Father John A. Hardon, S.J. Archives

Saints and Biographies

The Virtues of a Priest

(Biography: Father Gerald Fitzgerald)

by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

It is not surprising that the man who spent so many years laboring to bring priests back to the fold should have much to say about the virtues of a priest. We might almost say that this was the substance of all he had to say.

Father Gerald was convinced that, given their indispensable role in the Church of God, as the ones who bring Christ down on earth in the Eucharist, and the ministers of the sacraments and the Word, priests must above all be holy men. Behind this conviction was the memory of the Church's long history. Holy priests sanctify their people; unholy priests, except for a miracle of grace, turn people away from God. "It is true," he admitted, "that no soul in all the world will be lost without its own deliberate and consummate folly." Granting this, yet for "the soul in a parish where there is a saintly priest, his chances are multiplied a thousand fold. The young people who fall under the influence of a holy priest, how they are strengthened to meet the temptations and dangers of the world for all their life. God, after His own self, after His own incarnate self, has no more powerful means of saving souls than His priests. As a matter of fact, He counts upon His priests to give His Sacramental Self to the Mystical Body." (C-94).

This was the underlying principle of Father Gerald's work of priestly rehabilitation. It takes priests to restore holiness among priests who have drifted away. Indeed, it takes exceptionally holy priests to do this. Hence the towering importance of holiness in those who would sanctify their fellow priests.

When we sanctify priests, when we put them back and make them what they ought to be, we are making the most vital contribution to the salvation of man and thus to the glory of God that can be made on earth. Let me repeat that statement: Priests who devote themselves to the sanctification of their fellow priests, and of course this implies sanctifying themselves as Our Lord Himself said: to sanctify Himself for their sake and for the sake of others. He had the fullness of sanctification but He went through the life and the fast and the prayer and the vigils and the Apostolic labors, personal demonstrations, for the sake of His brethren, for the sake of His Priests.

The priest who devotes himself to the sanctification of his fellow priests is making a most direct and most vital contribution to the salvation of man and thus the glory of God that can be made on earth. (C-94).

One of Father Gerald's favorite patrons was the Cure of Ars, who, he said, "made thousands of priests holy men, fervent priests." Father Gerald's idea was to follow the same philosophy. "I was anxious to do as much as I could for the Sacred Heart, and I asked myself: What is the most efficient way of helping the Sacred Heart? And the answer of course is obvious: Sanctify my priests. If we can sanctify priests for Christ, then we are opening up the God-chosen channels of sanctification for others, for the whole world, for the Church, for the Mystical Body." (C-93).

Here was the motivation he urged on everyone who would listen, priests, religious and the laity. Work, pray and sacrifice for the sanctification of priests and you are engaged in the fundamental apostolate of the Catholic Church.

Faith in the Eucharist

At the bedrock of the Christian religion is faith. Without faith there can be no pleasing God. "It is true we're going to be judged by charity, and especially the works of fraternal charity, the corporal works of mercy. But the man who performs the corporal works of mercy in a salvific manner is dominated by faith. He cannot received credit from God except for that which is done by faith. 'For without faith, it is impossible for a man to please God.' " (Hebrews 11:6). (E-9).

What is true of Christians in general is also and emphatically true of priests. Their supernatural faith is what makes them acceptable to God.

But the function of faith in a priest lies deeper still. In Father Gerald's estimation, it was not just faith as such, but faith in the Eucharist that first led a young man to aspire to the priesthood.

It is our faith in the Blessed Sacrament that was responsible for most of our vocations, probably all our vocations. We became priests because of the Mass, or because of the divine-abiding presence in the Sacrament of love. Many vocations have their source, if they could be analyzed and studied, we would find that they amounted to this formula: I believe that the Son of God has made Himself a prisoner of love in this little white Host in this tabernacle for me. He who is my God, loves me enough to be here as a prisoner of love, then I love Him enough to give up the joys and consolations of a Christian home and be His prisoner of love. A good priest is a prisoner of love of Our Lord because Our Lord is a prisoner of love for him. And in proportion that his faith is living, he has that consolation. (C-10).

