a fantastic sermon on the priesthood

Speaking of the fact that in divorcing "the spiritual reality of catholicism from the practical realities of human institutions, we deny the miracle of the Church and pave the way for corruption and innovation, heresy and schism" (cf. Father Thorpus' previous two posts), here is something good:

By Father John Heidt. Read it. Being a priest, the sentence that sticks out to me is:

Let your priest guide you through the maelstrom of ecclesiastical chaos - in gentleness, charity, and in good sense. He is your ruler, your monarch, as well as your teacher and priest, for he is among you, though unworthy...

This is so misunderstood (cf. Wilco) in America today, yet this is the heart of the real Gospel aporia into which we are called to live. I am accutely aware of my own unworthiness. Yet as a priest, I take seriously that I am a father in Christ, showing forth the Almighty Father, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the objective grace of the Eternal Son. I love the fact that parishioners in their 90's call me, in my twenties, "Father." It is a worldly absurdity -- foolishness to the Greeks (1 Cor. 1.23).

God knows I do not show forth Christ as a priest because I am worthy to do so, or even capable of doing so. If it were left to me, all anyone would see would be my very real unworthiness and incapacity. But with God all things are posssible (Matt. 19.26). And (laudatur Iesu!) "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are" (1 Cor. 1.27f).