Each of us have an image of a father in our memory. My own dad, as prone to human weakness as the next guy, was a loving and admirable father to our family. As a child, I idealized my dad. I have a much deeper appreciation for him now. In my spiritual life, I remember the great examples of fatherhood provided by the clergy in the parishes where I grew up. Msgr. Arthur Gramer (see picture) was a very kind and dignified man and a devout Christian. He is who you want your parish priest to be. The list of priests I have met that inspired me along the way, some of whom are my friends and peers, is very long.
The humanity of priests can be disappointing or shocking.
When I attended Salpointe I became interested in being a Carmelite because of one Carmelite priest who took a very healthy and wholesome interest in us as young men. Largely due to his influence I and two of my classmates went into the Carmelite formation program to discern our vocations. During my first year in the seminary, Fr. Sean left Salpointe, the priesthood and the Carmelites, eventually marrying. That disappointed me.
I have met priests that have shocked me. I began my work on the Diocesan Tribunal soon after being admitted into the practice of law in 1982. The Officialis at the time, Msgr. Robert was a pleasant enough man, who left a few years after I started on the Tribunal to continue his studies in canon law. Actually, he was a serial pedophile and a predator and had been sent away from our Diocese. That came out later. Fr. Juan Guillen, who I worked with at Immaculate Conception Parish in Yuma for four years was arrested one day and taken out in handcuffs if front of our office staff, parishioners, a school yard full of children and me. He was sent to prison for his crimes. That was shocking.
Corruption in the priesthood must be opposed.
Human beings can screw up anything good, even religion and family. Religion should keep us in touch with God. It is the place where we draw close to other believers. Families are the place where we should learn trust, love and how to live. When either religion or family are corrupted, that is very bad because both have such an important role in our lives.
Why did the prophets attack religious leaders? Why did the people put these criticisms of religion into the scriptures? Because they understood the importance of religion and that it had to be saved from the corruption of human beings. They railed against the abuses of priests and the temple to protect the faith of Israel. Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament and points towards the priesthood of Christ. The Book of Malachi was written to correct the scandalous religious behavior of temple priests. The Temple priests’ disrespected God, according to Malachi, by offering blind, lame and sick animals for sacrifice. Apparently, they thought nobody would notice. Malachi noticed. Someone always notices.
Jesus spoke today of the corruption of religious leaders. When Jesus said “call no man father” he didn’t mean that we should call our dads by their first names or that I should call Msgr. Gramer, ‘Art.’ Christ warns how the goodness of fatherhood can become corrupted in our families and religion when human sinfulness is passed off as divine reality. When we look at our priests, like when we look at our moms and dads, we should see someone who reflects God’s love but is not God himself. Psalm 131 reminds us that mothers like fathers also reflect God’s love. Love is ultimately rooted in God.
The importance of religious vocations!
So why be a parish priest or a religious?
First, because the mission of the Church is of ultimate importance. It is about the salvation of souls and, given the times, a necessary voice addressing the increasing the irrational and angry discourse directed at the weak and the scapegoats in our community.
Second, if you have the maturity for a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, it is a happy and challenging life full of meaning and purpose. I have never doubted the importance of serving as a parish priest.
The vestments that a priest wears at mass are supposed to remind everyone, including the priest, of the beauty of the God we worship and the reflection of that God in the souls a priest serves. I have met fathers of families and parish priests that I admire and love. I have met fathers of families and parish priests who have failed, sometimes miserably, in that essential obligation to love. The Lord reminds us that what makes a father or a mother in a family is the same ultimate reality that makes a good parish priest. Each must reflect, always in some small, flawed human way, God’s love for his people.