Again and again, Father Gerald returns to the same idea: "Faith is what led us into the most sublime of all our possessions, our priesthood. It was our faith (especially in the Real Presence; faith in what it meant to be a priest, to be in that relationship to the Son of God) that was at the bottom of and basic, under God, to our vocation."

So true is this that, after years of experience with wayward shepherds, Father Gerald reached a conclusion that deserves to be etched in bronze. "The most difficult cases we shall ever deal with in our apostolate will not be priests who are sinners but priests who have lost the Faith." (E-10). As later events were to prove, the most intractable persons to cope with, and they can be very learned, are men who had once believed in the Real Presence, and therefore in the priesthood, but lost faith in the Eucharist and therefore lost their sense of identity as priests.

It was, no doubt, symbolic of what was later to occur in his life, that Father Gerald recalled with gratitude that, "the greatest happiness I have in thirty-four years in the priesthood is the knowledge that I spent the afternoon of my ordination largely with Jesus Christ. I didn't know Him so well then as I know Him now, but I did know enough that I was ordained to serve and love the King of Kings. That's faith. My love is very far from being perfect, but I have faith." (E-12).

This deep faith, centering on the Eucharist, Father Gerald tried by all means to inspire, or arouse, in other priests. Certainly in working with other shepherds, "we must have faith, or we cannot help these priests who come to us." (E-12).

It follows, then, that if faith is so important, a priest should pray daily to deepen his faith. He recommended that "every time in the Mass that we say the Credo, we ask God to strengthen our faith." Priests should daily make "an act of gratitude to God and a petition to God to strengthen our faith that, come what may, we, like St. Teresa of Avila, will be able to say when would find that they amounted to this formula: I believe that the Son of God has made Himself a prisoner of love in this little white Host in this tabernacle for me. He who is my God, loves me enough to be here as a prisoner of love, then I love Him enough to give up the joys and consolations of a Christian home and be His prisoner of love. A good priest is a prisoner of love of Our Lord because Our Lord is a prisoner of love for him. And in proportion that his faith is living, he has that consolation. (C-10).

Again and again, Father Gerald returns to the same idea: "Faith is what led us into the most sublime of all our possessions, our priesthood. It was our faith (especially in the Real Presence; faith in what it meant to be a priest, to be in that relationship to the Son of God) that was at the bottom of and basic, under God, to our vocation."

So true is this that, after years of experience with wayward shepherds, Father Gerald reached a conclusion that deserves to be etched in bronze. "The most difficult cases we shall ever deal with in our apostolate will not be priests who are sinners but priests who have lost the Faith." (E-10). As later events were to prove, the most intractable persons to cope with, and they can be very learned, are men who had once believed in the Real Presence, and therefore in the priesthood, but lost faith in the Eucharist and therefore lost their sense of identity as priests.

It was, no doubt, symbolic of what was later to occur in his life, that Father Gerald recalled with gratitude that, "the greatest happiness I have in thirty-four years in the priesthood is the knowledge that I spent the afternoon of my ordination largely with Jesus Christ. I didn't know Him so well then as I know Him now, but I did know enough that I was ordained to serve and love the King of Kings. That's faith. My love is very far from being perfect, but I have faith." (E-12).

This deep faith, centering on the Eucharist, Father Gerald tried by all means to inspire, or arouse, in other priests. Certainly in working with other shepherds, "we must have faith, or we cannot help these priests who come to us." (E-12).

It follows, then, that if faith is so important, a priest should pray daily to deepen his faith. He recommended that "every time in the Mass that we say the Credo, we ask God to strengthen our faith." Priests should daily make "an act of gratitude to God and a petition to God to strengthen our faith that, come what may, we, like St. Teresa of Avila, will be able to say when we're dying, 'Thank God I die a child of the Faith, a daughter of the Faith,' and we, a priest of God, I die in my faith." (E-11).

Humility of Mind and Heart

Building on faith in God's revelation, especially in the Eucharist, a priest must cultivate deep interior humility.

Why is humility so necessary in the life of a priest? Because without this virtue there is no possibility of growing in intimacy with Christ. "I cannot be a favorite of the Sacred Heart, I cannot be an intimate of the Sacred Heart, I cannot be one of those who are close to the Sacred Heart, unless I achieve humility." (C-99).

