[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]An ancient superstition: in some corners of the Christian world, it was considered a bad omen to meet a priest.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s one story\u2014strangely relevant to me, still so closely removed from Covid as we are\u2014of a poor priest in France; it was during a pandemic, and the people of his village just didn\u2019t want to have anything to do with him\u2014they didn\u2019t want the bad luck that would come from seeing a priest, especially with all sorts of disease going around\u2014so they decided that the only sensible thing to do was to throw their priest into the open grave on the edge of town, among all the deceased the priest\u2019s bad luck had already done in. That\u2019s one way to avoid seeing a priest, but a bit extreme in my opinion.[1]<\/a> Now, of course, that\u2019s just an old folk tale, an old legend, a yarn\u2014or, at least, I hope so. In any case, I\u2019m grateful not too many of you are superstitious, grateful you handled our recent pandemic with a bit more decorum.<\/p>\n However, I do think a bit of that ancient superstition remains. Some people still do not like to meet a priest. If not exactly superstition, it remains for some, I think, awkward, discomforting, to meet a priest; sometimes people can\u2019t help but be rude or just weird around clergy. It\u2019s strange sometimes being a priest in public. I remember once\u2014it was the only time I\u2019ve ever been to Las Vegas; I\u2019ve only ever been to the airport\u2014I sat down next to two young men all dressed in black (just like me; I thought we\u2019d get along), but actually they were Satanists, I quickly found out, who had been attending a Satanist convention (turns out there are such things). What I thought would be a warm welcome, of course, wasn\u2019t. You should\u2019ve seen the look on their faces when I turned to them and smiled; without a word they got up from their seats and walked to the other side of the terminal. I didn\u2019t even get to ask their names. Now, I don\u2019t know if that was superstition, but they sure didn\u2019t want to talk to me. But in any case, again, I\u2019m grateful that it was just an awkward encounter and not a medieval one; grateful that that\u2019s about as bad as it gets these days\u2014silly Satanists in an airport, being stared at in a Starbucks, somebody\u2019s rude Catholic-hating brother-in-law at a wedding. I can handle that; that\u2019s not a big deal at all.<\/p>\n Now, I am not playing the victim here. Don\u2019t feel sorry for me or any priest. Rather, the reason I bring this up (this ancient and contemporary dislike of priests) is to suggest that there is in fact some good in it, something moral about it (except, probably, for those two silly Satanists in the airport). I\u2019m thinking here of this passage from Malachi. God, through the prophet, with his priests, is having an encounter of his own, and it, too, is awkward and discomforting. The priests on the receiving end of this warning in Malachi may have very well thought it rude, disrespectful even to hear what they heard: \u201cAnd now, O priests\u2026If you do not listen\u2026I will send a curse upon you\u2026your blessing I will make a curse\u2026I have already cursed it.\u201d[2]<\/a> This is an awkward encounter; the priests in this passage are as good as bad omens. The point here, very simply, is that clearly there are times when it\u2019s okay to be this rude to priests and other religious leaders. Jesus did it\u2014calling out hypocrites, those who preach the faith but don\u2019t practice it.[3]<\/a> I\u2019m not playing the victim at all; in fact, I want to let you know it\u2019s a good thing to talk this way to clergy sometimes. Go for it.<\/p>\n But, of course, do it correctly. It\u2019s important we pay attention to what God, through the prophet, was criticizing; important too, what Jesus was saying. Because it wasn\u2019t superstition\u2014but truth\u2014that was the issue. What was wrong with these priests\u2014and also what was wrong with the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew\u2014wasn\u2019t that they failed to meet the expectations and demands of the people but that they failed to meet the expectations and demands of God. In Malachi the problem was that the priests didn\u2019t apply the truth of God\u2019s law fully or equally; rather, they showed \u201cpartiality\u201d in their decisions.[4]<\/a> That is, sometimes for some things they would bear down with the full and awesome truth of God while at other times, not so much; they were selective, maybe, about when to play the religion card. That\u2019s what God was mad at priests about. In Matthew, Jesus tells the people to observe what the scribes and Pharisees teach; \u201cbut do not follow their example,\u201d he says.