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SEVEN PRIESTLY VIRTUES
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Solitary
A priest must be solitary man. Why? Primarily because of the enthralling nature of God. Token gestures, liturgical obligations, causal orations, ministry, however altruistic and sanctimonious, will not to do. The priest belongs to God. Like Jesus himself, he cannot be defined primarily by his work, his ministry. What Jesus did was of secondary importance. Who he was was primary. Dietrich Bonhoeffer misinterpreted Christ’s position. Jesus was not “the men of others”. Essentially he was the men from the Other, the Wholly Other. His altruistic ministry was an opulent, lavish overflow of the fullness of being. That’s why he was a desert man, a solitary, who came out of hiding late in life, walked into the marketplace and left that motley, muddled gaggle of humanity utterly transfigured.
Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. When he was sure that Peter really did, then he commissioned him to “ feed my flock”. Loving one another is a proof of love of God. But so is wasting time with the Beloved. If the priest skips that kind of holy leisure, spousal prayer, then his services in the community is not a self-sacrificing act of love. It is just another job by another man in the profession who is fulfilling his own needs.
The only communities I know which are worth their salt are communities of solitaries. I don’t mean cavemen, unworldly weirdos, bucolic old coots, pecksniffian spooks, podsnapperish recluses, Wordsworthian wonder-wowers or any of the enormously popular and corpulent breed of modern omphalopsychites (navel – gazers ). I mean persons who are so rooted and centered, so in touch and in tune with the infinite and inexhaustible ground of their being, that their beingfullness overflows, they share what they contemplate – and community occurs.
The solitary is not a lonely person, he is undividedly engaged. He has not withdrawn, he is summoned and he is there. He is not wasting his talents, he is being squandered by life. He is not idling, he is biding his time. God does not act in a vacuum. He needs human instrumentality. The solitary is always there – available, vulnerable, ready to be sent.
That is why priest, a man apart, cannot be “one of the gang” He must be eagerly disposed, discreetly available, full of compassion, but never a victim of the crowd, It is not his organizing energies his gregarious talents, his frenzied activities that put him in touch with the people. It is his deep relationship with God who asserts daily his sovereign claim on the priest. God is not satisfied with priestly work. He wants the man. He want him directly and immediately – all to himself – at least one whole day a week and at least three hours a day: for Mass, Divine Office, and a Holy Hours of solitary spousal prayer. Since Sunday is a service day for the priest, he must pick another day to be with God alone. The priest who is not a solitary is either a fop, a foozle or an ecclesiastical robot.
Not only God himself, but people require the priest to be solitary. Why? Because his whole ability to serve people properly depends entirely upon his inescapable function as paranymph. In Greek antiquity the paranymph was the one who went to fetch the bridegroom. That is why the priest should often by mysteriously missing. Where is he? Not on the golf course, not in Florida, not in Bed, not at another meeting; he’s gone to fetch the bridegroom! That’s the thrilling secret Christians are on to. If they are not obviously, tremulously on to it, they are perilously off the wall! If the bridegroom is not fetched, the people are betrayed by priests who have become parasites instead of paranymphs.
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