This stands to supernatural reason. If God resists the proud and gives His grace to the humble, how can a proud priest expect to grow in holiness without grace, if he cannot receive the grace without humility? It took the humiliation of God to teach us, especially priests, humility.

What is most necessary for the priestly heart? To do that which is so difficult for man and so easy for God. Do we see the Apostles during the three years of the public life, do we see them at any one scene prostrate at Our Lord's feet? Not until the Resurrection. Only one of them was at Calvary; none of them were at Bethlehem. But we see the reverse, we see at the Last Supper the Sacred Heart of Jesus actually in the person of Christ, in the framework of His humanity, kneeling at the feet of His disciples. 0 my God why have we the need of going any further to learn the lesson of humility? The heart of God at the feet of His disciples! And apparently only one of them, only Peter, saw the incongruity, at least expressed the incongruity: Thou shalt never wash my feet. Get up Lord and let me kneel and wash your feet. And then the lesson: Unless I wash you, you shall have no part with Me. And unless you wash us, beloved Jesus, unless you had humbled Yourself, what chance of conversion would there be for our proud hearts? What is all pride and especially what is pride in a priestly heart but a heart lifting itself and saying: I will be a god unto myself and of myself. Non serviam - I will not serve. (D-135,136).

Not only is pride sinful, but it is most unreasonable. It is surely a mystery of life why anyone should be proud. And can any person who is proud ever be happy? Pride is so obviously a source of anguish.

For the proud heart is not at peace, even with itself. The proud heart partakes in some mysterious manner of the everlasting perturbation and anguish of Lucifer. There is no peace in hell because there is nothing but pride in hell. There can be no peace in a priestly heart while the thorn of pride is there. Humility is always beautiful to God. Cultivate it with that simplicity of purpose: This is the thing that will make me most pleasing to God. "Learn of Me for I am meek and humble of heart." If you can be humble you can be a saint. (D-138).

How is humility to be understood? It is to be seen in two phases. The first phase is a recognition of my own nothingness, that except for God, I would not even exist, and except for His sustaining hand, I should relapse into the nothingness from which I came. The second phase is the willingness to be treated for what, of myself, I really am, nothing.

Take the priest at the altar, who begins the Mass by admitting his sins. Suppose, after Mass, he is accused of something he has done wrong. "How few priests, when brought face to face with an accusation, even true, will respond humbly and will say quietly, `I'm sorry, but I was at fault in that case," and will do it without rancor and with simplicity of spirit? It is one thing to acknowledge our nothingness to God, and it is another thing to accept that same evaluation from our fellowman." (C-98).

If humility is always desirable, it is indispensable for successful work with persons -- especially priests -- who have fallen. That is why Father Gerald literally begged, "I beg you, dear Fathers," he told his priests, "to cultivate humility after charity itself." Then he explained.

Humility is really a form of charity, for us anyway, for if we are humble we will be charitable. We shall be considerate for the falls of others. We can understand how a man can fall, and fall and fall, and if we can't understand it, we can be patient with it, for this condition. This is why God can draw good out of evil. Even in our own falls and frailties and our infidelities to Our Lord. The man who has never failed God is in great danger -- in great natural danger of pride. He is very apt to be like the Pharisee who stands and says: I am not like the rest of men. We cannot help our fellow priests here in this canyon, in our Apostolate without being personally men of humility, grounded in humility, fastened in humility permanently. It would be my honest conclusion that pride brings 85% perhaps even more -- 95% -- of the priests -- of the problems that bring priests to Via Coeli have their root in pride. The proud man will not stop following his course of folly; the humble man will learn even by his mistakes. A proud man will not learn, he refuses to learn even from his mistakes. A humble man, if he offends God, no matter in what virtue it may be, will come back to his God and say: I'm sorry. The proud man cannot say "I'm sorry". Because pride is self-deification. (C-100).

How to cultivate humility? By reflecting on God's humility, in the Incarnation, and in the Blessed Sacrament. Could God have humbled Himself more than to hide His divinity to assume our humanity; and then, as man, to even hide His humanity under the sacramental veils of the Eucharist?

