Reflections on the Priesthood (5)

By "Anne," A Lay Apostle

Priests must always look to Christ and His experience on earth. Did Christ always feel effective in His teaching and preaching?

Well, after Christ spoke the truth to Pilate, the people crucified Him. Does this mean Christ was ineffective and His service and suffering pointless and fruitless? Clearly not.

In the same way, often a priest will be denied immediate gratification in terms of witnessing the fruits of his labor, just as Christ, in His humanity, did not live to see what His three years of preaching and ultimate death on the cross would achieve. The priest, at ordination, agrees to share in this service and sacrifice and accepts that unlike an earthly bridge builder, he will not usually see the end result of his work until he reaches eternity.

This is all the more reason why the eternity of each priest will delight us. We will then certainly see the bridges built by each priest. We will see the elaborate benefits and interconnecting graces that pulled many of us back into the safety net of the family of God or that protected many of us from falling out of the safety net of the family of God. Indeed, only then will we see the intricate safety nets woven for us by each priest in his daily "yes" to Jesus Christ. How their constant labors represent God's love for each of us and how their daily service speaks to us of God's love present in each one of them. Oh, dear. It is so very clear that we do not love them enough.

In heaven, we will be filled with awe at the power of goodness that the Lord allowed to burst into the world in each daily Mass.

In heaven we will see the spectacular healings that took place through the Sacrament of Confession and the great calm that washed over anguished souls at the encounters with Christ they experienced through the Anointing of the Sick.

How grateful we will be in heaven when we witness what happened in our moment of Baptism and at our Confirmations.

At the other end of each of these experiences is a man, serving in his humanity.

Truly, each priestly act will be part of that priest's eternity and we will rejoice with each priest and for each priest at the reward he enjoys for his service to the kingdom.

I have often said that many priests underestimate the influence and impact they have on those they serve. For Catholics, the priestly presence is knitted into the most pivotal experiences of our lives.

Consider our First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, the Baptism of our children, the death of our loved ones, our own deaths. These life-changing moments are presided over by Christ through a priest. People remember with such gratitude the presence of the priest at the bedside of a dying family member and at their funerals. People, often in brokenness, look to the priest to make sense out of some of the tragic circumstances experienced during our time on earth.

Far from feeling unable or unequal to the task, the priest should accept that he, in his humanity, could disappoint, but Christ, in His divinity, will never disappoint. In other words, to repeat an important thought, the priest can rejoice and be at peace in the limitations of his humanity while constantly proclaiming the power of Christ's divinity.

For further information regarding the Lay Apostolate of Jesus Christ the Returning King, or to purchase Heaven Speaks booklets, please contact Direction for Our Times on the Web at www.directionforourtimes.com , or mail inquiries to the following address: 9000 West 81st St., Justice, IL  60458, U.S.A.