Is being a priest as glorious as it looks?

People have wild ideas about the priesthood. They think it's a position of authority, an exalted position where everybody loves and respects you. That's not the reality. The priesthood is entering into the suffering of Christ. Christ says, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you. Somebody once told me Christ died on the cross so we don't have to, and I said, the apostles didn't get that memo, they basically all became martyrs.

Becoming a priest is absolutely a martyrdom. A professor once told me in seminary, when you put on the cross, that cross becomes the crosshairs for the demons. The temptations, problems, and warfare skyrocket a thousandfold. People love the idea of a glorious martyrdom as a one-time event, but true priests are being martyred continually: many years and decades of laying down your life, your time, your energy, sacrifices, humiliation.

And when you look at the saints of the modern era, they were persecuted by the church itself, as even St John Chrysostom was. So if you love Christ, that is good, but to be a priest you have to want to suffer with Christ, to be crucified with Christ. Not everyone is cut out for that.