Sometimes it’s easy to forget that during the lifespan of Christianity, clergy did not always exist. Put that way, it might sound as obvious as it is. But remembering this is more than just recollecting some historical fact that there had been a period of maybe 10 to 40 years in which there were no recognized Christian clergy–there were leaders of the Jesus movement, there were bearers of the messages of Jesus, but not a set of organized priests and bishops (or pastors and elders).

Here’s why I raise this issue: today’s main saint in Butler’s works is Eugenius. He was a bishop at a time when many clergy who held fast to Christian orthodoxy were being beaten, banished, and even martyred. Yet listen to the scene as depicted by Butler–a scene of townspeople bewailing the loss of clergy from their midst:

The people followed their bishops and priests with lighted tapers in their hands, and mothers carried their little babes in their arms, and laid them at the feet of the confessors, all crying out with tears,–“Going yourselves to your crowns [or martyrdom], to whom do you leave us? Who will baptise our children? Who will impart to us the benefit of penance, and discharge us from the bonds of sins by the favour of reconciliation and pardon? Who will bury us with solemn supplications  at our death? By whom will divine sacrifices be made.”

I want to cry back to these people–Who did these things before there were bishops and priests who, amongst themselves, decided that they and only those they approved of could do these things for and with you?! Why do you believe that God’s grace could ever be kept from you by circumstances beyond your control?

In fairness, I must own my social location as a 20th- and 21st-century Protestant. That said, I am both saddened and angry when I look back over the ways in which organized Christianity has so hobbled its adherents that they believe that grace, freedom, liberation, and the power of God is actually unavailable to them in the absence of clergy! The effects of this are deeply impoverished lives and unnecessarily dependent and spiritually anemic people. The result of this? Strong leaders who appear can scoop up these people with just about any strong message that makes them feel empowered, that seems to connect them with greatness (again), that says, in effect, “Come to me, you dependent people, and I will be your champion.”

The answer to the people of Eugenius’ time? You! You will baptize your children! You will forgive one another and offer reconciliation and pardon! You will bury the dead and honor their memory! You will find the way to live godly, loving lives!

Maybe, indeed, the takeaway is the need for all clergy to work themselves out of a job…for the good of all!