The first day I entered the Seminary to begin my training for priesthood I was thinking, "have I got what it takes to be a priest?" Fortunately, since it was the jubilee year celebrating the Seminary’s fifty years (1991) I came across some visiting priests who were in the first ordination class back in 1947. They said to me, "when I first came here I thought all these other blokes would be floating five feet off the ground, I was very happy to discover they were just like me." Hearing these impressive priests say these words really put my fears at rest. We bring ourselves and who we are and our passion for what we are doing and we work hard, but God does the rest.
Our preconceptions about what a priest should be like can sometimes stop us from checking out the reality. In the end, the best advice someone can give you is based on the scriptures where some of John the baptist’s followers went up to Jesus and asked him, "teacher, where do you live?" Jesus replied, "come and see!" Ultimately, you can’t really tell what its like or whether it is "for you" until you have entered the process and given it all you’ve got.
Being a priest is not about being "holier" than others. Every Christian vocation is a path to holiness. If someone wanting to be a priest thought that they needed to be aloof and distant and superior towards others, they would find themselves unable to relate to people. We need mature, sensible people for priesthood, who are striving to put into practice the gospel vision of Jesus like all other Christians, and who know themselves well enough to be aware of their faults and weaknesses. It is helpful to have a good sense of humour and to be able to laugh at yourself.
There is nothing wrong with striving to be holy. It is the vocation of all people. However, people’s perceptions of what "holiness" is must be compared with the vision Jesus presents us with in the Scriptures. To be holy is to be fully human. To be holy is to be down to earth and integrated as a person. Holiness means an ability to be warm and approachable to people, to be someone who forgives and also someone who accepts forgiveness.
Although we never rejoice in our own wrongdoing, or say to ourselves, "I am just weak, that’s who I will always be" we also must acknowledge that we are not perfect and not be too harsh on ourselves.
Also, without God’s grace and love we can’t achieve anything. Let us rely on God’s grace, rather than our opinion of our weaknesses and see what God can do with our cooperation.