It’s been an intense week, for various reasons, mostly work related. Causing me to discover various elements about how far I’m living out my vocation (1) and how far there are some profound social expectations on me that I’m neither willing nor able to meet (2). But dealing with those things takes time, and is difficult.

One of the things in my mind is something that I read a little while back about the derivation of the word ‘parson’, which – I understand – is simply a corruption of the word ‘person’. In other words, the priest is called to be the person in the community – that person who is set free from social obligations, in order that they might become the person whom God is calling them to be – and, God willing, through showing forth that freedom from social obligation, to act as the salt in the food giving flavour to the whole. And – of course – to encourage and foster that becoming a person which is the destiny of all Christians, all human beings.

Which means that when times are difficult, and a priest struggles with the weight of social expectations, the important thing is to listen closely to God and follow God’s will, not that of the society, however holy and pious the voices of society might be. But then, that’s why the priest is paid a stipend – not a salary, we’re not paid by the hour, we’re deliberately set free from financial pressure (in theory!) so that we are not beholden to unhappy parishioners. And it is why we have the freehold, ownership of the church, so that, barring imprisonable offences, we have security of tenure.

All these things can be, and have been, abused, but at root they are profoundly good. They are all ways in which the integrity of the priest is safeguarded, so that they are, so far as is humanly possible, set free to follow God, and to follow Him alone.

The Devil is the lord of this world, and it is worldly voices – so persistently seductive – that we must learn to discern, in order to discard. There is only one voice that we must listen to.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto me and rest;
lay down, thou weary one, lay down
thy head upon my breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad.