A priest, a seminarian, a bishop, a pope, a religious person, or a lay person of any sort, must always focus on being a son of God first. There is no distinction to be made between these different categories of persons in terms of holiness. All are called to be holy the way Christ is holy.
For one who is going to seminary, it is no good to try to be holy as a seminarian ought to be holy. Such an attitude introduces superfluous criteria into the person’s spiritual and moral life. All we need is to be holy as sons and daughters of God. If we can do that, then whatever our specific duties are will come with much greater ease.
Needless to say, this is not always immediately apparent to me. And I’m sure there are or have been other seminarians who feel like they actually have to meet a higher moral standard than other people. It is true that seminarians and priests and spiritual leaders are held to a higher moral standard by others. But objectively speaking the person sitting in the very back pew on Sunday has access to all the graces (via the sacraments) to which a priest or bishop or pope does, and thus can legitimately be expected to live just as virtuously as the Holy Father. If we laugh away such a notion, it is only because of cultural axioms which we have ceased to question.
The pope is not a very holy man because he is the pope. He is the pope because he is a very holy man. Being holy as a man, being holy as a woman, that comes first. Always.
Twenty-two days.
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