It was author Graham Green who popularized
the idea of the whiskey priest, a flawed member of the clergy who, despite
failings, still manages to inspire others in their relationship with God.
In his novel The Power and the Glory, the unnamed fictitious priest at the
centre of the story is a fugitive in Mexico in the 1930s, on the run from the
authorities during a time of persecution.
He’s not a very good priest; he drinks too
much, he has doubts, and he has fathered a child. But when a dying man in
another village needs a priest to hear his last confession, he comes out of
hiding to help him—despite knowing he will likely be caught and executed. And
that is exactly what happens.
In the end, the whiskey
priest achieves a sense of dignity, nobility and holiness; villagers are
heard to be talking about whether he could even be declared a saint.
Thoughts about whiskey priests came to me
after reading All is Grace: A
Ragamuffin Memoir, a book by
a real-live whiskey priest by the name of Brennan Manning.
Manning, who died in 2013, was the author
of 21 books including the popular The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for
the Bedraggled, the Beat-Up and Burnt Out.
Born and raised in a tough Catholic home in Brooklyn , New York ,
Manning enlisted in the U.S. Marines during the Korean War. Upon return to the
U.S. , he enrolled in journalism school but left after a semester in search of
something more.
“Maybe the something
‘more’ is God,” an adviser suggested. Manning agreed, and decided to study
theology.
In 1956, while meditating
on the Stations of the Cross, he had a powerful experience of the personal love
of Christ that confirmed God’s call on his life. After additional studies, he
was ordained a Franciscan priest in 1963.
Following his ordination,
Manning served as a campus minister and teacher before dedicating himself to
living and working among the poor. He also spent time alone as a contemplative,
living alone in a cave in a desert for six months.
Through his books and
public speaking, Manning became a respected, appreciated and much-admired
teacher and inspiration for many people who were seeking a deeper and richer
relationship with God.
But behind his public
persona was a man who struggled mightily with alcoholism. In his memoir, he recalls
how he would drink a dozen beers
every night by the age of 18—and also how later, as a spiritual mentor and
teacher, he would sometimes drink himself into a stupor after presentations.
In 1982, Manning left the
priesthood to get married. The marriage ended in divorce 18 years later, partly
due to his drinking.
Yet despite his flaws and
up-and-down personal life, he still had a positive impact on the lives of
many.
“He held audiences spellbound,” recalls
his friend and fellow-author Phillip Yancey. “One university chaplain told me
that no speaker had ever had more impact on his fickle students than this
aging, alcoholic failed-priest from New Jersey .”
To the end, Manning maintained that
anything good that came through his ministry was due only to God’s grace in his
life.
“To live by grace means to acknowledge my
whole life story, the light side and the dark,” he wrote. “In admitting my
shadow side, I learn who I am and what God’s grace means.”
For Manning, it was all about what God did
for him, not what he could do for himself. And what God did for him, God could
do for others, too.
In Ragamuffin
Gospel, he wrote about the
many people he expected to see in heaven—prostitutes, addicts, criminals,
those with doubts, the insecure, the scared, all the flawed and fearful people
who were just like him.
“There they are,” he wrote. “There we are—the multitude who so wanted to be
faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials,
wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it all clung
to faith.
“My friends, if this is not good news to
you, you have never understood the gospel of grace.”
For more information, go
to www.brennanmanning.com
From the Sept. 5, 2015 Winnipeg Free Press.
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