ARE PRIESTS NORMAL? - MY DISCUSSION WITH A LADY

I had a great and inspiring discussion with one of the best gifts the creator has given me this year as a friend. "You guys are simply not normal, that's why we treat you that way" she had said. This statement came after I narrated an experience I had with another beautiful soul years ago. I told her how I had continually wanted more than just being friends and how the other party had sternly and bluntly said no. I tried to convince my friend how normal we are just like every other human being and how we desired every emotional attention every other person gets and of course why we should also get such. I tried to mesmerize her into believing that I was just as a laity as she was, that was just normal. But she believed I was not normal.

"You guys are God-communers" she said. In a sense an oracle of God. Thus, she believed we had to be respected and a line should always be drawn in our trying to be humans, in trying to be normal like every other person. When every desire of being human is satisfied, the distinctive feature that makes Seminarians prospective God-communers is lost. And the one through whom these normal human desires are satisfied tends to be struggling with God over what is His.

When I was sure I was not winning the argument and that she was saying the truth I had to admit that she was correct. We were normal like every other human being but we are being trained to add a note on this normality. We are trained to be in between being normal and being abnormal.

In trying to get the attention every other human being gets, the affection, the type of love they all get and the treatment they receive it is important to understand that even though we are normal, if we crave to be treated like every other normal person we run the risk of drifting significantly towards the normal while forgetting that we are standing between two worlds.

" But I am not a priest yet" a friend who was there with us said when she made a statement. The life of the priest which is different from the normal life is not to be lived only when the vow has been taken. It has a retroactive effect on even the candidates to the priesthood. It is a Continuum, from the seminarian to the priest.

But I had one advice for her. Which is important for the sanity of the seminarian. In trying to urge the Seminarian to understand that he is not just normal, it is important to aid him not to drift massively towards the other end, an end of forgetting his humanity in a bid to being faithful. Because when this happens the tendency to loose all the beautiful human qualities (compassion, love, attention, kindness,). So it is important to help him become normal like any other human being but to be abnormal from them in his human cravings.