BishopAccountability.org
	A Treasure Entrusted in Earthen Vessels By Mario Attard Times of Malta August 5, 2011 http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110805/opinion/A-treasure-entrusted-in-earthen-vessels.378833 The news of two priests sentenced to 11 years jail between them after being convicted of sexually abusing boys under their care is certainly heartbreaking. Jesus, the high and eternal priest, had a high regard for children. He felt indignant when his disciples rebuked those who were bringing the children to him so that he might touch them. He scolded his chosen ones: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10, 14-15). On Christ’s example, Mother Church is continually being invited to hold dear the innocence of defenceless children. On August 2, the press reported what Mgr Charles Scicluna, Promoter of Justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had to say on the scandals related to priestly abuse: “The Church considers children’s innocence to be one of its most precious treasures and Benedict XVI’s leadership was and is vital. He had the courage to say: We have made a mistake here; here we need to change…” In front of the undeniable “filth” that is dishonouring the Church and destroying the spiritual trust the faithful have placed over the years in her ordained ministers, to the extent that a number of them actually lost their faith, the urgent and humble duty for us priests is to revisit our identity and mission within the Church for the life of the world. The promising course of action to be chosen is that of appreciating and savouring Christ’s salvific presence and service through our ministerial priesthood. Even the sequence of events is highly suggesting that such a serious review of our priestly calling should be immediately and scrupulously undertaken. Just two days after the court verdict of the two priests, the liturgy celebrated the feast of St John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of all priests! As blessed John Paul II rightly maintained, the priestly vocation is both a gift and a mystery. Like any other vocation, the ministerial priesthood is a vocation that encapsulates a great mystery, “a mystery of divine election”. When facing such an eloquent mystery, namely that of representing Christ, the Holy Father believed that “man must feel afraid, so that the power of the call may subsequently be manifested all the more… and that the one who is called will operate… only because of the will and the strength of God himself”. God’s initiative in the calling and the living out of the sacerdotal consecration is surely decisive. This clearly emerges when the concept of “representing” Christ is evaluated. In his general audience catechesis on April 14, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI trails this important theological path. While strongly affirming that “the priest represents Christ”, he explains what is inferred by this particular manner of “representing”. The priest never represents the Lord as if the latter “is absent from the practical action.” Contrarily, “because in the Church Christ is never absent, the Church is his living Body and He is the Head of the Church, present and active within her. Christ is never absent, on the contrary he is present in a way that is untrammelled by space and time through the event of the Resurrection that we contemplate in a special way in this Easter Season”. Hence, for the German Pope, the priest who sacramentally acts in persona Christi Capitis (in the person of Christ, the Head) and, in so doing, represents the Lord, “never acts in the name of someone who is absent but, rather, in the very person of the Risen Christ, who makes Himself present with His truly effective action. He really acts today and brings about what the priest would be incapable of: the consecration of the wine and the bread so that they may really be the Lord’s presence, the absolution of sins. The Lord makes His own action present in the person who carries out these gestures. These three duties of the priest, which tradition has identified in the Lord’s different words about mission – teaching, sanctifying and governing in their difference and in their deep unity – are a specification of this effective representation. In fact, they are the three actions of the Risen Christ, the same that He teaches today, in the Church and in the world. Thereby, he creates faith, gathers together his people, creates the presence of truth and really builds the communion of the universal Church; and sanctifies and guides”. The priestly vocation is indeed a treasure entrusted to me, a weak earthen vessel, by God the Father. May my priestly life show that the transcendent power, which is inherently present in every priestly vocation, belongs to God and not to us priests!
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.