Untitled - Saints' Books

"
The
158 Material for Sermons. [PARTI.
and conduct them to heaven, let the name and conduct,
says St. Ambrose, correspond; that the name may not
be empty, and that the honor of the office may not be
come a source of guilt. misery of the flock is the
shame of the shepherd," adds the same holy Doctor.
If, then, says St. Jerome, you wish to perform the office
of a priest, let the salvation of others be the gain of your
soul. 2 And St. Anselm holds that the proper office of a
priest is to preserve souls from the corruption of the
world, and to lead them to God. 3 Hence the Lord has
separated priests from the rest of mankind, that they
4
may save themselves and others. Zeal, as St. Augustine
says, 5 springs from love. Hence, as charity obliges us
to love God and our neighbor, so zeal obliges us first to
procure the glory and to prevent the dishonor of God,
and afterwards to seek the welfare and to avert the in
jury of our neighbor.
It is useless to say, I am a simple priest;
I have not
the care of souls; it is enough for me to attend to my
self. No: every priest is bound to attend, in the way in
which he can, to the salvation of souls, according to
their necessity. And in a district in which souls are in
for want of confessors a
grievous spiritual necessity
simple priest is, as we- have proved in our Moral Theol
ogy, 6 bound to hear confessions; and if he has not the
necessary qualifications, he is
obliged to qualify himself
for the office of confessor. This is the opinion that the
learned Father Pavone of the Society of Jesus has held
1 "
Laitde vit.
Detrimentum pecoris pastoris ignominia
est."
Reg. Monach. de
2 "
Si officium vis exercere presbyteri, aliorum salutem fac lucrum
Ep. ad Pattliit.
3
Sacerdotis proprium "
est, animas e mundo rapere, et dare Deo."
4
De medio "
populi segregantur, ut, non solum seipsos, verum et
animse tuse."
populum tueantur." DC Dignit.
5
In Ps. 118, s. 30.
cler. c. 2.
6
Theolog. Moral. 1. 6, n. 625.