This came via email as my daily refelction – I quite liked it – Thought we could all take a page from it. Weather it is me viewing a bishop or others viewing a priest like myself – this is wise and sage advice!
Loving Our Spiritual Leaders
Religious leaders, priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams can be admired and revered but also hated and despised. We expect that our religious leaders will bring us closer to God through their prayers, teaching, and guidance. Therefore, we watch their behavior carefully and listen critically to their words. But precisely because we expect, often without fully realising it, to be superhuman, we are easily disappointed or even feel betrayed when they prove to be just as human as we are. Thus, our unmitigated admiration quickly turns into unrestrained anger.
Let’s try to love our religious leaders, forgive them their faults, and see them as brothers and sisters. Then we will enable them, in their brokenness, to lead us closer to the heart of God.
You have said it well Kevin. Good stuff indeed! Personally, I find it very difficult (impossible) to "love" leaders who place THEMSELVES on a pedestal. The "higher" it is, the farther one has to fall. You still have your feet on the same floor as the rest of us Kevin. Thanks be to God.
Thanks for that Pat I really apprecate it!