Oct 05 2009
Priest and Spiritual Father
(St John of Kronstadt pp81-127; Inner Kingdom ch3,9)
Again the depth of responsibility and heights of glory of the priesthood are evident in St John of Kronstadt’s description of priest as Pastor, Teacher, Confessor and Intercessor. He speaks of how the priest has to answer to God for his people – including for those things they “might have done had it not been for us” (p84). On the other hand, he speaks of how wonderful is the priest’s witness at the Judgement for those he has confessed: he is able to witness to the reality of their repentance (p105).
The work of being a confessor is hard. St John of Kronstadt speaks of the temptation to be irritated at the number of penitents waiting for their confessions to be heard (p83). His words on teaching in general no doubt apply also to speaking to a penitent in the context of confession. He says that every word should be valued (since it is through ‘word’ that God creates and sustains the universe) and the words must be words of spirit and life, not dead letters (p96-7). Met Kallistos in speaking of the starets notes the ability of the starets to “use words with power” (p135). This ability is undoubtedly related to the emphasis the spiritual father has on intercessory prayer for his spiritual children (the “constant intercession” is more important that any words of counsel – p138-9). Intercession has the potential to bring one close to him about whom one prays as illustrated in the story about St John Maximovitch, who, having prayed for four friends of a monk was able to tell the monk the following year which had died and which recovered (IK p151).
Met Kallistos speaks of the great significance of repentance in the Christian life, quoting St Isaac the Syrian (“This life has been given you for repentance. Do not waste it on other things.” – p43) and noting that the preaching of both St John the Baptist and Christ himself began with a call to repent. The significance of repentance in terms of true conversion (p45) and viewed positively as an eschatological illumination (p46) should also be a constant reminder to the priest-confessor and the spiritual father of the seriousness of their task. Hence St John of Kronstadt enjoins the priest-confessor to be a patient lover of souls, never hurrying, never sparing oneself, never being agitated nor irritated (p106): hearing confessions is a cross, but since it is a cross it is not only a school of self-denial for the priest, but also the “touchstone of a priest’s love for his parishioners” (p108) – and the priest needs to take care not to focus on the sin in a penitent but on the image of God he or she bears (p112), enabling him to constantly intercede for his people with his heart as well as his lips (p124) knowing that he can take no credit himself for his prayers since it is only openness to the Spirit who prays through him (p125). St John of Kronstadt speaks of the transformative power of confession (p112) and Met Kallistos emphasises that the role of the confessor is not that of judge (Christ is the judge) nor even that of physician (Christ the physician being the central meaning of confession as a sacrament of healing) but only that of “God’s usher” (IK p49-51) – witnessing the transformation and healing brought through repentance, and using his discernment given through constant intercessory prayer for the penitent and specific prayer of preparation for the sacrament (CPP p109) in order to exercise the priest’s discretion whether and how to impose a penance and his greater responsibility in exercising his power to bind or loose.
Finally, Met Kallistos emphasizes the distinction between true spiritual fatherhood and the role of a priest-confessor. They may be united in one person, but frequently they are not. The priest-confessor is a role conferred by the Church institutionally, and the spiritual father is a role conferred charismatically, being “recognized as such by the people” in a process parallel to that of the acceptance of Church Councils (IK pp129-130). The priest-confessor is appointed and understands his role, whereas the spiritual father never claims his role for himself, but is always revealed by the initiative of those who seek him out (often involving a “movement of flight and return” seen in many great saints who sought a hermitic life before being sought out as spiritual fathers – IK pp131-4). Thus while a priest-confessor is easy to find, it may not be possible to find a spiritual father, in which case we have to do our best with the resources available to us: the Scriptures, other writings, and the informed advice of other travellers on the spiritual path, our spiritual brothers and sisters.
The key to all spiritual advice, whether given by a priest-confessor or a spiritual father, is the personal relationship between the confessor and the penitent, the father and the child. This is why books and rules are inadequate. Each human being is unique, and every relationship is therefore also unique. “Personal encounter” (IK p146) is the only way to learn many things where words (which on the page can be ‘dead letters’) are inadequate. Only the living word, through which we meet the Living Word, is adequate to this task.
