When we are still little kids we are all familiar with and love watching cartoon or movies of our favorite superheroes. We may have even thought these comic heroes really existed and began dreaming of becoming one. They are called superheroes because of their extraordinary powers and we all love them because they are always there to defend and save us. Little have we known that they have limitations too; that they are also human beings like the rest of us (at least in the movie). We often do not understand this other side of them that we feel upset whenever they fail to live up our expectations, and critical as if they have no right to commit mistakes.
In the ‘world’ of ordained ministers, it is also often times the case. People tend to define them and expect them to be superheroes. Moreover, their eyes and ears are most sensitive to what the priest is doing, saying or thinking. When the priest celebrating the mass is an old man, they would say “boring and long homily” and surely “conservative.” When a priest happens to be young, they would say, “inexperienced” and “liberated”. When a priest is seen in the company of women, he is a “womanizer”, when in the company of men, “homosexual” and when in the company of children, “pedophile”. When a priest is obese, he is a “glutton” and does not practice fasting but when he’s skinny, he is health conscious and fanatic. When a priest is seen drinking with company of friends, he’s a drunkard and a socialite but when he stays in the convent most of the time, he is selfish and no sense of camaraderie. When he is for the cause of the poor, wealthy people hates him and when he makes friend with the rich, the poor hates him more. When he expresses his voice on political issues, he’s politicking, and when he does not meddle, no sense of patriotism. And the list goes on.
Unfortunately some of these claims are true to ‘only’ some of the priests of today and yesterday but priests like superheroes are not perfect. Today more than ever, I realized that becoming a priest is not an easy course and task. Even though a priest is himself convinced not to live up the expectations of the people, he ought to convince himself to live up to what God expects him to be. The priest is the hands, mouth, eyes, ears and heart of Christ who calls and ordains them, to serve and not to be served; to do not his will but of the Father’s; to sacrifice himself even unto death; to become a saint of today in the eyes of God and men. Priests were not ordained because they are perfect rather they are ordained because God saw in their imperfections a great deal to manifests his grace and love. A priest may truly sigh in despair, “it is not easy to be me”, and Jesus would only nod in agreement but would tell him, “my grace is sufficient and will sustain you”.
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