Priesthood becoming a profession now

Gone are the days of selfless and relentless service and now everything has become money-making and profit-making entities. As a result everyone has stealthy omitted the word service from his or her life-dictionary.  

Now everything is a business and there is no service at all. Even the priesthood which formally was an absolute service is turned to be a mere profession. Many become priest because it is an easy going life when compared with hardships and difficulties involved in any other profession and way of life. There is no much hard work involved in this profession and actually they live at the expense of others. They are the people who always wish to have respect, attention, publicity, to be greeted, taken care of.

Any other profession demands great amount of hard work and dedication. As the number of people who join seminary to be a priest has come down drastically and as the system (church) demands more number of priests to run the show always it is not the right candidates who are promoted to be priests.    

With a bare minimum education qualification they can become managers and perhaps the nominal owners of the great institutions. But once they become the managers they act as if they are the true owners of the institutions, it is neither the fruit of theirs nor they inherit from their parents. The Bible says “you are not the owners of the wealth you posses but you are just keepers of it.” many a time the priest who are the preachers of the same gospel hold the positions and being the head of prestigious institutions, tent to forget the particular gospel passage and act as if they are the real owners of it.

Many of them become a priest not because they really wanted to become priests. There are some social, economical and education factors involved in it. It is an omen for themselves and their family to quit the training programme (seminary) once joined so they continue. Some become priest because it is matter of pride for their family. Any aspirant can become a priest provided he undergoes the required years of training thus he would be ordained as a priest.

Not many of the candidates who aspire to be a priest have any right orientation or motivation. This is what makes the profession less dignified and to have corrupt practices. As it is stated that it is a profession where people (priests) are to be completely renounced of the materials goods whereas what all these people (priest) are in a race to amass as many as material goods possible. The irony is that these people (priest) possess all materials good possible which are unaffordable and unknown to any normal person.

Priesthood is a profession where people (priests) are not highly paid. They are paid a bare minimum amount to meet their personal needs but we will be really wonderstruck seeing the number of material things they possess; car, laptop, mobile phones, digital cameras, TV, washing machine, electronic gadgets and what not, perhaps a normal house holder would not have all these.

However, the priests cannot be blamed for the entire value decline that is happening in the society, because it is very difficult for them to swim against the current. Priests are very much human than divine. They can only reflect what is happening in the society and swim with the current.  It is always easy for us to find fault with them being in the other side of the ocean but their sacrifice should be appreciated no matter how much they succeed in it. It is all the more difficult to be an uncommon man with all commonalities.