I am currently finishing up a book that I started this summer by Peter Kreeft, a Catholic Theologian. One of the key points in the book is that we have lost the goal of being virtuous. We don’t even know what virtue is any more. To quote him, “We have reduced all virtues to one: being nice. And, we measure Jesus by our standard instead of measuring our standard by Him.” I found the following quote this morning and I thought it particularly applicable to my studies to be a priest:

Each of the Beatitudes is an outrageous paradox. Those whom worldly wisdom regards as the least blessed turn out to be the most blessed, and vice versa. Apparent losers are real winners, apparent winners are real losers. There is a staggering contrast between appearance and reality. No one can read these Beatitudes without his spirit staggering, unless it is already flat on its back asleep. Preachers and teachers are tempted to mitigate the scandal and prop up the staggering spirit for the sake of good feelings and acceptability – somthing Jesus never did. In fact, he seems to have done the opposite, making his teaching as uncompromising as possible to separate clearly the sheep from the goats.

Many preachers try to make Christianity in general and the Beatitudes in particular acceptable – that key word of modern ethics. Behavior must be “acceptable” or “appropriate” rather than “good” or “right” or (heaven help us!) “virtuous” or (most unthinkable of all) “holy”. For if we are acceptable, the world will accept us. And isn’t that the Church’s business, to win the world, to get her message accepted?

No, it is not.

Jesus commanded us not to succeed, but to obey; not to sell the gospel, but to proclaim it. Jesus was not found “acceptable”; he was nailed to a cross. And he told his disciples to expect the same kind of reaction, for human nature will not change and the proclamation of the gospel should not change. It is not our job to convert the world or to fill churches; that is God’s job. Ours is to sow the seed, without sugar-coating it; God’s is to make it take root and grow.

The apparent kindness of the preachers who water down Jesus’ hard sayings is really arrogance. They are like mail carriers who arrogate to themselves the role of editors of the mail that is entrusted to them to deliver intact. Some preachers act as if Jesus had said, “Blessed are you when all men speak well of you.” But the real Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Lk 6:26). If we never offend anyone, we are not giving them Jesus.

Peter Kreeft, “Back to Virtue”, 88-89.

On a personal note, I guess I kind of see a priest as a bit of translator. He takes the Gosple and is charged to use God’s grace and the abilities He gave him to deliver the message in a way that the people understand what God wants to say to them. Although Kreeft doesn’t say it, I’m sure he would agree that the priest is more than just a mouthpiece for the Gospel. Human formation is important as the message of the Gospel is delivered by humans and can, in a natural sense, be more or less good at tanslating the message and making it understandable. A priest has to know what appraoch will work best to communicate the message. The priest cares about his people and doesn’t want them to leave the Church. Howerver, Kreeft is rightfully addressing the case of all too many preachers who have taken the desire to have the Gospel accepted too far. They do not want to lose one of their parishioners so badly that instead of translating the Gospel they begin to edit. No one wanted the flock to all be one more than Jesus, but even Jesus let people go when they chose not to accept the Gospel. He was even prepared to let the apostles leave if they couldn’t accept the full Gospel. (John 6:60ff)

I pray that God will give me the fortitude to always faithfully hand on the entirety of the Gospel and the wisdom to know how best to help people come to love that Gospel.