You know, I am very guilty of often trying to do things my way. It is this weakness that I will readily admit, but it is also a weakness of the human race. I often find myself frustrating my plans or intentions or getting more anxious about what I need to do for something to turn out perfect.
I learned this reality in a very real way one weekend when I was trying to get a bunch of kids together to attend a youth even a few years ago. I had it all planned out, but I kept running in to hangup after conflict after problem after frustration. Then somewhere in the midst of my building anxiety something dawned on me. I needed to let go and let God work things out. And in the end, everything worked out great!
Well, I know this kind of do-it-my-way mentality can be applied to numerous situations. I think now-a-days it can be seen a lot in people trying to give their opinions on how the Church should be run, or what the Church isn't doing right and should change. I think sometimes we (any of us) can tend to forget that the Church is a divinely directed institution. It isn't like some international human rights organization with a democratically elected board of directors. It can be hard seeing something that looks so human on the surface and not feeling like we should have a say in it's operation. Well sure we can give our input, but we have to remember that the one with the real power in the Church is the Holy Spirit. And Christ placed that power in the hands of the Apostles and their successors. So yes, God works through flawed human vessels.
When Christ was instituting his Church he did so with placing governance in the hands of 12 of his followers (the Apostles), with one of the 12 holding a special office of leadership and responsibility (Peter). Now I know that many people now-a-days look at the Catholic Church and think about all the problems the priesthood is dealing with (scandals and small numbers) and how all those old guys in their funny hats in Rome are completely detached with what is going on in the real world. Why doesn't the Church just start ordaining women, I mean after all, there are many women who are much more faithful and holy that could do the job. That is true, and you know, not much has changed in 2000 years. Some of Jesus' most faithful followers were women and his Apostles abandoned him. Why didn't Jesus pick his own mother to be an Apostle? I mean if he was just looking for holiness, how could he do any better than his own mother?!
Jesus obviously didn't know what he was doing by today's standards...WHOA! Okay, that is going a bit far to say that God didn't know what he was doing. God has his reasons. And who knows the mind of God? He is God and we aren't, therefore it is our duty to acknowledge that he is right, not to question his motives. We need to be content with how God has ordered things. Because he has done so to our good. It is when we grow discontent with God's ways that we open our souls to deception. Lucifer deceived himself into thinking that he could be God when he grew discontent with being the highest ranking angel. Adam and Eve bought the lie of Satan when they ceased being content with what God had ordered then in the Garden, and sin ensued to this day. And don't think that we are free from this same discontentment with God's plan. Lucifer (aka "The Devil") is trying to bring us down with him.Jesus instituted a priesthood of men and that institution has been carried on faithful to the Lord's will to this day. Why should we assume that we can come up with a fix for what God made good. When we try to do things our way, we tend to mess them up.
What if we try to think of a solution from God's perspective? Has God ceased to be faithful to the Church he started? No. So he must still be calling men to the priesthood. Then what is the problem? Maybe there is a loss of faithfulness on the other end. Maybe the loss of faith of God's people has ceased to produce men willing to answer God's call to the priesthood. I mean, God isn't going to force ill prepared men to be priests. That would jeopardize their souls. So we are the problem. Not the priesthood. We need to "pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." (Matt. 9:38)
This is the weakness of the Church. When the people of the Church start to think we know how to live our lives best we grow discontent with how God is doing things and this discontentment overflows into how we think of things in his Church. So we need to continually reevaluate where perceived issues in the Church are truly originating. Are we part of the problem? Let's pray that we be part of the solution.
For more answers to your questions on the priesthood please visit:
http://www.catholicscomehome.org/answers-priesthood.php
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