead of leading their people to God, they drag Christian souls into hell in their train. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its innocuous poison and its murky darkness. St. Gregory the Great says that priests and pastors will stand condemned before God as the murderers of any souls lost through neglect or silence….
When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people, and is visiting His most dreadful anger upon them. That is why He cries unceasingly to Christians, “Return, 0 ye revolting children . . . and I will give you pastors according to my own heart” (Jer. 3, 14-15). Thus, irregularities in the lives of priests constitute a scourge visited upon the people in consequence of sin.
A good priest…
He is an ever burning and shining light set in the candelabra of Mother Church, burning before God and shining before men: burning in his own love for God, shining by his charity for his fellow man; burning with the perfection of his inner life, shining by the perfection of his exterior deportment; burning in fervent prayer for his people, shining by his preaching of the word of God. The priest is a sun cheering the world by his presence and bearing. He brings heavenly blessings into every heart. He dispels the ignorance and darkness of error and radiates on every side bright beams of celestial light. He extinguishes sin and gives life and grace to the multitudes. He imparts new life to the weak, inflames the lukewarm, fires more ardently those who are aglow with the sacred flame of divine love. He is an angel purifying, illuminating and perfecting the souls that God has entrusted to him. He is a seraph sent by God to teach men the science of salvation which is concerned only with knowing and loving Almighty God and His Divine Son, Jesus Christ. The priest is an archangel and a prince of the heavenly militia, waging constant war against the devil who strives to drag countless souls into the depths of hell. He is the real father of the children of God, with a heart filled with love which is truly paternal. That love urges him to work unceasingly to nourish his flock with the bread U the sacred word and of the sacraments, to clothe the faithful with Christ and the Holy Ghost, to enrich them with celestial blessings and to secure for them every possible assistance in the salvation of their souls. …
He is a captain in the mighty army of God, always ready to battle for the glory of God and the defense of Holy Mother Church. He is ever prepared to lay siege to the world, the flesh and the devil. For him the conquest of kingdoms means only the salvation of souls for each soul is a kingdom more precious than all the empires of the world.
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