The Priest Must Be Spiritual in His Goals and in His Style
The Priest Must Be Spiritual in His Goals and in His Style
If the apostolic fathers required of deacons that they be “full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:3), how much more should this be required of the fathers in the ranks of the priesthood. And if ordinary believers must “walk… according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1; Galatians 5:16), how much more the shepherds and leaders. Therefore, the priest must be a spiritual person.
The priest is not merely a source of activity, nor merely information, nor merely authority; rather, he is a spirit that has its effect.
He is a spirit with a positive influence, as he is “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) and “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). People look to him as a role model and an example in every good work, seeking guidance from him and benefiting from the method of his life.
Therefore, it is assumed that the priest be spiritual in his goals and spiritual in his style. We note that the priest John the Baptist, who prepared the way before Christ and prepared for Him a ready people, was said of this holy priest that he would be “filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).
The mission of the priest is a spiritual mission, whose goal is to save “by all means some” (1 Corinthians 9:22), as the Apostle Paul said of himself.
His concerns are spiritual concerns, and no other concern should overshadow them. As the Apostle said, the mind of the Spirit is life (Romans 8:6). Thus, the priest has only one goal: to lead the people to the Kingdom of God, including leading them to repentance and reconciliation with God. This is “the ministry of reconciliation,” as the Apostle called it, saying: “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
Just as he calls beginners to repentance and reconciliation with God, he also calls the mature among them to spiritual growth and to press forward (Philippians 3:13), according to the Scripture: “Grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18) and “Be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). Not only does he call them, but he also helps them to do so.
This is his sole goal. If we use the word “goals,” we mean only the details of this one spiritual goal.
His mission is to bring people to God, to build the Kingdom of God on earth, and to prepare his children for the eternal Kingdom.
He has no other mission in all his pastoral work. If he serves another mission, then he has deviated in his work and gone astray.
There may be a priest who thinks about projects and activities. Here we ask:
Do these projects and activities serve the spiritual goal or not?
If so, what is their goal, and what are the means that achieve this spiritual goal? If these projects and activities do not have a spiritual goal, then the priestly father should stay away from them. They are not his work, nor do they fall within the scope of his duty and responsibility.
I will give an example: the church club—does it have a spiritual goal?
Or is it merely for entertainment and passing time? If it has a spiritual goal, namely that our children live in a spiritual atmosphere of love and harmony during their play and recreation, and that we discover their faults during play or recreation in order to treat them, then the primary means must be spiritual supervision of the club, creating a spiritual atmosphere in it, and keeping it away from any form of stumbling or error. But if the club exists without spiritual supervision and without achieving any spiritual mission, then it is not a work of the Church. Rather, the absence of spiritual supervision may lead to errors committed by our children while they are within the bosom of the Church, resulting in indifference toward values and toward the sanctity of the Church and its activities, so that it no longer becomes a spiritual environment for them.
Indeed, the goal determines and clarifies the means that lead to it.
Another example: the church library—does it have a spiritual goal?
Or is it merely an activity or a project for the sake of reading, knowledge, and entertainment, or merely decoration to complete the church’s appearance and prestige?
If the library has a spiritual goal, then naturally it will be spiritual knowledge that leads to a sound spiritual life, as well as theological and doctrinal knowledge that leads to sound faith, and biblical knowledge that broadens the scope of understanding and contemplation and illuminates the light of Scripture, alongside the lives of the saints that ignite the desire to imitate them, in addition to general, pure knowledge far removed from error and stumbling.
If we understand this, then one of the most important means is precision in selecting books so that they are beneficial and edifying, along with the presence of a librarian who is fit to be a guide, directing those who read or borrow toward what benefits them. In this way, the library completes the Church’s work and mission in preaching and teaching.
But if the church library is merely a large storehouse of books without reviewing their content and ensuring their benefit, this takes it outside its ecclesial goal, and the matter becomes more complicated if it includes books that cause readers to stumble in doctrine, spirituality, or sound understanding of Scripture.
By the same logic, we can speak about the nursery, the school, the workshop, the hospital, and whatever projects the Church considers.
Do all these projects have a spiritual goal, or is their goal material, to increase the Church’s income? Is spiritual supervision included in them or not? And are they distinguished from the projects of the world, or is there no difference?
The Church does not compete with the world in its projects, nor does it resemble the world in its methods. It places before itself the Apostle’s saying: “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2). Every project in which the priest places his hand is for God and for building His Kingdom, and “by this the children of God are manifest” (1 John 3:10).
We move to another point: preaching and teaching.
The goal of the spiritual priest is not merely to add religious information to the minds of his listeners; rather, his goal in preaching is that hearts may change for the better.
