THE PRIEST: ICON OF CHRIST, ENABLER OF
SANCTITY
By George Weigel
The following is an address by George Weigel
to a diocesan luncheon in Charleston, South
Carolina, following that local Church's Chrism
Mass on April 15.
For some 16 months now, we have become accustomed to speaking in
terms of a Church in crisis. The crisis caused by clergy sexual
abuse and episcopal misgovernance is, in my judgment as a
student of U.S. Catholic history, the greatest crisis in the
history of the Church in America. It is that because it touches
truths that are the very "constitution" of the Church, as that
"constitution" was given to us by Christ himself.
That is why it is very important to remember that, in the
thought world of the Bible, the word "crisis" has two meanings.
The first is the familiar sense of the word: a "crisis" is a
cataclysmic upheaval, a breaking-up of what had seemed fixed and
sure. And we have certainly experienced "crisis" in that sense,
these past 16 months. But the world of the Bible also thinks of
"crisis" as opportunity: a moment ripe with the potential for
deeper conversion. If crisis-as-cataclysm is to become
crisis-as-opportunity in the Catholic Church in America, then we
must recognize that, at the bottom of the bottom line, today's
crisis is a crisis of discipleship; a crisis of fidelity. And
the only remedy for a crisis of fidelity is ... fidelity.
Every crisis in Catholic history is a crisis caused by an
insufficiency of saints, by a deficit in sanctity. Because
sanctity is every Christian's baptismal vocation, this dimension
of the crisis touches all of us in the community of the
baptized. All of us have a responsibility for helping turn
crisis-as-cataclysm into crisis-as-opportunity. Exercising that
responsibility requires all of us, in whatever Christian state
of life we live, to examine our consciences and reflect on
whether we are leading thoroughly, intentionally, radically
Christian lives of discipleship, staking all on the Lord,
reminding ourselves every day that it is his kingdom for whose
coming we pray, and his Church in which we serve.
The Gospel scene of Jesus and Peter on the Lake of Galilee can
help us here. When Peter keeps his eyes fixed on the Lord, he
can do what seems impossible, he can walk on water. When he
averts his gaze from Christ and begins looking elsewhere for his
security, he sinks. We, too, can do the seemingly impossible if
we keep our gaze fixed on Christ. When we look elsewhere, we
sink. That is as true of the Church as it is of individual
Christians. And that is why sanctity is the answer to today's
Catholic crisis.
What is sanctity? Sanctity is living in the truth living in the
truth about the human condition revealed by Christ. Living in
that truth, we become the kind of people who can live with God
forever. That is why the Holy Father, speaking to the cardinals
of the United States just a year ago this week, said that
today's crisis grew out of a failure to live and teach the
fullness of Catholic truth. When we fail to teach the truth and
live the truth, when we substitute what we imagine to be our
truths for what Christ has revealed as the truth, the way, and
the life, we do not live as the saints we are called to be --
the saints we must be, if we are to live forever, happily with
God.
That, in turn, means that there can be no reform of the Church
without reference to form. And the "form" of the Church is
established by Christ, not by us. The Church is Christ's, not
ours. We do not create the Church; nor did our Christian
ancestors; nor do theologians, pastoral consultants, or even the
donors to the diocesan annual fund. The Church was, is, and
always will be created by Christ who rather underscored the
point when he told his disciples, "You did not choose me, but I
chose you" [John 15:16].
On the day of the Chrism Mass, it has been customary for
centuries to reflect on that distinctive part of the
Christ-given form of the Church that is the ministerial
priesthood. And so permit me a few thoughts on priests and
priesthood.
As wave after wave of clerical scandal broke over the Catholic
Church in the United States in the early months of 2002, it was
frequently said, if not always heard or reported, that there are
tens of thousands of good and faithful priests in America men
who have kept the promises they solemnly swore on the day of
their ordination and are spending out their lives in service to
Christ and the Church. That is correct. To note this fact of
Catholic life today is not, as some have suggested, an evasion
of hard truths that must be faced and dealt with; at least it
need not be an evasion.
