The priesthood is one of the greatest proofs of God’s immense love for us. In this year of the priest, there is so much to rejoice in and reflect upon. One of the more beautiful aspects of the priesthood is spiritual fatherhood which provides us with gazillions of reasons to be grateful to God. I recently did a search on spiritual fatherhood and was surprised at how much has been written on the topic. How I wish I had the gift of words or a brilliant brain to express the immensity of God’s gift by giving us spiritual fathers to engender the faith in us and bring us up in the ways of God, however, my grateful heart will have to suffice and I trust that the Lord will supply the rest.
The whole mystery of a priest’s fecundity is his holiness of life. The closer he resembles Jesus, the more fruitful will his ministry be and the more spiritual children he will bring into the world. That kind of responsibility would scare anyone to death if it were to be accomplished on one’s own, but Jesus can do all, and He provides the choicest, most powerful graces and pours them out upon His brother priests so that they can bring His love into the world. It really is all the work of God and yet it takes the constant YES of a priest to surrender himself totally into God’s hands…to be an instrument of the Divine and thus accomplish God’s will. A priest must truly resemble Christ in all of the virtues; he must be imbibed with deep faith, humility, obedience, trust in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and most of all possess great love. It must be a Divine and sacrificial love resembling his Savior, who came to be the servant of all. The same could be said of all of us who are baptized into the common priesthood of the faithful. In a special way, though, it applies to priests who are “Other Christs.” They bring us Christ, not only in the Eucharist and in the other Sacraments, but in their very own bodies which are given for us. St. Paul speaks about this beautifully in his letter to the Ephesians when he exhorts husbands to love their wives “as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for Her” (see Eph 5:25). Since the priest is wedded to the Church (the body of Christ = us), he is also called to give himself up for us. The fruitfulness of his life will be made evident to the extent that he does this.
It is what true fatherhood is all about, the total donation of self for the good of the children. It is a miracle of love! God has chosen certain men to show us the father’s love and to teach us what it means to be children of God. And we as children are often so ungrateful for the gifts our fathers give us. Not only do they give us the gift of themselves, but they provide for us in so many ways. Hidden ways.
A father is first of all an authority figure. He is the head of the family. We can learn much from St. Joseph about the poverty of spirit required to possess true authority which always is a gift from God. Jesus teaches us, Himself, what kind of authority is wielded in the kingdom of heaven…the authority of loving service. A father loves and cares for his family. He nourishes them and provides for their needs. He shelters them and guides them along safe roads. He protects them from danger. Our spiritual fathers nourish us with the Word and Sacraments, they provide for our spiritual needs, guide us along the safe roads of true doctrine and protect us from the evil one by their prayers and sacrifices. They teach us by their words and most of all by their example how to be a follower of Christ. And their great desire is to bring all children into the kingdom of God for His greater glory and our unending joy and eternal beatitude. What a beautiful plan of God!
So what happens when a priest is not given over entirely to Christ? What happens when we don’t SEE Jesus in our priests? Blessed Columba Marmion says, “Exterior humility is necessary for a priest for the very reason that he is a person of authority. He is, in the public view, a candle placed upon the candlestick: positus super candelabrum (Mt 5:15), his words, his gestures, his attitudes are all the object of notice. If these are open to criticism, if they allow petty preoccupations of self-love to appear, this is a betrayal of the faithful, who like to find in their priest, combined with that perfect dignity befitting the minister of the Lord, something of the profound humility of the divine Master.” (See Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ, The Ideal of the Priest pp 139-140). A betrayal of the faithful is the same as saying a betrayal of the family. Marmion also speaks of priests grumbling against legitimate authority and calls it evil. If grumbling is evil for the father, it is just as evil for the children. Grumbling about our priests is the least productive thing we can do when we are faced with such a sad situation of betrayal. How many times do we hear people, even ourselves, complain about this or that priest and how he said or did this or that. And yet how many of us pray for priests? How many make sacrifices for them? How many really love them enough to give up themselves for them as they have given themselves for us? We, as children of God, must honor our father and mother. We must do all we can to help our priests. We have all betrayed the Lord over and over again and He forgives us every time we repent. We must have the same spirit of forgiveness when it comes to priests who have not been faithful to the great dignity that is forever imprinted upon them by their ordination. The whole family needs to come together when there is a crisis and call upon the Lord for assistance. If there is a situation where a priest is clearly endangering the flock by his behavior or teaching, we must go to legitimate authorities and seek resolutions. We must also pray! The best thing we can do for our priests is to give them to the Blessed Mother, who, when she looks upon them, sees her son…sometimes she sees them covered with all sorts of filth, but she is a good mother who comes to clean them up and to help them and to restore in them the perfect image of her son that she sees. Let us all resolve to say one Hail Mary for our priests every single day. The power of one Hail Mary is extraordinary and all of us can do at least that. We should make it part of our daily routine to pray for our priests…one Hail Mary said with love can change the whole world and sanctify the entire priesthood. Oh, how fruitful our fathers will be then!
My Lord! My all! How can I ever thank you for sending me such a wonderful father? How can I express what is in my heart? For 10 years you were preparing my heart to receive you, emptying it of so much and getting it ready for you…all of my life, really. All of those years of praying for a spiritual father to guide me closer to you. You let me suffer so much by seeing your doctrine twisted by a chosen son of yours and yet you taught me to persevere in my prayer for him and in my prayer to you to help me. How many times I was lost in wanting you and yet not really knowing you? And then you sent me a real father who has birthed the faith in me. He has brought me so close to you and helps me at every turn to discover your infinite goodness. I see you in Him. I see all of your goodness, tenderness, beauty, and strength wrapped up in his heart. Every time I look at him, I see your love for me, for he loves me unconditionally as the best of fathers. Even though he sees how weak I am and how I can do nothing for you, dear Jesus, he still loves me. It is like a father who sees his own baby with some sort of disease and who needs extra special love and attention from its parents. Does he cast that baby aside or does he give it all the extra love he can to help the baby get well? Despite all of my miseries, his love is constant. It is the greatest proof of your love for me, Lord. Half the time I’m broken by it so incomprehensible it is that you have such a care for me…that you’ve chosen me from all eternity to be so close to you. He has taught me to pray, to really talk with you and to listen to you. He teaches me so much every day by his example. Make him a saint, Jesus. Give him all of your love. I have nothing to give him and there is nothing I can do for him except to beg you to give him your all. My favorite Mass intentions are for the clergy and I especially love when we say “For all those who have spiritual authority over us, let us pray to the Lord.” It is a way I can honor him in your presence. I wish you to give him everything. I see you already give him so much. He couldn’t love me if you first didn’t give him so many of your gifts. Continue to fill him with your patience and love…with all of your virtues. Overlook his weaknesses and pour forth your grace upon him. He is bringing you many children and forever I will belong to him in a special way because of the ties you have forged between us. I will be in heaven someday because he has taught me how to receive your mercy and your love. Jesus, how I love you and how glad I am that you love me so tenderly! Gentle Jesus, thank you! Help me to be a good daughter to him and to help him in his every need. Protect him from all evil. May our lovely Mother, Mary, hold him constantly in her arms and console him in every way until you receive him into heaven. Amen.Recommended Reading:
- Christ: The Ideal of the Priest by Blessed Columba Marmion
- The Mystery of Joseph by Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, OP
