If you are paying very close attention, you will note a link has been removed at right. (And if you are paying that much attention, really--find something else to do!) I had a link to the The Democratic People's Republic of Elmo, which I have removed.
I linked it because I found it hilariously funny, though very strange, as you'll discover if you go there. Perhaps you won't see the humor. That's okay. As the saying goes, that's why God made not just vanilla ice cream, but chocolate and strawberry too.
However, a priest friend of mine, who clicked on it, and had a few laughs as well, found some comments there he was sure I wouldn't care to endorse and he's right. They were meant in jest, but they went too far.
Now, if this weblog were just about me, I'd say, so what? and leave the link there.
But ah, there's the rub: I am not simply a man-for-myself; I am a man-for-others.
That's part-and-parcel of--indeed, it's essential to--what the Priesthood of Jesus Christ is.
A priest is a man-for-others. As the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen said so eloquently, a priest is both priest and victim, at once -- like Christ who makes himself present through the priest.
Its one thing if I sully my own name; but what if I sully his priesthood, his Church? Ah, that is not mine to do!
The truth is, none of us is really a man-for-ourselves. Recall the dead-soul words, so long ago: "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain asked, guarding the truth of what had become of his brother, Abel. The answer, always, is "yes!"
It's a relatively minor thing; there are lots of relatively minor things such as these, in a priest's life. How do I wear my hair? Do I make that joke? Should I go to that event? One can take it too far; but one can fail to take it far enough.
1 comment:
I'm glad you're aware of being a 'man for others.' And, I think it's good to extend that to us lay folks too; it's something we can all take to heart. We can all be men and women for others.
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