Together in Spirit

Browsing From the Desk of Fr. Mike

Called to the Priesthood

The priest of a church used to come to a hermit to consecrate the Eucharist for him so that he could receive it. But someone else visited the hermit and said evil things about that priest.  The next time the priest came to consecrate as usual the hermit was horrified and would not let him in.  The priest saw this and went away.  Then the hermit heard a voice saying: “Men have taken my judgement into their own hands.” He saw a vision of a well of gold and bucket of gold, and a rope of gold, and plenty of drinking water. He saw a leper emptying and refilling the bucket and he wanted to drink but did not because it was a leper who had poured the water out.  Then the voice came a second time to him and said: “Why don’t you drink this water? What does it matter who draws it? For he only draws it, and pours it out again.”  Then the hermit came to himself, and understood what the vision had meant.  He called the priest and made him consecrate the offering as before. (From the wisdom of the Desert Fathers)

From almost the beginning of the Church there have been disappointments with those who God has called into priesthood. We have the story of St. Peter who denies Jesus three times when he is threatened near the time of Jesus’ death.  We also have the story of St. Paul who was busy attempting to kill Christians before his conversion. The two argued with each other about the need for circumcision and it required the wisdom of the first Church synod in Jerusalem for this issue to be settled. There were arguments in Corinth about who the followers of the “best” apostles were.  (Indicating who might be the most important in the Corinthian community.) As these arguments and struggles continued throughout centuries there were always questions concerning the effectiveness of the priest’s work. Ultimately St. Augustine confronted these issues and spoke about how God works through his priests and their actions are “divine actions” even if the men performing them are not acting divinely themselves. Augustine pointed to the brokenness of Peter and Paul as he made clear that God has chosen to use human beings to bring His grace into the world. 

Sometimes a priest is not going to say what you might expect him to say or think the way you think he should, yet he, who shares the same Holy Spirit as you, is called by the Church (and God) to bring you the Eucharist just as we read in the above story from the desert fathers.

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