People are bothered by certain concepts of ministry.
For instance, I have spoken to many people who would never darken a church door because they imagine that it is full of brainwashed parishioners falling over each other to kiss the hand of the priest, as though he himself were a minor deity.
This distorted notion is the philosophical hangover from the ‘hermeneutics of suspicion’ (Marx, Freud, Nietzsche—with a dash of Voltiarian anti-clericalism), and popularized in such novels asThe Da Vinci Code. The charge is based upon the premise that religion is merely an instrument of social control, rather than a living embodiment of spiritual truth.
And so as not sound as though I am blaming some vast anti-Catholic conspiracy, Catholics must also acknowledge the grave harm that the sexual abuse scandal has done to the perception of ministry. It is hard to imagine an automatic submission to authority after this travesty.
But the point is that all of this turmoil has created a fruitful launching point for rethinking our understanding of ministry.
So allow me to suggest an alternative metaphor of ministry that I believe can help move us forward in our present climate (and I want to stress that I am convinced that this metaphor is spiritually authentic, rather than a knee-jerk concession to our current crisis).
So without further ado, here’s the metaphor:
Imagine a Christian minister as a guide navigating a path through the forests of darkness, confusion and deception of this world. And how do ministers know the path? Because they themselves are guided by the stars—the stars of the sacraments, the revealed Word, the Christian tradition, all of which sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And this path leads to a clearing from which a vantage point emerges—and the view is nothing less than the infinite horizon of God.
But at the heart of this metaphor is that in the end both stand in awe facing God, shoulder-to-shoulder, rather than the minister standing over and above the one being ministered to.
The metaphor then is rooted not in authority, but in the humility that just as we all stand beneath the same sun, we shall all be called to judgment before the same merciful and loving Creator.
