Part 2 of 3: The Presence of the Priest

FACE TOWARD GOD

No priest is called by Christ to cultivate the aesthetic of helplessness, or to be a hand-wringer, or to be a mechanical dispensary of sacramental grace. He is to point the way to Christ by the example of his own person, that is to say, the people of this world must see in him the image of Christ-out-of-Egypt repatriating his chosen people to the heavenly Jerusalem.

With this said, a priest is not an endpoint or the ultimate result of a series of spiritual activities, experiences or tendencies. Rather, he sets his face toward God so that the faithful might do likewise.  [cf. Lk 9:51]

YIELDING TO FEAR

Mindful of the apostle's injunction--"Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness"  [Jas 3:1]--he understands that his desire for union with God will be tested harshly and judged strictly. While aided by the Spirit, many priests can fail to pursue the spiritual quest to its beatific end.

Many priests in this generation have yielded to fear and turned away from the narrow gate, the cross of Christ!  [cf. Mt 7:13-14]  Their failure to keep the evangelical counsels--to live simply, chastely and in obedience to lawful authority--will be the downfall of a multitude of souls, for children on milk cannot lead other children to solid food.

IMAGING ALPHA AND OMEGA

The faithful can perceive in the priest a reflection of the Alpha and Omega, the only-begotten Son through whom all things were made: By mediating the mysteries of salvation on the altar of the cross of Christ, the priest of God prophesies the omega, the cosmic perfection of the order of grace.

By his guileless and transparent acceptance of supernatural faith, hope and love, the priest images the alpha, the more perfect baptismal sign of rebirth in the Spirit and the regeneration of the human person "from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit".  [2Cor 3:17-18]  God confers on him, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a ministry of heaven and earth to reveal the form of Divine Truth and to form the Body of Christ.

JOHN THE BAPTIZER

He is sent into the disordered and darkened world to bear the life and the light of Christ. Greater than the vessel is the refreshment it pours out.Perhaps John the Baptizer appeared to the crowds to be more of a spectacle and a specter than an instrument of God.

Attired in camel's hair, a leather waistband, and feeding on locusts and honey in the Judean desert, the enormously popular erimite (Gk. of the desert) mesmerized large numbers of pilgrims with his denunciation of hypocrisy and his call to repentance.

GREATER IS GOD'S LOVE AND LIFE

Certainly he seemed acrid and forbidding as he shouted to the Pharisees and Sadducees from the rocks, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?"  [Mt 3:7]  and to the crowds from Jerusalem, "Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."  [Mt 3:10]

Greater than the act of personal surrender, then, is the divine love of God by which a young priest is configured to the high priesthood of Christ. More efficacious, also, than the priest's humble submission to obedience, is the divine life that God pours through him to slake his people's spiritual thirst. There is, therefore, much for the priest of God to contemplate in the way of duty, simplicity and humility.