By Joy Boosamra Corey
SO, YOU DON’T LIKE YOUR PRIEST?
He doesn’t give good sermons? Are they too long, too short, or simply too mundane? Maybe they’re over everyone’s head. Can it be that he’s just not spiritual enough? Or perhaps he expects us to be as spiritual as he is. Does he make too many demands expecting his congregation to fast and attend all the services? He’s the priest, so he’s supposed to do the praying right? Oh, he wants control over everything? He’s full of pride. He wants to do everything himself! Or is it that he just doesn’t like women? He’s a chauvinist. He looks at women as belonging only in the kitchen! Or, maybe it’s more vague than that and you might respond, “Don’t ask me why, I just don’t like him! I don’t feel I can go to him for confession. He’s too worldly!”
Over the many years I’ve been around church life, I have heard all of these excuses for not going to church. Of course, they don’t have anything to do with why we go to church, or at least they shouldn’t. THE PRIEST IS NOT THE REASON WE GO TO CHURCH. As Christ Himself went to the synagogue to worship His Father, God, every Sabbath, so we go to worship the same Father, God, on the Lord’s Day, Sunday. Sunday is paradoxically both the first day of the week and the eighth — the new eon, the day beyond time and space, the day in which we are transported by way of the Divine Liturgy into the Kingdom of Heaven.
We don’t go to church because of the priest. We go solely for the purpose of worshiping our God and receiving the Holy Communion which unites us to Christ and to each other as the Body of Christ. However, there could be no Divine Liturgy without the priest. The priest is our mediator who offers up our gifts of bread and wine to God and then calls upon the Holy Spirit during the epiklesis to change them into the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. He is a priest after both the order of Melchizedek and Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was vested as the first priest (Exodus 28:4 & 29:4-9). He represents the Bishop in our midst, who, in turn, represents Jesus Christ.
Why do we expect more from our priests than we do from ourselves? After all, they are human and suffer from the same sinful nature as we do. Their struggle is even greater; Satan works overtime trying to bring them down, for he knows if they fall, they bring many with them. This is why at their ordinations priests are given extra guardian angels, nine, according to tradition. The judgment for the priest is harsher than that for the layman. Humankind seems to suffer from that malady that deliciously enjoys the demise of another . . . especially our priests. There’s something deep within mankind that enjoys another’s misery. Our priests have to combat the same things we do — lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16); they are not exempt.
Why do we think our priest must be perfect? Perhaps he seems insensitive, lacks compassion, or just doesn’t seem to care. That may be your perception of him, but have you ever thought of finding out what his background is so you can better understand him? Why must he always please you and do for you? Have you ever thought to invite him to your home for dinner or ask him about his family? If you know his mother, then you know much about him already. If you can’t meet his mother, ask him about her. You might find something out that will give you a clue as to why he seems withdrawn. He may just be shy. Remember that an outgoing personality is not a prerequisite for the caring of the Sanctuary with its altar and table of oblation. When people have complained to me about their priest, I usually respond, “Have you prayed for him?” Have you tried to love and help your priest, or are you too busy fighting him, gossiping about him and complaining about him?
The priest cannot possibly possess all the gifts necessary to feed the body. This is why St. Paul said, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal . . . (1 Cor. 12:7). Speaking of the Church, he goes on to say, “And God has appointed to the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, ... Are all apostles? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?” (1 Cor. 12:28, 29) We are all members of the same body with different functions. Some are his hands; some are his feet. What the priest is lacking, the Lord will give to another in his parish so that the body will be complete. Then the priest and his people, working together, form the whole body of Christ with Christ Himself as its head.
It is just as important for the priest to recognize in others those gifts lacking in himself and to call upon those to whom the Lord has given such a gift to use for the glory of God and the furtherance of His work. St. Romanos the Melodist had a terrible voice, and the monks couldn’t stand to hear him chant. He prayed and promised that if God would gift him musically, he would spend the rest of his life writing music for the Church. The Lord answered his prayer, and to this day, we have benefited from his great and wonderful hymnography. St. John of Kronstadt was a great charismatic married Russian priest and rector of a large cathedral in the naval port of Kronstadt who died in 1907. He also turned to God in prayer when he found himself to be a poor, struggling student of theology at Seminary. Again, God heard his prayers, and to this day, we benefit from his Spiritual Counsels and his My Life in Christ. Miracles happen when we pray for our priests. Don’t ever doubt it; I have personally experienced it.
When the priest fails to call upon the Body — that is the Church — in fulfilling its mission, he may be suffering from pride. St. John Climacus in his Ladder of Divine Ascent discusses this issue when he writes, “The proud man wants to be in charge of things. He would feel lost otherwise ... to reject criticism is to show pride . . . The man ensnared by pride will need God’s help, since man is of no use to him” (pp 208-210). As St. John implies, PRAYER is the ONLY REMEDY for any ailment within the Church.
