The Power And The Glory

As countless people in a third world country fall to the ravages of poverty and disease, a single woman fights to make a difference. Living a spartan life, through conditions far from humane, she helps those who are poor, suffering and sick, with total disregard for her own personal comfort. One might say that this woman is a saint and for many she already is. Her selfless abandon to help those in need makes her virtuous to a heroic degree. Her name is Mother Theresa. By stark contrast, the whisky priest can hardly be classified as a saint. A saint is an individual remarkably free from human weaknesses. The whisky priest however, is the incarnate of human failings: a sinner.
Priests are respected members of their communities and should exemplify what it is to be a Christian. They are model citizens who practice the teachings of Christ and take on the responsibilities of their title. Under the circumstances of an anti-clerical purge in the southern states of Mexico, it is understandable that the whiskey priest is unable to perform all of his priestly duties for fear of his life. To survive, he must lie, cheat and steal to avoid the law. These tactics however, are not new to him. Even before the purge, he is a priest that is hardly good and honest. By requiring a fee for services such as baptism, at a price of two pesos a head, he is no better that the common thief. Families that can hardly put food on the table are asked to pay for a service that should be given, not sold. The fees for his services are most often directed to luxuries such as brandy, his personal favorite.
As a man whose calling is to serve the people, the whisky priest does nothing but serve himself. When the villagers ask the priest to hear their confessions, he unwillingly complies. He is compelled only by his sense of duty and angrily responds, 'Oh let them come. Let them all come, I am your servant.'; (p. 45) He begins to weep not for their sins, but in pity for himself. He does not perform his tasks graciously but feels that they are a chore imposed on him. A priest's duties are not to himself but to God and his neighbours. When the whisky priest prays, it is only for his daughter and no one else.