Priest Ordination - May 2008

Hector and Mark:

When your names were called, you responded “Present”.  Like Isaiah who heard the Lord’s voice asking, “Whom shall I send; who will go for us?”  You answered, “Here am I, send me.”

Just as Jesus was sent by the Father and he in turn sent the Apostles into the world, both of you, by your ordination to the sacred priesthood, are sent to preach the Gospel, sustain God’s people, and celebrate the liturgy, above all, the Lord’s sacrifice.

I – and indeed, the entire Church of Orlando – thank you for saying “yes” to the call.  We all also are grateful for all those who have helped you to discern the call and to respond to it generously – your parents and your family and friends, the priests who have encouraged you, and especially our vocation director and the seminary faculty and administration charged with your formation.

Today, we all share your joy as you make your own the words of Mary’s Magnificat:  “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.”

To what have you said “yes” to?  What does “being a priest of Jesus Christ” mean?  In the Second Eucharistic Prayer, just after the consecration, the priest celebrant prays:  “We thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you.”  These words, taken from an Old Testament text, describe the essence of our priestly ministry:  we are to stand in the Lord’s presence and we are to serve him.

As priests, the Eucharist – which you are to celebrate daily – is the center of your priestly life.  Through your words, especially the words of consecration, you invite Jesus in the assembly of prayer. Daily, you are called to stand in his presence. Your whole life, then, must be a standing with the Lord.  You must look to him and be there for him.  You must live with your gaze on him so as to keep the world open to God. Certainly, liturgy is the central duty of a priest – and this means that prayer must be a primary reality in your life so that your celebration Mass or the Sacraments reflects your own interior participation.

You stand with the Lord; but you also stand for him – for, it is not our word, or ourselves that we preach but Christ’ word, Christ’s person.  Pope Benedict said in his Homily at this year’s Chrism Mass:  “The priest must be on the watch.  He must be on his guard in the face of the imminent powers of evil.  He must keep the world awake for God.  He must be the one who remains standing:  upright before the trends of time.  Upright in truth.  Upright in the commitment for good.  Being before the Lord must always also include, at its depths, responsibility for humanity to the Lord, who in his turn takes on the burden of us all to the Father.  And it must be a taking on of him, of Christ, of his word, his truth, his love.” 

Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:  “Father, not my will but your will be done.”  You promise obedience to your bishop.  In a real way, this promise gives you the freedom to be truly a man for others, this promise allows you to enter into God’s will, into God’s plan and witnesses that what you believe, teach or speak you do so in communion with the entire Catholic and apostolic Church.

The priest must be an upright person, vigilant, a person who remains standing. And to all this, service is added.  Jesus’ great service to his Father was the gift of himself for the salvation of mankind. And by ordination you are inserted into this service of Jesus.  In celebrating the Mass and the Sacraments, you do what Jesus did – or better, you allow Jesus to continue doing his saving work through you. When you baptize, you will bring men and women into a new birth; in the sacrament of penance, you will forgive sins in the name of Christ and the Church; with holy oil you will relieve and console the sick.  You will celebrate the liturgy and offer thanks and praise to God throughout the day not only for the people of God but for the whole world. In this you fulfill a service to God and to humanity in obedience to the Lord’s command:  Do this in memory of me. 

Seek, then, always to be conscience of what you so that you always strive to imitate the sacred mysteries you celebrate. Because we do “stand in the Lord’s presence and serve him”, we must guard against a too easy familiarity with the sacred rites we celebrate.  Again as Pope Benedict said in that Chrism Mass homily:  “We must ceaselessly struggle against this becoming accustomed to the extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, always recognizing our insufficiency anew and the grace that there is in the fact that he consigned himself into our hands”.

Jesus who as Son of God was and is the Lord willed to become servant of all.  He is the High Priest of the New and Eternal Covenant who has made you “worthy to stand in his presence and serve him”.  At the Last Supper, when he instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders, Jesus portrayed the whole of his high priesthood in the simple gesture of the washing of the feet.  By your generosity in giving of your time, by your ready availability to the people of God, by your accessibility to those in pain or in need, by your closeness to the poor and the marginalized, may you imitate the Good Shepherd who came not to be served but to serve. With the help of the Holy Spirit who strengthens us in our weakness, may you wash the feet of the people entrusted to your care.

Today, you have said “yes”.  May you ratify that “yes” by saying to the Lord today and every day:  Here I am Lord, send me – send me to stand in your presence and serve you.