Here the God who owns all things beyond the ownership of men, who owns everything and brought everything out of His creative power, who owns everything by the right of creation, is "pauper." He who controls the unthinkable powers of the atom -- all rests at the fingertips of His will -- all atomic energy -- all energy that is or ever will be or ever has been or every could be -- the sum total, here He is in the frailty of the little wheaten Host. He whom the heavens cannot contain, imprisons Himself in a little brass circle, gold-plated or silver -- what does it matter? He created both silver and gold -- and earth and spirit -- and He created me and I owe Him everything. (C-101).

How further to cultivate humility? By praying and asking God and His Mother, to make us humble. A suggested prayer: "0 God, if for one minute, one split second, you were to put the power of God in my power, it would be my happiness to return it to you so that you could say that you had permitted a creature to be in a position to dethrone you and the creature, like our Blessed Mother, had refused to usurp the power of God." Priests should cultivate this attitude: "Humble yourselves in private prayer before our dear Lord. What graces He will flood into your souls. Our Blessed Mother revealed this when she said: Because He has regarded the lowliness, the humility of His handmaid. Annihilate yourself and God will fill yourself with His Divine and True Self, for He alone IS. And from time to time repeat this which is a favorite ejaculation of my own: Let this be not forgot, dear Lord, let this be not forgot: Thou art and I am not." (C-102).

Christlike Charity

The charity of a priest should affect his whole life. People should see in him something of the love that Christ had for others, especially for those who were, humanly speaking, least deserving of love. This charity ought to be shown, above all, in priestly friendship.

To be the friend of Christ involves being a friend to those round about us, even when that is inconvenient from an earthly point of view. If we are to love our neighbor as Jesus loves us we must love him even when our neighbor is unlovable. Is it not true that Christ has loved us in our unlovableness? That is the wonderment of Divine Love. That is the reason of our Apostolate -- to love those who have been unworthy of His love. He loved them and He loves us when we are unlovable. And believe me, even consecrated souls, even priests can be terribly unlovable.

Remember that Our Lord very carefully pins down who are His true disciples. They are those who are set upon deliberately loving their neighbor as Christ has loved us. How has Christ loved us? He has loved us to the point of sacrifice. He has loved us to the point of giving His life for us and we must love our neighbor to the point of laying down our lives in the fulfillment of our vocation. We must love God's priests even when they are unlovable. Now that does not mean being weak with them. God has not been weak with us. At times in His love for us, He has dealt with a strong and firm hand but always it was motivated, not with impatience but because He wished us not to lose Him for eternal life. He wanted us to be with Him for all eternity, and so He sought us in our weakness. He sought us in our difficulties. He sacrificed Himself for us. (C-73, C-74).

One of the greatest trials of the priesthood, as only a man like Father Gerald would know, was loneliness. And one of the main reasons for loneliness, he was convinced, was the lack of selfless friendship among priests. That is why he stressed so much the practice of kindness and forbearance, if need be to heroism, with men who were often victims of failure in Christian charity. "We can always find good in human nature," he insisted. "By cultivating, by noticing the good we can encourage others to build that good up." (D-145). And again, "If we could only remember. If we could only ask ourselves: Have I permitted myself to wound a fellow priest, or anyone?" (D-139).

Given his exposure to human weakness and his familiarity with human sin, "One of the most essential virtues of a priest, essential for the fulfillment of his vocation is the capacity for silence. If one stops to reflect, it will become increasingly evident. One has to be like God, and I say that reverently, like God Who knows all things, and yet Who is so slow to reveal the humiliations of the individual to his fellows."

Recall what happened at the Last Supper. When Judas had planned to betray the Savior, and he was about to carry the betrayal into effect, what did Jesus do? He did not reveal the betrayer. Instead, He cryptically told the disciples that one of them was a devil. But when asked "Who?" He did not identify Judas. Finally, in Gethsemane, the traitor betrayed himself.

