The ambition of a priest desiring to become a bishop

31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees […] preach but they do no not practice. […] All their works are performed to be seen. They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues, greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation ‘Rabbi.’

It should give every priest of the New Law pause to recognize that the chief criticism which our Savior levels against the Pharisees is that they are vainglorious and ambitious. They sit in the chair of Moses and have accrued to themselves great pastoral responsibility, but have failed to exercise their authority for the good of the sheep and have instead sought only to gain worldly honor for themselves.

As the Fathers and Doctors of the Church consider this passage from Scripture, they comment on the danger of the vice of ambition (and also the sin of vainglory) which can be so injurious to the priestly vocation. Ambition in the priesthood can mean the desire for a “more important” parish or a more prominent role in the diocese, but it is most especially typified by the desire for the episcopal rank. The height of ambition and pride for a (diocesan) priest is seen in his desire to be a bishop.

Is it lawful to desire to be a bishop? What must the priest do in order to avoid the sin of ambition? For direction on this point, we look to the greatest doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas.

St. Simon, "the Canaanite" not from Canaan and "the Zealot" who was no Zealot

October 28^th, Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude

“In Persia, the birthday of the blessed Apostles Simon the Canaanite and Thaddeus, who is also called Jude; Simon preached the Gospel in Egypt and Thaddeus in Mesopotamia, and then they both entered Persia and suffered martyrdom there, after having made subject an innumerable multitude of that people to the yoke of Christ.” (Roman Martyrology)

It is a minor point of irony that both Simon and Jude share names with others of the Apostles – St. Simon, of course, shares his name with St. Peter who was first called Simon; while St. Jude has this name in common with Judas, the betrayer. Thus, St. Simon is called either “the Zealot” (“Zelotes”) or “the Canaanite” in order to distinguish him from the Prince of the Apostles, while St. Jude is called “Thaddeus” as distinct from the Iscariot.

We do well on this day to consider the person of St. Simon the Zealot: Who was he? Where was he from? Was he a Zealot? And how did he die?

Can we hope that all men be saved?

And he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats.

This topic has been beaten around far too many times for my own taste – however, since the reading for Mass today (Romans 8:26-30) contains what is probably the clearest doctrine on hope in the whole of Scripture, and since the phrase for in hope we were saved inspired our Holy Father’s encyclical letter on Christian Hope (Spe salvi), it seems appropriate to offer a few brief reflections on the nature of hope.

Last Saturday, I offered a word on the nature of the theological virtue of hope over at the Virtuous Planet blog, today I would like to consider the object of hope – For what do Christians hope? Can we properly hope that all men should be saved?

Hope vs. Presumption, VirtuousPla.net article

I have just posted an article over at the (relatively new) blog, VirtuousPla.net. It is on the difference between the theological virtue of hope and the vices of despair and presumption.

If hope is 100% certain, how do we avoid the typically Protestant error of presumption - "Once saved, always saved"?

Check out the article here - VirtuousPla.net: Hope vs. Presumption
Update: You will now find the article [here].

Do you love your neighbor with the same love with which you love God?

The theological virtues: Faith, Charity, Hope

13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matthew 22:34-40

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

“Which is the greatest commandment?” Such is the question of the scholar who put our Savior to the test. However, though this man was acting in behalf of the Pharisees, it is clear from the Scriptures, that he in fact had a deep desire to know Christ Jesus and to become his follower. The goodness of the man is more clear in Mark’s Gospel where our Lord commends and encourages him saying, You are not far from the kingdom of God (Mark 12:34).

The love of God and the love of neighbor is the hinge of the whole moral life. In the final analysis, it is love (i.e. supernatural charity) which determines our eternal reward – to die with charity is to die in the state of grace and attain to heaven, to die without charity is to die in mortal sin and to be condemned to the everlasting punishments of hell.

What then is the nature of this supernatural charity which fulfills the Law and the Prophets? Further, how does the love of neighbor relate to the love of God?

St. Luke, the most prolific New Testament writer

October 18^th, Feast of St. Luke

“In Bithynia, the birthday of St. Luke the Evangelist, who suffered much for the name of Christ and died filled with the Holy Spirit. His bones were translated to Constantinople and thence taken to Padua.” (from the Roman Martyrology)

It is well known that St. Luke is an Evangelist and also that he wrote the Acts of the Apostles. He was a disciple of St. Paul and accompanied the Apostle on several journeys.

Additionally, most know that St. Luke had been a physician before his conversion. Beyond this, we may wonder: Who was St. Luke? Moreover, why is he pictured by the symbol of an ox?

On the authority of bishops, from St. Ignatius of Antioch

October 17^th, Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch

On December 20^th, in the Roman Martyrology, we read: “At Rome, the passion of St. Ignatius, Bishop and Martyr; he was the third after St. Peter the Apostle to rule the Church of Antioch, and in the persecution of Trajan was condemned to the beasts and sent to Rome in fetters. There he was afflicted and tortured by the most cruel torments in the very presence of the Senate. Finally he was cast to the lions and, ground by their teeth, became a sacrifice for Christ.”

 St. Ignatius of Antioch has rightly been called the “Doctor of Unity” – both insofar as he brilliantly set forth the doctrine of the unity of the person of Christ in two natures, and as he defended the unity of the Christian people within the hierarchy of the Church. As the unity of the single person of Christ cannot be properly defended without admitting the diversity of his two natures, so too (we say by analogy) the unity of the Church cannot be maintained without the diversity of hierarchical vocations within the mystical body.

Today, in honor of our saintly Bishop and Martyr, we consider the role of the bishops of the Church – specifically, we do well to call to mind the special relation between the priests and the bishops. [This is particularly important in our days, when many so-called “conservative” priests rebel against the authority of their bishops.]