The process of preparing a man for priestly ordination is more than just educational. It’s true that seminaries are themselves, or affiliated with, degree granting institutions that result in graduate degrees. But it’s not simply enough to do the book work and pass the tests. Priesthood is not the result of a credential; it’s the result of a radical transformation.

Priestly formation takes many years; there’s the establishment of a firm foundation of philosophy before building up theological knowledge. The men live in community, participating in regular and structured prayer. Although not as intensive as military training, the rigors of life as a seminarian have a similar strictness. Men are challenged to conform in such a way that they are prepared to stand in the place of Christ. It’s uncomfortable, hard, and arduous.

It’s sad that we’ve allowed our understanding of vocation to bifurcate. In a caste-like system, we separate priestly and religious life from the married life. The overwhelming majority of the Church is called to the married and single life. It mirrors the nation of Israel: only one of the twelve tribes, Levi, occupied a priestly role. The life of the Church is dependent on religious vocations, but it is equally dependent on sacramental marriages. It’s the type of symbiosis that we see in the family. Husband and wife offer different, but complimentary, gifts.

A consequence of the bifurcation is that we separate, too, the roles and responsibilities. We think it is the seminarians who must be radically re-formed and undergo the rigors of intensive formation. But the same is true for us. Every person is made in God’s image and likeness, and we are all made to reflect Him and His Love. We have inherited our fallen nature concurrent with our heritage as God’s sons and daughters. To become mirror images, we have to set down our desires and priorities that take us further from love and re-form ourselves into the perfection that we were intended to be.

Holiness is not the prerogative of the Saints, or reserved to those consecrated with the Chrism of Holy Orders. The correction to this misconception is coming into focus as the Church declares more and more of the laity saints. Individuals whose pictures we see, whose voices we hear, in whose lives we see ourselves. Sainthood is not an impossibility, even with the challenges we face, but rather our intended destination. To achieve it, however, we must humble ourselves to be reformed, and made into the creation God intended us to be.