The fact of priestly fidelity is every bit as much part of the
story of the Catholic Church today as are the facts of clergy
sexual abuse and episcopal irresponsibility. The fidelity of so
many priests is a great grace. It is also a tremendous resource
for the reform of the priesthood that is imperative if today's
crisis is to become an opportunity for genuinely Catholic
reform. That reform cannot mean turning the Catholic priesthood
into an imitation of the various types of ministry found in
other Christian communities. The reform of the Catholic
priesthood cannot mean making Catholic priests more like
Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregationalist,
or Unitarian clergy. It can only mean a reform in which Catholic
priests become more intensely, intentionally and manifestly
Catholic.
While clerical sexual misconduct has as many explanations as
there are complex human personalities, the fundamental reality
of clerical sexual abuse is infidelity. A man who truly believes
himself to be what the Catholic Church teaches -- that a priest
is a living icon, a re-presentation of the eternal priesthood of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God -- does not behave as a sexual
predator. He cannot behave that way. Yes, he sins. Yes, he is an
earthen vessel holding a great supernatural treasure. He may
give an uninspiring sermon. His choice of music for Sunday Mass
may be dreadful. He may be inept in some of his counseling. But
he does not use his office to seduce and sexually abuse minors.
Nor does he engage in any other form of sexual misconduct.
The Catholic Church has long taught that what a priest is makes
possible what he does at the altar, in the confessional, in the
pulpit, at the bedside of a dying parishioner. In an ironic,
even paradoxical way, the truth of that teaching has been
clarified by the scandal of clergy sexual abuse. If a man does
not believe that what he is, by virtue of his ordination, makes
the eternal priesthood of Christ present in the world, his
desires may overwhelm his personality and a life intended to be
a radical gift of self can turn into a perverse assertion of
self, in which his priestly office becomes a tool of seduction.
Priests are made, not born. Although his discipleship must
deepen during the course of his ministry, a man must be a
thoroughly converted Christian disciple before he can be a
priest. Discipleship is the prerequisite for priesthood. A
Christian disciple is someone whose life is formed by the
conviction that, in looking on the cross of Christ, one is
looking at the central truth of human history: God's love for
the world, which was so great that God gave his son for its
redemption. Convinced of that, a man ordained a priest becomes
another Christ, an "alter Christus," another witness to the
truth that God intends for humanity a destiny beyond our
imagining: eternal life within the light and love of the Holy
Trinity.
That is why Pope John Paul II has insisted throughout his
pontificate that the priesthood is about service, not power; the
ministerial priesthood fosters the participation and
collaboration of all the members of Christ's mystical body in
the life and work of the Church. To put it another way, the
priest must be convinced that the story the Church tells is not
just the Church's story. It is the world's story read in its
true amplitude.
A priest must believe that what Catholicism offers the world is
not another brand-name product in a supermarket of
"spiritualities," but the truth about itself, its origins and
its destiny; not a truth that's true "for Christians," or a
truth that's true "for Catholics," but the truth. The Catholic
priest who is a genuinely converted Christian fully understands
that truth in this world emerges from many sources, including
other Christian communities, other world religions, and the
worlds of science and culture. The genuinely converted Catholic
priest also understands that all those other truths tend toward
the one Truth, who is the God and Father of Jesus Christ. That
is what he bears witness to the world.
By his ordination and his vow of celibacy, the Catholic priest
is set apart from the world for the world's sake. In a culture
like ours, his life is a sign of contradiction to much of what
the world imagines to be true. The priest is not a contrarian,
however. His being-different is not an end in itself, an
indulgence in idiosyncrasy. The priest is a sign of
contradiction so that the world can learn the truth about itself
and can be converted. The radical openness to serve others that
should be manifest in a happy, holy priest's life is a living
lesson to the world that self-giving, not self-assertion, is the
royal road to human flourishing.
The priest's obedience to the truths of faith, and the
liberating power that unleashes in him to be a man for others,
reminds the world that truth binds and frees at the same time.
Lived in integrity, the priest's celibacy is a powerful witness
to the truth that there are things worth dying for including
dying-to-self for. The priest's renunciation of the good of
marital communion and the good of physical paternity is a
reminder that those two things are, in fact, good, and should
make possible in him a genuine and generous spiritual paternity.
By teaching the truths of Catholic faith, by sanctifying his
people through the sacraments, and by governing justly that
portion of God's people entrusted to his pastoral authority, the
Catholic priest enables men and women to become saints to become
the kind of people who can live with God forever.