There is a dreadful, terrible possibility that flows from that forbearance and silence of God. A priest can go to the altar for years and Jesus Christ will not betray him, can go to the altar in mortal sin and God will not betray him. 0 dear Fathers, what a tremendous forbearance, what a tremendous self-control the Son of God is exercising! Not only 1900 years ago at the Last Supper, but in the world today. And that is one reason why to men of faith, we do not need to go backwards through the centuries. Today is the Passion! Today. We know because we have cared for souls. We know today somewhere in the world Judas' lips met Our Lord; somewhere in the world Our Lord whispered to a poor soul, both souls of laity and souls of priests, "Dost thou betray the Son of God with a kiss?" "And Jesus was silent." Today. (E-49).

Practicing charity by keeping silence is "especially necessary for us in the fulfillment of our vocation because we like Peter and John become aware of the sorrows of the Sacred Heart." In the priesthood, "we become aware of the humiliations, the humiliating failures and sins of priests. How careful we must be."

As Father Gerald saw the failures of priests, they are humiliations to the Heart of Christ. The devil taunts the Savior with that. To point up what this means, he recalled the example of Job in the Scriptures. God spoke of His servant Job, who always praised the Divine Majesty, to Lucifer, and Lucifer said, "Let me have him; let me have a chance at him and we'll see whether he will or not."

Therefore, when we avoid speaking unnecessarily of the faults and failures of a priest, we are saving the Sacred Heart from being reminded of something that has been a humiliation and by anticipation something He has already suffered for, something that brought the dew of Blood to His forehead and face in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is not one of us who has not heard sufficient confessions to understand why Jesus sweat Blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. (E-50).

There is another reason, however, why a priest should keep discreetly silent about what he knows are the sins of others, including his fellow-priests. This is the motive that Christ went out of His way to emphasize, namely to obtain mercy for oneself. The Beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy," is no mere option. It is a grave obligation. It is also a salutary following of Christ. "If we imitate the Sacred Heart of Jesus, if we hide the faults and failings, even the serious failings, speaking only when it is necessary for the guidance and the help of a soul, shall we not qualify for the mercy of God." Needless to say, "We're not looking for the justice of God. It is too sharp a sword. We want the mercy of the Sacred Heart. Very well. Let us be merciful. Let us even avoid thinking of the sins of men and especially the sins of priests." (E-50).

Father Gerald was too wise to suppose this meant stultifying one's intelligence or closing one's eyes to the obvious. But it is one thing to recognize evil when faced with sin, and being overwhelmed even by the enormity of some crime, and dwelling on the sins of others or talking about them as a sort of pastime or thus inflating one's ego. Imitating the charitable "silence of Jesus Christ is never vacuity. It does not mean and is not the silence of the dotage of old age; it is not the silence of the moron. It is a silence that is eloquent with the realization of the Presence of God," (E-51) who is love, and who, out of love, passes over in silence (without condoning) the failures of His creatures.

Generosity of Spirit

The practice of charity is already high virtue, and its presence in a priest is one of the marks of his nearness to God. But generosity of spirit, if possible, goes beyond charity. Or rather it is a perfection of charity that not only looks for the good in others to praise them, but seeks out the needs of others to meet them.

The measure of your greatness, dear Fathers, if you want a practical measure of your spiritual stature, you will find it in terms of your generosity. How generous you are. And remember, to us, Our Lord has said: Generously you have received. And who has received more generously from God, than the priest of God? (C-96).

Immediately, however, as we speak of generosity, we must carefully distinguish between two types of souls, even generous souls. This classification is not arbitrary. "It is according to the generosity of the soul, whether of priest, religious, or the lay person."

There are good souls, but the good souls whose goodness is very well concerned with their own immediate peace and happiness. They belong to God: they abide in God but they do not sacrifice much to God: they are pleasing to God, they are acceptable to God, they belong to God but they are not upon the Cross with Christ. At most they are bearing witness from a distance. There are other souls who deliberately draw close to the Cross of Christ. And even by the generosity of their spirit and the persistency of their sacrifice invite Our Lord to come down and let them take His place on the Cross. Our Lord never does come down from the Cross. He didn't until He was dead. Even when He was tempted humanly speaking to do so and to put at naught His enemies, "Come down from the Cross and we will acknowledge you." We acknowledge You Jesus because You did not come down from the Cross: we acknowledge You as the King of love, unselfish love. But there was another heart at the foot of the Cross that was inviting Our Lord to come down; in fact there were three hearts that were inviting Our Lord to come down from the Cross: one was the heart of His Mother, one was the heart of His priest, one was the heart of His penitent and lover, Magdalen. (D-180, 181).

