Our Stations in Life

Thomas Martin

Thomas Martin teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

Much is being said about the failings of the Catholic priests who have abused children and the harm done to the credibility of the Church. However, the harm done by some priests in the Church is precisely a share of the harm done by all of us to Christ, “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

A priest is called to what is traditionally known as a “station in life,” a station which comes with a vow, consecration, authority, and obligations. This is clearly stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer and work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by their example, “not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.” [1 Pet 5:3] Thus, “together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain to eternal life.”

The stations of life are not the creations of man but are vocations bestowed by God. Similarly, fatherhood and motherhood in the sacrament of marriage are also stations in life.

Though some have said pedophilia is a crime of celibacy, unfortunately it is a crime that extends beyond the priesthood into other stations of life.

There is no rational explanation for evil in the human soul, for why an adult would abuse a child. This is like trying to understand why Judas in the presence of Christ, the one man who is innocent and who negates the common expression “we are only human, no one is perfect,” seeks to destroy the innocent.

In the various stations of life we are not called to be ourselves, to do what we feel like doing; we are called to go beyond ourselves. Christians readily understand that they are not of this world, products of the environment, “social constructs” or accidental arrangements of DNA as the materialistic biologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists are constantly harping.

Made in the image of God, Man is a “living soul” placed in creation as a creature who is morally responsible for his actions.

Man is not an animal for he must work, not for the purpose of accumulating a pile of goods, but so that he might be made morally good by his labors.

Aristotle makes a similar distinction between function and virtue. Every station in life has a proper function, the purpose of which is the work that is performed and the virtue of which is how well the work is performed. “For excellence consists in doing good rather than in having good done to one, and in performing noble actions rather than in not performing base ones.”

My function is that of a university professor; the virtue of my function is how good I am at working with those with whom I have been entrusted in the study of philosophy.

I am not limited to the function of a teacher. Various functions are bestowed upon me as a son, grandson, husband, son-in-law, brother-in-law, father, brother, nephew, uncle, cousin, neighbor and citizen. Some of these stations in life I have inherited by birth and others are freely chosen with my vows as a husband and a citizen. I may fail in any one of these stations of life by “domineering over those in [my] charge.”

When I fail in one of my stations, this does not say anything about the station; it says something about me, about my vices. Someone will undoubtedly call such thinking idealistic and they would be correct. There is an ideal of what a father ought to be, a mother ought to be, a brother ought to be, a sister ought to be, a parent ought to be, a nurse ought to be, a teacher ought to be, a citizen ought to be, and a priest ought to be.

To put this in the simple terms of the NCAA’s March Madness, there is an ideal of what a point guard in basketball ought to do. He needs to lead the attack by creating the offense. When he fails at his function, it does not say anything about the function of the point guard or the game of basketball; it says something about his lack of virtue as a point guard.

It is for this reason that life is an adventure and as it is an adventure it is dangerous. It is dangerous because each station of life offers the opportunity for a person to glorify creation in his station or to defile himself, and others, like Judas by violating the goodness of creation with which he has been entrusted.

In all of this I am reminded of G. K. Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”