Easiest Job in the World

Comparing the priesthood with parenthood

8/21/2024

John 21:15-17 After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples and eaten breakfast with them, he said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." He then said to Simon Peter a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." [Jesus] said to him, "Feed my sheep."

The easiest job in the world is being a priest, and yet, the hardest job in the world is also being a priest. I learned about this paradoxical nature of the priesthood a couple of years into the ministry when I had to conduct a capital campaign.

I was pastor of St. Joseph’s in Fayetteville, and we had to raise $2 million. Our capital campaign committee – called the Core Team – drove to Little Rock to meet with Msgr. Hebert, my first pastor, who I felt knew everything.

He prepared a delicious lunch for us along with packets of information on how to conduct a campaign. But the basic message I took away from that meeting was that Msgr. Hebert said, “John, if you take care of your parishioners, they will take care of you and the parish.”

In other words, a successful campaign does not require bells and whistles, catchy slogans, or shiny brochures, just a loving and dedicated pastor. But of course, I promptly ignored his advice and have run 4 marathons and written three books to guilt people into giving me all their money. Being a priest is the easiest job in the world because all you have to do is just love your people.

In the gospel today, St. Peter finds out why being a priest is also the hardest job in the world, namely, we priests are selfish sinners. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, and we all remember why. It was penance for the three times Peter denied our Lord the night he was betrayed. And three times Jesus tells Peter to “feed my sheep.”

In other words, what makes being a priest so hard is not conducting a capital campaign but conducting ourselves properly as followers of Christ. And nothing has hurt the success of the Church like the sins of priests. Just think of the devastation caused by the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

In a sense, the easiest job in the world is being a priest because all we have to do is simply love our people, “feed my sheep.” But it is simultaneously the hardest job in the world because priests have to live by a higher standard, namely, be another Christ, an example of Jesus the Good Shepherd. But far more frequently we act like the hired hand who runs away when the sheep are in danger.

There is an almost perfect parallel in this respect between priesthood and parenthood. That is, being a parent is also both the easiest, while also the hardest, job in the world. Why is that? When we get married and beget children we suddenly reach new heights of love, almost effortlessly.

One friend of mine says, “Having a baby is induced maturity.” Babies grow us adults up. Almost overnight we become more patient and kind and self-sacrificing. And that induced maturity is to help us love our children better, or to put it in priestly language, “to feed my sheep.” In that sense, being a parent is easy-peasy.

But parenting can also be the hardest job in the world. How so? Well, not only when children hit the “terrible twos” and throw temper tantrums, or when teens begin to rebel against authority and assert their independence. Mom and dad have to battle their own sinful tendencies like overwork, ambition, greed, gluttony, laziness, pride, ego, etc.

Many, many times while growing with my brother and sister, I remember my parents complaining, “The only thing we want is to see our three children not fighting and loving each other.” And I always wanted to fire back, “Well, all we children want is to see our parents not fighting and loving each other.” It goes both ways, and that is why parenting is the hardest job in the world.

So, mom and dad, you and I find ourselves in the same pickle. We have the easiest job in the world because all we have to do it love our children, “feed my sheep.” And we have the hardest job in the world because all we have to do is not screw things up. But that is exactly what we do, and we do it often.

Praised be Jesus Christ!