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“Labora sicut bonus miles Christi Jesu.”

“Labour as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” 2. Tim ii.3.

The priest is more than once compared by St. Paul to a soldier; and rightly, for the more of the soldier there is in him, the better priest he is.

At first sight, nothing seems more opposed than the two callings, but a closer examination reveals the fact that several of their leading features are the same. The same general conditions of life are found in both, and the same qualities are required.

1. The priest, like the soldier, once engaged is no longer free; he is no longer at liberty to forsake his profession, and to turn to any of the pursuits of life which were previously open to him. He cannot even combine them, to any extent, with the duties he has assumed. “No man,” says St. Paul (ibid), being a soldier to God, entangleth himself with secular business.” That is, he has no right to do so. The soldier has ceased to belong to himself. His very life is not his own. The Roman soldier that St. Paul had in mind was separated from family, kindred, home, country; indeed, everywhere the soldier’s life is a life of detachment. In active warfare he has to hold himself always in readiness; at any time he may be called upon to face certain death. And therefore he is best without a family. If he has left behind him persons tenderly loved, it is not good that he should give them much thought; such memories would unman him. In a word, the life of a soldier in active service is a life of detachment, of self-devotion; a ready gift of his energies, and, if need be, of his life, to the service of his country.

What else is the life of a priest, if he be true to his calling? His time, his energies, his influence, all his gifts, belong to the great purpose for which he became a priest. Like St. Paul, he is ready to give his very life for it: “I most gladly will spend, and be spent myself, for your souls.” 2 Cor. Xii. 15.

2. The qualities of the soldier are no less necessary in the priest, courage, endurance, discipline. The true soldier is the type of courage. He is fearless in presence of danger, or, if fear is awakened in him, he does not yield to it, else he would be branded as a coward. But his courage is only occasionally appealed to, whereas his power of endurance is taxed at every hour. Long marches, scanty provisions, excessive heat or cold, lack of shelter, sickness, these are what try the soldier much more than facing the enemy. This is why St. Paul does not say: “Have courage; be brave;” but “suffer hardship,” for such is the meaning of the Greek term rendered in the Vulgate by the word labora. Last of all, but not least, discipline. In the Roman army discipline was of the strictest kind, and the oath of obedience (sacramentum) was looked upon as the most sacred of all. In man, as in nature, only disciplined power is useful. Uncontrolled, it wastes itself, and often proves destructive.

Courage, too, is a requirement of the priesthood; physical courage sometimes, moral courage always. To be faithful to duty, at nay cost; to live up to his convictions whatever others may say; to speak out for the right, to censure and to oppose what is wrong; to carry our necessary but unpopular measures; to face the risk of being misunderstood or blamed; of to forfeit certain advantages sooner than relinquish a useful purpose, all this is necessary in the priest, and it means in all cases true moral courage.

The power of endurance is not less necessary. The life of a priest, if he strives to meet all the requirements of his position, is generally a trying one. His mission may be what is called a hard one. The demands upon his physical strength may be as much as he can bear. His patience is tried in numberless ways. Among those with whom he is placed in contact, there are the thoughtless, the unreasonable, the obstinate, the deceitful, the selfish, the ungrateful; he has to bear with all, and strive by dint of gentleness and forbearance to win them to Christ.

Finally, his life has to be one of order, of rule, of discipline. In many things he is left to his own initiative; but in a still larger number he is under rule, the rule of the Gospel and the rules of the Church. His action as a priest is individual in one sense, in another it is collective, that is, associated with the action of the Church herself and of her representatives. In both it is equally withdrawn from caprice and subject to law.

“It is the soldier’s pride to fight for his king; what an honor to be the soldier of Christ!

But if campaigning means endurance, he who endureth not is no soldier.” Chrys. In 2 Tim.

 Source: Rev. John Baptist Hogan (Daily Thoughts for Priests, 1899)