I meant to blog on this earlier but the birth of my daughter distracted me. (Fancy that!)
Bishop Howard Hubbard of Albany was asked by his vocations director to offer "Ten Good Reasons to Become a Priest" and he obliged in his column in the diocesan newspaper. Diogenes gets to the heart of what comes out of the whole list: It's all about Hubbard.
1. Take me, for instance.
2. Then there's the model of myself.
4. A very precious example is that of my own life.
3. Let's not forget me.
5. Hubbard's the name.
6. Am I just too darling for words, or what?
7. Poor you.
8. That's Howard J. Hubbard.
9. Perhaps my personal story can help.
10. Thank you. I'd love to sing a song.
Maybe that's an exaggeration, but only slightly. It's unabashed self-hagiography.
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I was revolted by it. The whole thing is a celebration of self and serving Jesus was an afterthought. Besides, the first thing he mentions was disgusting: He left the side of his dying mother to arrange for the bail of a murdering thug. Whoopee. I wonder who else Bucky G. killed later.
I really think the bishop meant his list to be that the reasons to become a priest were 1. Bucky 2. Susan 3. Karen etc etc.
He meant that the reason to be a shepherd is that there are so many sheep needing one.
Perhaps this view puts too little emphasis on the sacramental aspect of the priesthood. But it isn’t a bad reason, or not a valid reason, to be a priest. And if all the stories are about people whose lives he touched and whose lives touched his…well, he doesn’t know all of these stories out of the lives of other priests, just his own.
And dymphna….Didn’t Jesus say “It is not the well,but the sick, who need a physician.” and “I came to call not the righteous, but sinners, to redemption.” ?
Susan Peterson