The Priest at Prayer, July 4

The Third Part - Vices and Virtues

Contempt for the World's Pleasures

First Meditation - Priestly Detachment

I. Contempt for the pleasures of the world is an impos­ition of the Church and of our own priestly status. It is a duty as imperative for us as for a soldier the readiness to give his life for his country.

If we go through Titulus III of the Code, De obligationibus Clericorum, we shall see that there is hardly a pleasure, honour, or good thing of this world that it does not forbid us. Priests are forbidden to marry. They must wear clerical attire. They must abstain from everything unbecoming their state. They must not engage in affairs improper to their state. They are not to indulge in gambling. They ought not to attend worldly shows, parties, displays, etc.

Neither riches nor pleasures of the flesh nor worldly honours; these three great gratifications of the world are forbidden us, the approach to them is closed against our entry, once and for all.

And the Church on this point has never changed Her mind.

II. The faithful and even the world itself demand this of us. Our first duty is to bring the world to God, teaching it to esteem the things of eternity and to make little of the things of earth, bearing in mind and having on our lips at all times the words of St. Paul:

"The fashion of this world is soon to pass away." (1 Cor. viii, 31)

But these are truths and exhortations completely at variance with our human nature's perverted instincts, they are hard to believe and to take for our fixed standard of conduct; and if my personal life is in flat contradiction with my profession, how will the world receive them from my lips? St. John Chrysostom puts it well:

"Our living example is more moving than miracles. If they hear us condemn avarice, lewdness, and straightway hear that we practise the opposite of what we teach, they will consider our exhor­tations sheer mockery, and our doctrine, just child's play.

"To speak fulsomely in praise of the highest morality is easy; many of the old philosophers did so. What they demand of us is good works. It isn't enough for us to point to the Saints of the past, they see only the present, and they insist on our meeting the challenge: 'Prove thy belief to us by thy good works'."

Only by our own example shall we convey to souls the lesson of detachment from things of earth which clears the way to eternal life.

III. The practice of this detachment must begin by our cherishing it inwardly, and even then, how difficult it is to bring practice into line with the strength of one's convictions! Not even the greatest Saints succeeded completely in giving outward expression to their inmost thoughts and desires, and can I expect to progress very far in detachment from all things visible if my heart succumbs to them and builds an altar of worship to them?

What is my real assessment, O God, of the value of these frail and transitory things which I am obliged to hold in contempt? Are the Gospel utterances on the vanity of this world's pleasures just borrowed formulas which my lips alone do justice to? If I haven't begun by despising them inwardly, how shall I detach myself from them outwardly? How shall I observe the strict obligations laid down in Canon Law? And won't the discrepancy between my preaching and my example be a stumbling-block to the faithful?

Resolution
God does not forbid me to covet riches, honours and pleasures, but He does demand that they be in keeping with my personal dignity as a child of God; so I shall go in eager quest of the riches, honours and pleasures of eternal life. Quae sursum sunt, quaerite. (Col. iii, 1)

I shall deposit my vested interests and my heavenly treasures in the only Bank that never suffers bank­ruptcy, the Hands of my Father in Heaven; and great will be my gain.
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Adapted from The Priest at Prayer
by Fr. Eugenio Escribano, C.M. (© 1954)
Translated by B.T. Buckley, C.M.

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Please pray for our priests and pray for vocations to the priesthood!