God said of his Church in 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people . . .“ The sacramental priesthood to which our priests belong is different than this royal priesthood to which we, as God’s chosen people (i.e., the Church) belong. Through the laying-on-of-hands by the Bishop at his ordination, the priest received a special grace which can be traced, through apostolic succession, to Christ Himself. No one outside the priesthood will ever possess this grace. This is what separates our priest from us. When we kiss the hand of our priest, we kiss not his hand but the hand of Christ through that unbroken succession from Bishop to priest. The priest, in spite of his sins, in spite of his pride, in spite of how much he might irritate us, deserves to be treated with respect and dignity and must be obeyed. Why? Because he is different from you and me; he has that special grace. If you gossip about him, disobey him, ridicule him, and hate him, then you gossip about, disobey, ridicule and hate Jesus Christ himself.
Jesus described the Final Judgment in Matthew 25 saying, “What you do to the least of these my brethren you do as to me.” The Bible is full of warnings to those who would come against God’s anointed, and indeed, our priests are God anointed. “With all your soul fear the Lord, and honor his priests. With all your might love your Maker and do not forsake his ministers. Fear the Lord and honor the priest and give him his portion, as is commanded you . . . “ (Sirach 7:29-31).
St. Ignatius, the second Bishop of Antioch, stresses in his seven epistles the need for unity in the Church. Without unity, the Devil, the master of deception, is invited in. He has assigned his demons to each church with the sole purpose of bringing disharmony and derision within that community. If you come against your priest in any way, you help Satan’s cause in bringing division and discord within the Church. Christ said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9). St. Ignatius emphasizes the need for unity at all costs. He teaches us that where there is anger against a fellow member in the church or the priest or the bishop, the power of the Holy Spirit is blocked in that church. That church’s growth is stunted, and it becomes unhealthy, bringing it to spiritual destruction and ultimate to death. And we who gossip, complain and get angry in the church contribute to the spiritual death of that community. Such a church cannot be blessed.
If you are wondering why your church is not growing or why it seems “dead,” the answer may rest within you. If you dislike your priest, gossip about him, tear down the choir or have anger against any group or individual within the church, your church suffers for it. It is not I, but God who says so. St. John of Kronstadt in his Spiritual Counsels says, “The Christian has no reason to harbor in his heart any ill-feeling towards any one. Such ill-feeling, like every other evil, is the work of the devil. The Christian must have only LOVE in his heart; and as love cannot think evil, he cannot have any ill-feelings towards others” (p 177). St. Ignatius writes in his letter to the Church at Ephesus, “For as you frequently come together [i.e., to pray as the Church], the powers of Satan are destroyed and his destructive force is annihilated by the concord of your faith. Nothing is better than peace, by which all warfare among heavenly and earthly beings is abolished.” When St. Ignatius was taken away from his Church in Syria bound in chains, he rejoiced in having been given the opportunity by God to die for Christ. His only concern was that he left his Church in an uproar. Although he considered it a great honor to die for Christ, they were not at peace with what was happening to their Bishop. It wasn’t until he got word that his Church was finally at peace that he could rest and be comforted. He understood that a lack of peace stopped the effectiveness of the Holy Spirit within the Church, and he couldn’t bear to think of the Church which he so loved being deprived of the grace of God.
We must understand as Orthodox Christians that we are all pawns in a war declared by the devil against all Christians on their day of baptism. We play into his hands when we are part of any discord within the Church. In his letter to the Magnesians, St. Ignatius writes, “Let there be nothing in you that can divide you, but be united with the Bishop and with those who preside for an example and lesson of imperishability [i.e., an example of those who will receive eternal life]. St. John of Kronstadt writes, “The devil cunningly induces us — instead of arousing us against himself — to notice our neighbors’ sins, to make us spiteful and angry with others, and to awaken our contempt towards them, thus keeping us in enmity with them, and with the Lord God himself” (Spiritual Counsels).
So, where does the answer lie? IN PRAYER! Yes, we must pray, pray, and pray even more. Too often we expect just the priest to pray. We think, “My aunt is sick; I’ll ask Father to pray for her.” None of this should keep us from praying ourselves. It certainly helps to have the priest pray for us. It helps to invoke the intercessions of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Saints gone before us. It helps to ask friends and family to pray. But it doesn’t mean that we ourselves don’t need to pray! There’s only one way to improve conditions in our churches. PRAY. Ask the Theotokos to extend her veil of protection upon your priest and the entire congregation, and she will.
