Praying for priests

In a few days we will begin the dawn Masses or simbang gabi; our priests can use more prayers from the faithful during this season when their days become more hectic than usual.

Indeed, as we have heard some of our priests lament, between dawn and night Masses, there is hardly any time left for deep reflection in order to prepare edifying homilies to feed the Lord’s sheep.  So, in gratitude to God and in fulfillment of a Christian’s duty we share their burden by praying and offering sacrifices for them.

Since the earliest days of Christianity, the people of God have always been praying for priests.  Acts 12:2-5 says, “He put Peter in prison, assigning four squads of four soldiers each to guard him in turn… All the time Peter was under guard the Church of God prayed for him unremittingly.”  In Thessalonians 5:25, Paul concludes his inspired letter thus, “Pray for us, my brothers.”  The first pope (Peter) needed prayers then; the present pope (Francis) needs prayers now.  The Apostle to the Gentiles (Paul) asked for prayers; so do priests and religious now, whether in the metropolis or in mission lands.

The priests with us in the most densely populated regions where distractions and temptations abound, need our prayers—intensified prayers.  This call to prayer might seem to some a mere spurt of piety, but truth to tell, it’s arising from my remembrance of certain homilies at some of the simbang gabi Masses I have heard over the years.  Sad to say, ill prepared (albeit well-intentioned) homilies—would make these Holy Masses sound more like entertainment than worship.

With all due respect, I say that it is not poor time management that results in mediocre homilies or robs the priest of the vital moments for silent prayer.  These are but symptoms; the real malady may be a fading sense of the Eucharist’s importance in the priest’s ministry.

Once, I happened to be sharing a meal with a priest and a handful of laypersons.  Shortly before the scheduled Mass, one of us said, “Father, we’d better get going; Mass starts in 10 minutes.”  The priest, grinning while emptying the wine bottle into some guests’ half-finished glasses, said, “Relax.  You’re not going to be late.  Mass will not start without me.”  Silence followed; we laypersons exchanged meaningful glances. 

“Mass will not start without me”—uttered with impunity, as if the Mass were all about the priest.  I heard this line again from two other priests on separate occasions (one during simbang gabi season), that I began to wonder if this was a standard joke among priests.  If it’s a joke, it’s certainly far more damaging than any off colored one. 

St. Teresa of Avila, the first woman Doctor of the Church, made praying for priests a principal duty of her Carmelite family.  In Chapter 3 of her book The Way of Perfection, she writes with empathy:  “These (preachers and theologians) have to live among men and associate with men and stay in palaces and sometimes even behave as people in palaces do in outward matters. Do you think, my daughters, that it is an easy matter to have to do business with the world, to live in the world, to engage in the affairs of the world, and, as I have said, to live as worldly men do, and yet inwardly to be strangers to the world, and enemies of the world—to be, in short, not men but angels?”  Then she adds, “This is not the time for seeing imperfections in those who must teach”, and urges her nuns to occupy themselves begging God’s help for the Church’s pastors.  Following St. Teresa we close our eyes to our pastors’ flaws and focus instead on “the beautiful hands of a priest”, actually the title of the following poem by an unknown author.

We need them in life’s early morning,
We need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of true friendship,
We seek them when tasting life’s woes.

At the altar each day we behold them,
And the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their greatness;
Their dignity stands all alone;

And when we are tempted and wander,
To pathways of shame and of sin,
It’s the hand of a priest that will absolve us,
Not once, but again and again.

And when we are taking life’s partner,
Other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite us
Is the beautiful hand of a priest.

God bless them and keep them all holy,
For the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better
Than to ask Him to guide thee and bless?

When the hour of death comes upon us,
May our courage and strength be increased,
By seeing raised over us in blessing
The beautiful hands of a priest.

Defending Francis

This is to fulfill a promise made to a friend who emailed me—soliciting my comments—a 12-page document chronicling the liberal pronouncements of Pope Francis that have shocked, stunned, angered, and frightened certain Catholics because they are seen to give enemies and critics of the Church reason to rejoice.  I promised to make those comments and for whatever they’re worth publish them in this column.  I didn’t try to make a coherent, individual article out of it; as requested I merely typed my comments casually as the lengthy email unfolded.  So here goes—for clarity, the quotations from Pope Francis are in bold type, my comments follow in regular font.   

“The Church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, little rules.” 

So what’s the fuss about?  Note that Francis said SOMETIMES.  He didn’t say ALWAYS.  There could be some truth to that.  Small things and little rules could worm their way into our consciousness until we, the Church, are so bogged down by the work of the Lord that we neglect the Lord of the work.  It’s just a word of caution.

“Heads of the Church have often been narcissists, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers.”

Now, Francis should have used the word “some” to refer to the “heads of the Church”.   Without that “some”, this statement sounds generalizing, ergo, unfair.  Francis here probably has in mind certain heads of the Church—for doesn’t that happen sometimes to anyone who speaks and gets carried away?  Or maybe he did say “some heads” but the reporter dropped it.  Forgive him, and look around.  Do we not also see some Church leaders who are just as Francis says, “narcissistic, flattered and thrilled by their courtiers”?  If we’re honest enough we might even add more adjectives in the same vein.

