Sometimes I hear the complaint that the Church is more likely to canonize priests and religious than lay people, and that this somehow displays a discriminatory tendency.
But I think it's an important counterpoint to keep in mind that there is also probably a greater proportion of priests and religious in hell. So it goes both ways.
God gave me my religious and priestly vocation not because I was special, but as an act of mercy. This was God's best bet for saving me. It's the best way for me to become a saint. But I also know that if I become worse on account of religious life and the priesthood, I will be far worse than I could have ever become without them.
As the variously attributed quote goes, 'the path into hell is paved with the skulls of priests, with bishops as the sign-posts.'
2 comments:
We are all called to be Saints. Some just work harder than others to make it.
I'd find it very hard to believe that the proportion is greater with secular priests; and it'd take all the traditional primary sense of religious vocation away if it weren't the case with religious.
As for the original question, I think we should remember that a Saint is not just one who is in heaven (he is that too), but also one who is set up for veneration for the whole Church.
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