Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Lectionary: 231

Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.

 

In Jesus’s day, from what I glean from the gospels, the most immediate public influencers were the scribes and Pharisees. Pontius Pilate and Herod Antipas shared some kind of authority in Jerusalem, with the help of Roman soldiers.  But the people who could throw their weight around and make life difficult were small time religious authorities. Perhaps they were like the ward bosses of major cities in America, and the dons who control the underground economy. The scribes and Pharisees could get things done, with or without legitimate authority, and they enforced their religious standards on a compliant public.

We’re all familiar with the temptations of authority. That suspicious awareness is built into our systems of government. The judiciary branch balances the executive which balances the legislative which balances the judiciary, and so forth. Although each aspires to more power, it’s never good when one becomes too powerful. We have seen a recent demonstration of an Executive who refused to relinquish power and the rebuke (albeit reluctant) of the Senate.

The Catholic Church has not embraced a similar set of checks and balances. Perhaps this is why we were caught flatfooted when the scandal of pedophilia among priests appeared. We have not cultivated a healthy skepticism about our clergy and their personal life; we seem to avoid doing so.

This is partly due to the intimate nature of our faith, especially as we practice it in the Sacrament of Penance. A pastor should enjoy the complete confidence of his congregation; first that he is worthy of such trust; and secondly, he will not betray by thought, word, or deed his deep personal knowledge of them.  

Unfortunately, there is a flip side to this beautiful system. Pope Francis has endorsed the belief that the essential problem is neither homosexuality among the clergy, nor the loneliness of celibacy, but clericalism. Like every other profession, the clergy generate their own culture which encourages virtue – that’s good! -- and overlooks vice (not so good.) We did not want to see the obvious; we did not act when it appeared.

Clericalism is a perversion of the servant-leader’s authority. Called to guide a willing and docile congregation, some clerics garner perquisites and privileges that should belong to no one. The faithful, eager to demonstrate their gratitude to God and his anointed ministers, sometimes offer gifts and opportunities that should be refused. Accepting them, keeping them, expecting them, demanding them: that’s clericalism.

As one who has often accepted these undeserved gifts, I can tell you how easy it is. The conscience might sting for a moment, like a mosquito’s, but it passes. 

The Prophet Isaiah challenges the Church in today's first reading, "Come now, let us set things right!" The whole Church has a duty -- and its the responsibility of the clergy to keep that duty front and center of our consciousness -- to "Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow." 

Clericalism is what happens when the clergy take care of the laity and the laity take care of the clergy and neither makes justice their aim. 

Come now, let us set things right.