Oh, these priest-sons of mine must have only one great love: Jesus and souls!
Blue Book # 52 i, j
They cannot love anything else. They must live and let themselves be consumed only by this great love. For this, I myself will purify them through great sufferings, I will detach them from everything, and I will lead them by the hand along the road of my motherly predilection.
Often we judge priests by human appraisal (their winning smile, their great knowledge, their savvy about one thing or another). All this is a lot of baloney if I may say so! We should not judge a priest by his good looks, education, and so forth. We should just look at him and say to ourselves, “Thanks be to God he is here,” because he is one of the greatest signs of God’s love for us.
Grace in Every Season (March 11)
With the rise of social media there is an abundance of high profile celebrity priests that come on the scene quickly, and sometimes fall just as quickly.
We need to re-evaluate what is happening, why is God allowing it. What is our part in it.
Their great love and our great love should be One and the same! Jesus! At times this isn’t so clear. Worldly pursuits and attractions can get us all. Priests are human and are given to the same temptations we all are. So when they put anything ahead of their vocation…even if it’s very good causes… something will have to give. The same holds true for each of us too.
I don’t believe I have any priests that read my blog, so I’m not going to address them. But for the rest of us… we need to go beyond their social media influencer status and go deeper to see God in them…all of them. If God allows them to go through some painful detachment process, pray for them but don’t get too involved in the divisive mayhem.
Support the good, humble priests who are tirelessly working at their vocation (of which there are many) and trust that God is in control of the situation and that knows all that we don’t and will work it all out for the good.