Priests

I have betrayed Him a billion times and He forgives me every single one.

Judas Iscariot (James Tissot)

We must always pray for priests.  I have struggled with this concept over the years.  I have encountered both very holy priests and also priests who were not holy at all.  In both circumstances, the priests need prayers.

I used to judge priests very harshly.  After all, we expect such great things of others and set such low standards for ourselves…

And when I reflect on priests and the role of priests I am quite overcome because one of the first priests could not resist temptation.  One of the first priests who walked – quite literally with Christ – betrayed Christ.

And if a soul can be gained by the Evil One even while it walks alongside Christ, the soul of a priest is most in danger.  For not only are priests human men, but they are very visible.  Their actions and example are studied and reflected upon by people in the congregation.

I have heard it said that if a priest goes to Hell he takes a hundred souls with him, but if he goes to heaven he takes a hundred souls with him there too…

Judas did not go to Heaven.  We know this because Christ said, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”…

“Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver him to you?’ And they paid him thirty pieces of silver...When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples; and as they were eating, he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me...The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.’ Judas, who betrayed him, said, ‘Is it I, Master?’ He said to him, ‘You have said so.’” (Matthew 26:14-25).

And Judas followed Christ and listened to Him.  He saw the miracles – real miracles that could not be explained away by science or any other thing.  He saw all of this and still He decided to betray Our Lord.  There were a few coins.  It was a little thing.  The High Priests had no power to put a man to death.  Judas may have thought that Christ would have been relatively safe.  Maybe questioned a little bit, maybe roughed up a little bit.  But brought home to His mother in relatively decent shape.  Perhaps he even justified to himself that Christ would miraculously get Himself out of the dilemma without any further ado.

And yet that is not how things happened.  And when everything went wrong, Judas was already lost.  He did not go back to Christ and apologise.  He did not repent.  Instead, he experienced self-loathing and a complete absence of faith.

And he ended his own life…

And my soul cries for Judas, who betrayed God once.  For I have betrayed Him a billion times and He forgives me every single one.

And it is for this reason that I pray for priests…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.