[5]<\/a> Again, the problem seems to be not that these spiritual authorities were religious but that they weren\u2019t religious enough. They were only religious enough to be hypocrites and sellouts. They didn\u2019t offer the people what Paul called the \u201cwhole counsel of God.\u201d[6]<\/a> That was the problem\u2014why God talked about curses and Christ said \u201cWoe to you\u201d\u2014not because they failed the people but first because they failed God.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n But, of course, that\u2019s not what most complaints about clergy are about. Mostly it\u2019s about unanswered email (I\u2019m bad at that) or about how we can\u2019t do this wedding on that date or have confessions when I<\/em> want to have confessions. Now, certainly, those are not illegitimate complaints; I get it, sometimes things don\u2019t go right, and sometimes it\u2019s totally on us. The point I\u2019m making, though, is that these prophetic<\/em> complaints\u2014like what we see in Malachi and Matthew\u2014are much rarer. People get more mad when I fail to serve them than when I fail to serve God; that\u2019s the strange thing. That\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to diagnose, this measuring of the priesthood as only a customer service. Why does that happen?<\/p>\n I think partly it\u2019s because if our clergy were as holy as God expected them to be, then the people would have no excuse for not knowing how holy God wanted them to be. And some of us don\u2019t want to be as holy as God wants us to be. Because that\u2019s frightening; because that may very well make martyrs of us all; just enough religion to make us respectable, thank you very much\u2014not holy. I want the priest to put on a good wedding not drone on about the sanctity of marriage; preach repentance, fine, if you want, but don\u2019t get too specific; don\u2019t force me to accept that you\u2019re talking about me; always make me think you\u2019re preaching about someone else, even better if it\u2019s someone I don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n If you study closely this passage from Malachi, you\u2019ll notice that at the beginning God is talking about the abomination of the blemished sacrifice, the abomination of it when people do not offer God their very best, when they give God not their best animal for sacrifice but only the one they\u2019re not bothered to part with\u2014you know, after taxes; it\u2019s about the cursedness of not giving God your very best. At the end of passage, the discussion turns to marriage, about how it\u2019s too often and too widely defiled\u2014\u201cthe Lord is witness between you and the wife of your youth,\u201d the prophet says\u2014it\u2019s the beginning of a passage about monogamy.[8]<\/a> For some reason, however, this passage was curated just perfectly, so you wouldn\u2019t readily recognize it; but God seems to be as upset with the people here as with the priests. Both are called to be holy, you see\u2014priests and people. And both have failed to live up to it.<\/p>\n You see why it\u2019s easier to complain about the lesser foibles of the priest and not about his lack of holiness? Because if the priest is holy, then you have to be holy. And again, that\u2019s scary to think about, because it may mean you have to change, not just me. I mean, what if I preached on some of these things we find in Malachi today? What if I preached the \u201cwhole counsel\u201d of the Gospel? What if I took the governor off the engine? We might have a fight on our hands. You might not like me anymore. And maybe that\u2019s the thing, the problem with the Church today\u2014that we have things just as we like them\u2014tame, inert, mediocre, petty. And maybe that\u2019s what we should pray for\u2014to be liberated from all that, and for the courage to challenge each other to be holy; for I doubt any of us will get to heaven without at least trying. And so, let\u2019s do that; priests and<\/em> people, let\u2019s challenge each other to be holy. For that\u2019s what real love actually is. That\u2019s what the Church is actually meant to do. Amen<\/em>.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Jacques de Vitry, The Exempla<\/em> 268<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Malachi 2:1-2<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Matthew 23:3<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Malachi 2:9<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Matthew 23:3<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Acts 20:27<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Matthew 23:13-36<\/p>\n