Reflections on the Priesthood (8)

By "Anne," A Lay Apostle

To make another point about the Lord's experience of an offering made by a man of his life in the priesthood, I view it from a different angle. I believe that when a man is ordained, when he enters this covenant, Jesus understands completely where the man experiences weakness. Jesus understands completely where the man is likely to trip and fall. Jesus sees both the strengths and the weaknesses in the man and Jesus provides the priest with His own kind of safety net. Jesus will literally wrap the priest in protection so that he does not do damage. The priest accepts this protection by committing to prayer and a disciplined prayer life. If the priest denies Jesus access, in other words, does not pray, Jesus is limited in the amount of protection He can give the priest and the priest is then more likely to do damage to the goals of God.

Now we must be clear that when Jesus acts through the priest in a sacramental way, heaven's goals are protected. The priest need not be particularly holy or indeed even in the state of grace for the validity of the sacrament performed by and through the priest. What I am saying is that if a priest is connected to Christ through prayer and silence, through a willingness to reduce his human will and replace it with the Lord's will, that priest will be better able to express and distribute God's mercy and love in his service. It can be no other way and the love of the First Priest will be communicated to others through each successive priest.

To be even more clear, I will say it this way. Others have told me that they can only confess to one priest because only this one priest understands them. I accept that certain personalities work well together and I accept that the methods of one priest may appeal to a given person more than the methods of another. At the same time, if I needed to have my Confession heard, I would go to any priest in complete confidence, regardless of the apparent condition of the priest.

The Lord is present in each priest. Each of us can trust in His presence.

To make a final point on this, most of us, priests included, have been exposed to priests who speak and act against the teaching of the Church. Clearly, if a priest is exhorting others to be disobedient to the Church or Church teaching, or if a priest himself is behaving sinfully or in a way that is disobedient to Church teaching, we can be sure that we are dealing with the self-will of the priest and not the divine will. Even in these cases though, the sacraments performed by the priest are valid and the sacramental graces present.

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.