Sans Halo or Horns

Loving our priests just the way they are

Jeremiah 28: 16-17

To the prophet Hananiah the prophet Jeremiah said: Hear this, Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, and you have raised false confidence in this people. For this, says the LORD, I will dispatch you from the face of the earth; this very year you shall die, because you have preached rebellion against the LORD. That same year, in the seventh month, Hananiah the prophet died.

            Yesterday at Mass something funny but also fearful happened.  At the beginning of the 10 a.m. Mass, Dc. Greg, as usual, started saying the “Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.”  Suddenly, the choir started singing, and cut him off.  Not to be pushed around, Dc. Greg spoke louder, but which only caused the choir to play louder.  Dc. Greg acquiesced.  A few moments later, all the electricity in the church flickered and the organ and the choir microphones lost power.  I immediately noticed whose side God was on, and said, “I guess we know not to mess with the deacon!”  That humorous episode highlights a serious spiritual truth: when a man is ordained a deacon, priest or bishop, he has been anointed by God and deserves due respect, which is always a balancing act.  Msgr. Hebert, in his new book called Priests, helps us strike this balance, saying, “A priest has fallen in love with God and has without any personal merit of his own received a call to serve Him…But all this high-minded stuff doesn’t take away the humanity; he remains just a person, sans halo or horns.”  That’s the balance, deacons, priests and bishops are anointed by God, but they remain without halo or horns.

            In the first reading today, Hananiah learns this lesson the hard way.  He challenges the legitimacy of Jeremiah, and he quickly finds out whose side God is on.  Jeremiah prophesies that within a year, Hananiah would “be dispatched from the face of the earth.”  He was dead in 7 months.  I guess he learned not to mess with the prophet.  Jeremiah did not have halo or horns, but he was anointed by God, and that's not a small matter.

            Today is the feast of St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests.  One good way to strike the balance of respect for priests is to pray for them. Prayer helps us see that priests are human, they don’t come built-in with halos or horns.  Today, also pray that we priests remember this lesson, too.  We also run the risk of believing we’re either wretched sinners or canonized saints.  Some priests prance about proud as peacocks, while others are too timorous to come out of their rectories.  Many a parish staff person has thrown up their hands and sighed, “Priests!  You can’t live with them; you can’t live without them!”  If you ever get to that point, all I can say is, keep an eye on your electricity.

            Praised be Jesus Christ!