People in the firing line of public opinion need our prayers.
By Mark Reidy
It may sound strange, but the recent public unravelling of Mel Gibson’s life has caused me to reflect on the Church’s declaration of the forthcoming Year for Priests (June 19, 2009 – June 11, 2010).
When he produced The Passion of the Christ in 2004, Gibson brought Jesus to the masses like no other in history. In a short period of time millions across the world were exposed to his graphic and powerful presentation of Christ’s final hours.
The impact of how this portrayal ignited, reignited or deepened the faith of viewers can never be measured, but I would be confident in suggesting that it sparked a spiritual awakening for many.
Since that time Gibson’s life has spiralled out of control – drunken tirades, divorce – and now a pregnant girlfriend. It would be easy to dismiss his fall from grace as typical of the Hollywood machine, but I believe that we Catholics need to view Gibson’s situation from a Christian, rather than a secular, perspective.
In his second letter to the Corinthians St Paul lists the hardships that had befallen him during his own mission of evangelisation.
He was whipped, beaten, stoned, imprisoned, shipwrecked, starved and regularly exposed to man-made and natural dangers. In many of his letters he beseeched believers to pray for him, as he knew from personal experience that when one brings Christ to the world there is going to be opposition.
I began to wonder how many people prayed for Mel Gibson from 2004 onwards. I certainly didn’t. Yet here was a prominent figure who risked much to deliver a powerful form of evangelisation to the world. It made me realise that I should be praying for people such as Gibson, for their protection from the evil that St Peter says, “…prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1Peter 5:8).
But this revelation then led me to a far greater spiritual neglect on my behalf. How often do I pray for our priests, those that the Catechism teaches us, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, “possess the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself”? (CCC 1548). It is little wonder that the Pope has announced the Year for Priests.
With a continuous output of negative media and declining numbers in many countries, the divine nature of the priesthood is under attack and it appears that the appetite of the “prowling lion” is being sated.
What better way would there be to wreak havoc upon the Church than to directly attack the priesthood, the ministry that provides us with the Eucharist, the very source and summit of our faith? Without it the Church would not exist.
But we, the flock, are far from helpless in offering support for our shepherds.
Pope Benedict is imploring us to pray for them as they try to live out their vocations in an increasingly difficult and hostile culture.
It is essential, therefore, that this forthcoming year be a year of uplifting and restoration of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
We can do this in two ways. Firstly we must acknowledge and recognise the divine nature of the priestly calling and regularly pray, both individually and communally, for their protection. And secondly, we must acknowledge and recognise their humanity and reach out to them in our actions.
We need to ask ourselves, or better still, ask our parish priest how we can best relate to them as a fellow brother of faith.
When Jesus was at his most vulnerable in the Garden of Gethsemane He felt abandoned by his Apostles. In essence, when we allow our priests to live in spiritual or physical isolation, are we any different?