Who really is the Catholic Priest? - Submitted by Semper Excelsior - a member of the laity
The
following is a short and easily read excerpt from a book by St Alphonsus
Liguori regarding the dignity of the Priesthood and is included here for the
information and education of souls. May it deepen the reverence of those who
already have a love for the Priesthood - and may it create new reverence and
respect in the hearts of those who have not known this information thus far.
If
there is a person reading this, who has done the unfortunate deed of
blackening the good reputation of a priest, be it known that it is for your
benefit that this has been included here - that your eyes may be opened to see
what it is you have done and who exactly it is that you have done it to - so
that you who have sat in darkness and in the shadow of death may be
enlightened and your feet may be directed into the way of peace (Luke
1:79).
When
you wound a priest by taking from him the only thing he can truly call his own
- his good reputation - you very likely make a martyr of him. His agonies,
accepted with charity and resignation, drift upwards and he attracts the tender
sympathies of his heavenly Mother, who is reminded of the swords that pierced
her heart and the tears she shed when her Son suffered on the earth. She
receives the pains of her son the priest, consoles him as only she can and
mystically changes his suffering into graces to be poured back down to the
earth for the salvation of souls - perhaps your own.
The Dignity of the Priesthood