If you are having trouble praying for your priest and the Church, ask God to give you His grace to enable you to do so. You will find that in time your anger, your frustrations, your disdain, your hatred, your apathetic attitude will change. THE CHANGE BEGINS WITHIN YOU. St. John’s Spiritual Counsels reads, “When you see that anyone hears malice towards you, don’t consider his malice as his own; he is only the passive instrument of the evil one, whose flattery he has not yet recognized. Pray to God that the enemy may leave him, and that the Lord may enlighten the eyes of his heart, darkened by the foul breathing of the spirit of evil”. You may think that you have an irreparable situation in your church. Then let me remind you that “the assiduous prayer of the Church for the apostle Peter ascended at once before the throne of the Lord, and the Lord sent his angel miraculously to deliver Peter from prison. The unanimous prayer of the Apostles Paul and Silas brought down upon them wonderful help from the Holy Spirit. The collective prayer is speedily fulfilled when it is united — unanimous — ‘gathered together in my name’.” (Spiritual Counsels) If there is someone in the pews seething in his heart against the priest, or anyone else, he is not united to the Body.
As I stated earlier, priests possess a special grace separate from the laity, a grace granted to them from Christ himself. We must not oppose that grace. When we do, we oppose Christ Himself. If you disagree with the priest, or dislike something about him, remember that we are given every opportunity during the Divine Liturgy to pray for our priests and “for the peace from above.” Too often, we are praying by rote or not praying at all, but merely standing as an audience at some kind of performance. If we are truly engaged in the service and praying every petition with a sincere heart, seeking always what is in the best interest of the Church and not seeking to justify our feelings, then the fruit of such prayer is evident in the physical and spiritual growth of the community. It is evidenced in the love that the brethren have for one another and most especially in how they honor and respect their priest in spite of his sinfulness, in how they pray for him and each other, and in how they respect the Bishop and the Metropolitan. There is no doubt that our leaders can make mistakes and say or do something less than perfect. It is incumbent upon us as Christians to commit them to prayer for the health of the community and for their health since, as leaders, their judgment will be much harsher. St. Ignatius knew this; he comments in his letters that it is “because of your common prayers” that his Church in Antioch was at peace after he was taken away in bonds to die. This is why we pray in our Liturgies over and over again “In peace, let us pray to the Lord” and, “For the peace from above, for the good estate of our Churches, let us pray to the Lord.” Whether these petitions are familiar to you or not, the next time you attend the Divine Liturgy, listen carefully and then prayerfully utter these words to God. These words will be quickened in your hearts if you pray them with zealous fervor and honesty and NOT BY ROTE. Let these words be filled with God’s love and grace.
If we are to be Christians, then as St. Ignatius teaches, we must be so in our actions and not in name only. We must emulate Him whose name we bear. Read the Gospel of John, Chapter 17, and you will see into the heart of the man whose name we bear. Examine the words of Christ’s prayer for His Church — for us. The Lord’s Prayer and John 17 are the models for all prayer. They are perfect prayer since they are from Him who alone is perfect. If we were to learn to pray for our bishops, our priests, our deacons and each other the way the Lord prayed to His Father for us, His Church, the walls of our temples would not be able to contain the numbers who would flock to us. Stop murdering with your tongues. Stop raging with your thought. Stop hating with your hearts. Stop contributing to division and dissension in your church. Listen to the warning in Galatians 5:19-23, “Now the words of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ...“ If we truly have Christian hearts, remembering that judgment will be harsher for the teachers of the faith, we would recognize that priests need our prayers and we would pray for them daily. Your priest was providentially given to you by God to tend to the sanctuary, to make the Eucharist offering and to distribute the Holy Communion. This God accomplished through the laying on hands through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Anything beyond these administrations, i.e. teaching, preaching, chanting, shepherding of the flock, we can participate in by petitioning our Lord through the common prayer of the Church to help him in accomplishing. The shortcomings of your priest may be in him for no other reason than your own salvation. There may be something in you that you need to overcome. Don’t expect your priest to possess all the ministry gifts. This would be unfair. Love him. Pray for him. Be good to him. God will honor your actions and you will begin to see miracles in your life and in your church.
Listen to these words of St. John Climacus. If we all heed them, we will not be able to contain the growth of the Orthodox Church in the world: “If it is true that the Holy Spirit is peace of soul, as He is said to be and as, indeed, He is, and if anger is disturbance of the heart, as it really is and as it is said to be, then there is no greater obstacle to the presence of the Spirit in us than anger” (Ladder of Divine Ascent).
During the Divine Liturgy the priest prays “Peace be with you” and we respond, “And with your spirit.” Our Lord told His disciples “My peace I give to you.” It’s up to us to receive it. It will be evident that we have, when it can said of us, “So, you really like your priest, eh?”
Joy Boosamra Corey is an itinerant French teacher and member of St. John the Baptist Church, Post Falls, ID. Word Magazine October 1999 Page 11-14
