Priesthood = Salvation
September 22, 2024
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
A possessed woman, snarled at Saint John Vianney and said: “If there were three like you on earth, my kingdom would be destroyed. You have taken more than eighty thousand souls from me.”
This statement by Satan toward St. John Vianney is very interesting, because St. Vianney is the only priest out of thousands whom the Church has formally declared a saint (canonized) who was just a parish priest. Not a parish priest and a founder of a religious order, or a parish priest who went onto become a bishop, missionary, monk, theologian, etc. He was a parish priest throughout his priesthood, the only one ever to be declared a saint in 2000 years of Christian history. That says tons about St. John Vianney, and a few things about parish priests, frequently the only priests most Catholics will ever know.
1. It is so hard for a priest living in the world (parish), ministering to people living in the world, to rise above that world enough to become a canonized saint. As a rule, parish priests have the same hobbies, pastimes, and frequently the same sins as other professional men in a parish, which isn’t a recipe for sainthood (screens, stuff, vacations, hanging out, etc.). After all, we want our priests to be “relatable,” and they don’t want to be any lonelier than they already are. Fitting in and being worldly becomes so natural to them they stop noticing anything wrong with it.
In the case of St. John Vianney, his parishioners knew they had a saint right off the bat, and they didn’t want one. People want their priests to inspire them without taking Christ too seriously. St. Vianney’s parishioners were writing letters to their bishop trying to get rid of him for the first eight years he was their pastor. Even his fellow priests circulated and signed a letter to be sent to the bishop to get rid of him. The letter fell into St. Vianney’s possession, he signed it and passed it along to the next priest to sign. It never made it to the bishop.
2. Familiarity breeds contempt. We can’t imagine that a saint could be someone we know. Saints live in monasteries on the other side of the world somewhere, with the stigmata, or somewhere else in the past, right? We’re tempted to see the imperfections in the parish priest we know. And since saints are perfect like God, the parish priest I know couldn’t be one. FYI: while saints are heroically holy in their own way, they aren’t God, and they aren’t perfect.
Be grateful for the priest you have. Don’t go to a dance with a date wishing you were with someone else, you’ll spoil it for both of you. Dance with the one you brought. Just as your priest is supposed to pray for and do penance for you; you too need to pray for and do penance for your priest! And not until he’s gone, but for life, just like a family member. They are called “Father” for a reason, and there are good dads and bad dads and we must pray for both.
3. Without meaning to, we take them for granted. Since we have always had one, we assume we always will. We shouldn’t. In fact, most parishioners everywhere think they are entitled to one, but we aren’t.
My excuse for writing about the priesthood today comes from finding “Priesthood” Sunday on the calendar next Sunday, September 29, and wanting to write about it for a while in connection to the Archdiocese of Seattle to which we belong.
Currently, I’m the only assigned priest amongst our three communities from Vancouver to Stevenson: Holy Redeemer, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Our Lady Star of the Sea. A second priest, Fr. Bala (called a vicar), is supposed to arrive in mid to late October. I expect him to arrive. Which is to say, nothing is certain in this life. We were supposed to have another priest arrive at the end of June and that didn’t work out. Half of the priests serving parishes in this country are from foreign countries. As the world falls apart in the coming years, there is a good chance that America will lose many of its foreign priests. What then? While we shouldn’t worry about the unknown, it is helpful to recognize our own biases about somehow always having a priest and wanting one we like. What would change for us personally if we didn’t have Mass at our preferred location? There are people in the world who travel for more than an hour one way every week for Sunday Mass. What would happen to the practice of our faith if we couldn’t attend Mass where we wanted to? Would we give up or become even more determined?
Apart from all the good priests do through their teaching and religious and moral example, the priesthood is necessary for salvation. Without the sacrifice of priests, the human race would have perished with Adam upon leaving Eden. “What” you say?! I’m serious about the importance of the priesthood for the continuation of the human race and our eternal salvation.
From the dawn of creation God has demanded that humanity offer Him ritual sacrifice to acknowledge His dominion over us, and as a symbolic offering for our sins. Every culture in the world from the first recorded cultures, has had priests offering sacrifice to God or the gods. Since the Last Supper and Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, ordained priests have been offering Jesus Christ Himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; not as a symbolic offering for our sins, but as the literal offering of the Son of God to God the Father, in payment for our sins. Without that sacrifice, the human race would perish as readily as the air in a ship sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever committed a mortal sin? The only way to remove mortal sins after baptism is through a priest’s absolution. In short, eternal salvation rides on the priesthood. For better or for worse, Jesus Christ established His Church upon twelve priests and their descendants in the sacrament of Holy Orders.
My appreciation for the importance of the priesthood has grown over the past 20 years of my being one. I am so grateful to Almighty God for this incredible and rare vocation, one that perhaps saved my own life. I know it has saved many others, I see it all the time, and for that I am humbled beyond measure.
Please appreciate the sacrifice seminarians, priests, bishops, and consecrated religious have made for God and you. Please pray and do penance for them. They in turn will continue to pray for and do penance for you. We need each other to give God glory and get to heaven.
May Almighty God Bless You,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