“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods…. The Church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.”

How touchy could we get about this?  Perhaps Francis is seeing something off-balance, some flaws in the pro-lifers’ approach, who knows?  It’s just a remark—he didn’t make an encyclical around it, so take it as a challenge to examine ourselves.  Sometimes we pro-lifers do something counter-productive, too, like in-fighting, an indication that our zeal is misguided.

“We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards.” 

I see nothing wrong with that statement, except that for me, balance is balance, no such thing as “new” or “old”, and balance translates to equanimity, a grace we receive when we (as Mary says in Cana) “do as He tells you to do.”

“The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God.”

Fantastic! Any prophet would have said that.  Priests, pastors and bishops ought to care for souls, and to be “at the service of the people of God.”  What we ought to ask is, Why did Francis say “the Church should go back….”?  Does it mean he thinks priests, pastors and bishops have ceased to serve as anymore as curers of souls?

(Address to inter-religious assembly at Refugee Service):  “Many of you are Muslims, of other religions, and have come from different countries, from different situations. We must not be afraid of the differences! Fraternity makes us discover that they are a treasure, a gift for everyone! We live in fraternity!”              Wise words.  It doesn’t mean Francis is converting to Islam, or denouncing the tenets of the Catholic Church.  Shouldn’t those words give hope and encouragement to the assembly?  A sense of fraternity—no fear of the differences and a conviction that we are all brothers—is the beginning of inter-religious dialogue.  Put a holier-than-thou person at the head of a peace mission and that mission is doomed from the start.

(Address at Shrine of St. Cajetan): “Do you need to convince the other to become Catholic? No, no, no! Go out and meet him, he is your brother. This is enough. Go out and help him and Jesus will do the rest.”

Great!  This simply means Francis wants us to stop talking and instead start living our faith!  Words alone, or an unexamined desire to convert others, can never convince people to become Catholic.  It’s our actions that do attract others to the faith we profess.  Words come from our mouths; the light of Christ radiates from within. 

“The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old.  The old need care and companionship; the young need work and hope…This, to me, is the most urgent problem that the Church is facing.” 

Francis says specifically, “This, to me..”  Three important words—meaning it is but his opinion, he doesn’t claim to speak for the College of Bishops.  He only speaks as and for himself, Jorge Bergoglio, and he is just one man, and every man has a right to speak his mind out, even if he is pope.  And here Francis is simply reminding us there are other serious issues to address.  This is a good reminder, especially to those who fight only the big fights, to be in the limelight, to be known as crusaders, in other words, those soldiers with self-serving intentions.  (If you say “Ouch!” then perhaps you are one of those Francis is reminding).

      Furthermore, Francis here sees that unemployed youth go astray (trying to find meaning in their life through drugs, free “safe” sex, hedonism, and a make-love-not-babies mentality—the very evils we pro-lifers are fighting!  Francis sees that the loneliness of the old could dispose them to suicide, thereby tending to justify the champions of euthanasia and assisted suicide.  Why should his words be taken as denigrating pro-life efforts?  Why mock him if he sees youth unemployment and loneliness of the old as “most serious of the evils…”?  Isn’t he merely pointing to two of the roots that cause the evil we are fighting against now?  Francis is in fact (by opening our eyes to those roots of evil) making the fight lighter for those to come after us.  Give the guy the benefit of the doubt—he’s on our side!

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" 

 Francis says IF, that is conditional.  IF someone searches…and has good will… who is he to judge?  Who are WE to judge?  IF implies that the gay person seeking the Lord with good will is going through a process—and that takes time—and a judgmental attitude from us (straights) would surely threaten to derail him from that path to the Lord.)  This statement is not to be taken as a papal push for “gay rights”—perhaps just a spur of the moment utterance from a man who acknowledges his own sinfulness.

“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does He endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?'  We must always consider the person.”

Isn’t this very Christ like?  Francis evaded the trap of the provocateur by firing back with a question leading to a truth—God looks at everyone with love.  Again, this shouldn’t be taken to mean Francis is poised to defy the teachings of the Church on such matters; he’s simply being kind, just as Jesus would be kind to, say, the adulterous woman about to be stoned.

The pope is human, too.  Just like some of our bishops here (who, by the way, sometimes admirably speak as ordinary citizens but are quoted by media as the voice of the whole Church), Francis can speak as an ordinary citizen, too, and may be misconstrued by an uninformed media.  Francis is not always speaking ex cathedra—we can glean from his context that sometimes he speaks as Bishop of Rome, as an ordinary parish priest, or as ex-archbishop of Buenos Aires; at times he makes off-the-cuff remarks that make him sound like an ordinary Catholic guzzling beer at a billiard hall.  We have to try and see where Francis is coming from.  Have faith. Hang on.  Pray more for Francis.  If we are so easily angered by his statements that the enemies of the Church feel triumphant about, then—believe it or not—we are lending our strength to these very enemies.  And that’s the truth.