I am only able to write this article today because of one particular priest. An English Jesuit, now resting with his Master, who was at St Aloysius College, Birkirkara in the early sixties and ‘officially’ taught us English. But being a priest he also taught us how to respect ourselves and the gifts that God endowed us with. And he was the one who had identified in this quiet little boy the capacity to become a writer.

Years later, this little boy – now well past his ‘best by’ date and semi-retired – can look back on a career that from its very start has been purely centred on writing. The young boy’s talent was recognised and encouraged because this particular priest had taken a personal interest in him. Today, that last statement alone has far too many socially stressing connotations but, in essence, it is part of the role of being a priest, and also a teacher. In a way it is a ‘job’ for them too – like any lay teacher – but with the added role of having a pastoral lining to it as well. It has helped those they taught to become gainfully employed in various fields, from manufacture to the printing industry.

Over the years I have been fortunate enough to have met many such dedicated priests, some also working so closely with young children or youngsters that possibly their being paid danger money may not be out of place! This is the work of the priest as well, that anointed person at the service of the community, a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads His Church (CCC 1547). As St Thomas Aquinas so succinctly puts it, “Since Christ is the source of all priesthood… the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ.” Yet it is undoubtedly a role that per se means that he is walking through a minefield laid out by today’s society values. And here I am not talking about the problems, which sadly come to our attention through the media from time to time, but of the problems that priests have to face in their day-to-day work… where psychology and psychotherapy are probably better weapons for them than the actual Bible.

I number among my friends some of these priests. I have come to realise the responsibility they carry by being such ‘specialists’ especially in the pastoral field where we are seeing more and more separated couples (dare I say divorced?) coming back to the fold having realised that they have the love of God despite their situation. Meaning, they bring to their local church the problems tied to their living with a new partner who also wishes to partake of the love of God given freely to us all, especially through the Eucharist. To me, one of the 21st century ‘jobs’ that priests are fast having to learn is that of the sappers, those soldiers who went into the minefield ahead of the troops to dig up the hidden mines and make the place safe for all to pass through.

It is clear to me that the charisma of my many, different, priest friends has to come from a source that goes beyond personal dedication. It not only draws them apart from society but also makes them very special people through the Lord Jesus Christ, high priest and unique mediator. It makes them Typos tou Patros, meaning that he is like the living image of God the Father (St Ignatius of Antioch). And that means they have not only answered positively to a personal call in their life but that they now carry more than a responsibility. They carry His cross with Him too.