All of this is intended to prepare men and women for eternal
life in perfect communion with each other and with God. It is
intended to make saints better, to cooperate with God in God's
making of saints. That is what a Catholic priest is for. That is
why and how the ordained priesthood lifts up and ennobles the
priestly people of God. And that is why a Catholic priest must
understand himself to be what he is: a living icon of the
eternal priesthood of Christ and order his life, in all its
facets, according to that awesome truth.
More than six decades ago, Father Karl Rahner, one of the
theological architects of the Second Vatican Council, addressed
a gathering of priests on the day they renewed their vows to
Christ and the Church. Father Rahner's words are as appropriate
today as they were then.
Here they are, in a slight paraphrase, as if he, a fellow
priest, were addressing you, priests who have today renewed the
vows of your ordination day; as if he, through his
fellow-priests, were addressing all of us, calling us to support
these brothers ordained to the service of the Church:
"Dear Fathers: This renewal of our ordination is God's work in
you. ... The Spirit which was poured out on you on the day of
your ordination is here with you, in this hour of the renewal of
your ordination. He wants to give himself even more intimately
to you, wants to fill all the hidden chambers of your hearts,
wants to live the whole extent of your life.
"This is the Spirit of the Father and the Son: the Spirit of
rebirth and the divine sonship of men; the Spirit who is also
Lord of this age; the Spirit who transforms the world into a
great sacrifice of praise to the Father, just as you by his
power change bread and wine into the body and blood of the one
holy victim; this is the Spirit of witness to Christ, the Spirit
who convicts the world of sin, justice and judgment; the Spirit
of strength and comfort; the Spirit who pours the love of God
into your hearts and who is the pledge and first fruits of
eternal life; the Spirit who awakens new life out of sin and
darkness, and who includes even sin in his mercifulness; the
Spirit whose gifts are love, joy, peace, patience, mildness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and chastity; the Spirit of
freedom and of courageous confidence; the Spirit who changes
everything and leads everything into death, because he is the
infinity of life and can never rest in the frozen form of a
finite life that is not going to advance any further; the Spirit
who, amidst change and decay, remains eternally and restfully
the same; the Spirit of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, who
transforms the helpless words of human preaching into the word
and act of God; the Spirit who lets forgiveness on earth become
reconciliation in heaven; the Spirit who turns your acts into
Christ's sacraments.
"This Spirit is the spirit of your ordination day; this same
Spirit is the spirit of the renewal of your vows and your
priesthood. If you allow him to come fully into your life,
everything that you are, and do and suffer will be consecrated
into a priestly life. For this same Spirit saw and loved
everything on the day of your ordination; therefore, nothing can
withstand the transforming fire of the Spirit's love in your
life, if only you give it room, if only you say: Do You, O God,
ordain me anew today."
In the mid-'30s, as totalitarian shadows lengthened across
Europe, Pope Pius XI memorably said, "Let us thank God that he
makes us live among the present problems. It is no longer
permitted to anyone to be mediocre." That saying, a favorite of
Dorothy Day, might also be our watchword in the months and years
ahead, as we work together in the great cause of authentic
Catholic reform. Catholic Lite is Catholic mediocrity.
Rediscovering and embracing the adventure of orthodoxy, the high
adventure of Christian fidelity is the path from crisis to
authentically Catholic reform.
We all fail, sometimes grievously. That is no reason to lower
the bar of expectation. We seek forgiveness and reconciliation,
and try again. Lowering the bar of spiritual and moral
expectation demeans the faith and demeans us. Catholics today
are capable of spiritual and moral grandeur, and indeed want to
be called to that greatness. That is what Vatican II meant by
the "universal call to holiness," and that is what is available
to all of us in the Church, whatever missteps the institution of
the Church makes.
Sanctity is available. And sanctity is what will transform
crisis-as-cataclysm into crisis-as-opportunity. In the universal
call to holiness, and in the generous response to it that can be
forthcoming, lies the future of genuinely Catholic reform. So,
once again: "Let us thank God that he makes us live among the
present problems. It is no longer permitted to anyone to be
mediocre."
George Weigel,
a Senior Fellow of the
Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Roman
Catholic theologian and one of America's leading
commentators on issues of religion and public
life. He holds the William E. Simon Chair in
Catholic Studies at EPPC. He
is
the author of Witness to Hope: The Biography of
John Paul II, published by HarperCollins.
.
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