The Little Friar

I'm pondering this afternoon an issue that seems so often misunderstood by our culture:  The sacred trust of the pastoral office.  It's built on the biblical admonition:  "Do not seek your own advantage, but instead seek the advantage of others" (1 Corinthians 10.14). Sacred trusts  refer to any fundamental ethical obligation pastors owe to the Church.  Usually, these sacred trusts cluster around three distinct, though in our culture often interrelated, areas:   Power, money and sex .  I say "interrelated" because in the classical wisdom about church leaders, these three tend to bring out the worst in us.  For that reason, reform movements like medieval monasticism developed "rules" -- ways of structuring lives together -- that made folks responsible in all three areas.  Just think the vows of obedience  (power), poverty  (money) and chastity  (sex).  And in my own experience as a pastor, I see that wisdom affirmed again ...