There are two priests who preach. One preaches, and the listener says: “How great this father is in his preaching! How abundant his information and how deep his style and organized his thoughts are!” The other priest preaches, and the listener leaves with his conscience reproaching him for his sins, saying in his heart: “I must live a pure life with God and fill my heart with His love.” The preacher did not occupy him as much as life with God did.
The spiritual priest, when he speaks about doctrine, explains it with full conviction without insulting denominations or speaking about them in a wounding manner.
His goal is objective—the faith—not attacking others. Thus, he is able to maintain the etiquette of dialogue in his theological discussions. Among the most prominent fathers in this regard was Saint Didymus the Blind, who, through his gentleness and courtesy, was able to attract some pagan philosophers to the sound faith without offending their feelings.
The spiritual priest does not exalt himself in teaching,
because arrogance causes him to lose the love of his listeners, and thus he loses their attraction to his teaching and loses the goal of guiding them through it. Thus, the great teachers were humble.
As long as his goal is to lead listeners to goodness, he does not present to them teachings that they cannot implement, boasting of the loftiness of his teaching. Rather, as the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians: “I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it” (1 Corinthians 3:2). And as the apostolic fathers decided, “not to trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15:19–20).
The spiritual priest’s self disappears in teaching, because his self is not his goal.
As long as his goal is God, then the self must disappear. In his sermons and all his teaching, he does not display himself as a scholar or philosopher, but speaks to his listeners with simplicity they understand and with spirituality that affects them. As Saint Paul said: “Not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect” (1 Corinthians 1:17).
The priest who intends to elevate himself through teaching is not a spiritual priest, because the self has become the goal and teaching a means for its appearance. Rather, the priest must focus all his concern in every sermon and teaching on how he can bring people to God.
In our youth, we longed to hear the sermons of Professor Iskandar Hanna. He was the greatest preacher of his time, and his preaching was very simple and full of stories.
The spirituality of the priest also appears in visitation.
For him, visitation is not a social act in which he visits families or individuals in a social gathering dominated by casual conversation. Rather, his visitation is a spiritual work. He enters the home and brings God with him into that home, and God remains there. God is the foundation and goal of the visit, so that the members of the household become connected to Him in every way and feel that they have begun a life with God since the visit of the priestly father, or that their relationship with God has deepened and expanded.
The same applies to visitation carried out by any servant of the Word.
The spiritual style adheres to the priest in every work he performs.
By this style, he is gentle and compassionate in all his dealings, so that in his person people find a comforting soul that gives rest to all and deals with all with gentleness and kindness, as it was said of the Lord Christ that He “will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench” (Matthew 12:19–20).
By this style, he does not wound anyone’s feelings.
The Lord Christ did not wound the feelings of the Samaritan woman, even though she was a sinful woman. Rather, He spoke to her about the living water and worshiping God in spirit and truth (John 4:10, 23). He did not shame her when He addressed her private life; rather, He praised her in some respects and said to her: “You have spoken well… you have spoken truthfully” (John 4:17–18). Through this gentleness in speech, He drew her to faith and to zeal in spreading faith among people.
The Lord Christ also did not wound the feelings of the woman caught in the very act, but on the contrary saved her from those who wanted to stone her and said to her: “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11).
Therefore, one of the qualities of the shepherd is that he not be quick-tempered (Titus 1:7),
but be “gentle, not quarrelsome” (1 Timothy 3:3), characterized by meekness even in dealing with sinners. As the Apostle Paul says regarding restoring such people: “Restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1). And the Apostle James says: “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom” (James 3:13). Through this meekness, the spiritual priest restores others.
Even in receiving people’s confessions of their sins, he is encouraging, not embarrassing or wounding the confessor, nor pressing him harshly. Rather, he listens with gentleness, as one who seeks to heal rather than to rebuke, just as the father received his prodigal son (Luke 15).
With the same compassionate style, he deals with the poor and the needy.
Not as seekers of alms, but as brothers in faith. The Lord Himself called them His brothers, saying: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). The priest of spiritual style does not meet these needy ones with suspicion regarding what they say, as if they were pretending or deceitful, but treats them with all gentleness, seeks to resolve their problems, and does not become annoyed by them or by their many requests, causing them to leave with broken spirits.
The priest who frequently rebukes loses people; some may even leave the Church because of him, not seeing in him the image of Christ, the meek and good.
Not all who have left the Church have done so for doctrinal reasons; some were exhausted by bad treatment or repelled by the harshness of some servants.
Therefore, God, in the Book of Ezekiel, rebukes the shepherds because of whom His sheep became prey and food for every beast of the field (Ezekiel 34:8).
The Lord also gave a good example of shepherding, saying: “I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down… I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick” (Ezekiel 34:15–16). Blessed is the Lord in all His shepherding work for us.
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