Speaking to priests, Father Gerald began with an invocation, "0 Lord, Jesus, how fortunate we are." Then a plea for priestly generosity: "The heart of John can be our heart because we are Thy priests," of whom Christ expects more than of others. "The heart of Magdalen belongs to us because we too have offended Thee grievously and therefore we belong to the penitent, the penitent heart is ours," ready to give much to others because so much has been mercifully given to us. "And we belong to the Immaculate Heart of Mary because to the heart of a priest and the heart of a penitent, the Heart of the Mother of God belongs," and she knows how to inspire her Son's priests to give after the example of her Son who died on the Cross to expiate our sins.

If a person, and especially a priest, is generous, he will also be zealous. Generosity without zeal is spurious, even as zeal without generosity is self-seeking.

The great exemplar of generous, apostolic zeal was St. Paul, whom Father Gerald never tires presenting to priests as a model for their imitation. As we review the history of the Apostle we are struck by the logic of God's Providence.

There was first of all the man himself, Saul, on whose ardent nature the Lord decided to build the edifice of His grace. "What is characteristic of Paul and what we need today to stem the terrible tide of worldliness that is sweeping in on the Church, is this energetic approach -- St. Paul was a man of energy. He was big physically but he was big in the sense of the flaming intensity of his soul. Whatever he would do he would do intensely; and so when he started to persecute the Church he did it intensely: he was following through. When finished cleaning up the Christians in Jerusalem, he was going up to Damascus to bring them back for trial. He made a crusading District Attorney." (C-44)

So much for nature. "And then someone interfered. Then the Master stopped him in his tracks on his way to Damascus. Let us not forget that after Christ Himself, there has not been a more momentous moment for the Church than that moment when Jesus stopped a fiery little man bent upon persecution of Christ's followers."

In entering the life of Saul, Christ did more than convert him from prosecutor to apostle. He enlightened Saul on the two facts of faith that should dominate the life of every priest, that God became Man and dwells among us, and that this God-man identifies the faithful with Himself, so that whatever is done for them (in charity) or against them (in malice) Christ takes as being done to Himself.

Saul was changed to Paul by the grace of Jesus. "From that moment that most startling and most redeeming revelation of Divine Love dominated this man, of magnificent mind and soul. Would to God that the same had been true and was true of every priest." (C-45)

How the Church needs priests with something of the burning zeal of the Apostle. What she needs is more men like him.

What could stop the conquest of the Holy Spirit if every priest was Pauline in his spirit? What could stop us? Think of the agony of the Sacred Heart who can find so few priests who go all out for Him, their God who goes all out for us. (C-45)

Father Gerald was fond of quoting the words of the devil from the lips of a possessed person to the Cure of Ars who had taken 80,000 souls from him. Then the devil is supposed to have added, "If there were three more priests like you in the world, my kingdom would be destroyed."

The lesson of this was clear. The Cure of Ars was a zealous priest. He spent long hours in the confessional reconciling sinners with God. But behind those sixteen and more hours a day listening to sins was the zeal of a great lover of God. "Before he died, forty, fifty thousand were coming every year to go to confession to him." They were drawn by his sanctity and the wisdom that holy priests invariably receive from God.

As we look around us today, what is the picture we see? "The Sacred Heart, from all His thousands of priests can only find a handful who are ready to be so completely inebriated with His Spirit as was the Cure of Ars. Dear Fathers, I would wish you to be ambitious men, ambitious for just one thing, for loving Christ as He has never been loved before" - and showing this love by spending oneself in zealous advancement of Christ's Kingdom on earth.

Handmaids of the Precious Blood
Cor Jesu Monastery
P.O. Box 90
Jemez Springs, NM 87025

Copyright © 1998 by Inter Mirifica