(20 Jun 10 – RV) On Sunday Pope Benedict XVI ordained 14 men to the priesthood for
the Diocese of Rome. In a solemn ceremony held in St Peter’s Basilica, the Pope warned
against careerism and ambition, noting that “the priesthood can never be a way to
achieve security in life or to gain a position in society”, rather it must be rooted
in conformity to Christ and his total gift of self.
Below we publish a
Vatican Radio translation of Pope Benedict’s Homily:
Dear Brother
Bishops and Priests, Dear ordinands, Dear Brothers and Sisters!
As
bishop of this diocese I am especially pleased to welcome fourteen new priests to
the Roman “presbyerium”. Together with the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishops and
all priests I thank the Lord for the gift of these new pastors of God's people I would
like to extend a special greeting to you, dear ordinands: Today you are the focal
point of the People of God, a people symbolized by those who fill this Vatican Basilica:
they fill it with prayer and song, deep affection and profound, genuine emotion, of
human and spiritual joy. Among this people of God, your parents and family, friends
and companions, superiors and seminary educators, the various parish communities and
the different realities of the Church from which you come and who have accompanied
you on your journey and those in which you yourselves have already served pastorally
have a special place. Not to mention the unique proximity, in this moment, of many
people, humble and simple but great before God, such as, for example, the cloistered,
children, the sick and infirm. They accompany you with the precious gift of their
prayers, their innocence and their suffering.
It is, therefore, the entire
Church of Rome, that today gives thanks to God and prays for you, that puts so much
faith and hope in your future, waiting for the abundant fruits of holiness and goodness
from your priestly ministry. Yes, the Church is counting on you; it counts a lot on
you! The Church needs each of you, in the knowledge that it is the gift that God offers
you, together with the absolute necessity of every human heart to meet with Christ,
the One and only universal Saviour of the world, to receive from him new and eternal
life, true freedom and full joy. Thus we are all invited to enter into the "mystery"
of the event of grace that is taking place in your hearts with Priestly Ordination,
enlightened by the Word of God.
The Gospel that we just heard shows us
a significant moment in the journey of Jesus in which he asks his disciples what people
think of him and how they judge him themselves. Peter replies on behalf of the Twelve
with a confession of faith, which differs substantially from the view that people
have of Jesus, for he says: You are the Christ of God (cf. 9.20). Where does this
act of faith come from? If we go back to the beginning of the Gospel passage, we note
that Peter’s confession is tied to a moment of prayer: " when Jesus was praying in
solitude, and the disciples were with him,"(9:18). That is, the disciples are involved
in Jesus’ unique being and talking with the Father. And so they are allowed to see
the Master in the depths of his condition as Son, they are allowed to see what others
can not, by 'being with Him, "by" being with Him in prayer, comes a knowledge that
goes beyond the opinions of people to reach the profound identity of Jesus, to reach
the truth. Here we are given an indication for the life and mission of the priest:
in prayer he is called to rediscover the new face of the Lord and always the most
authentic contents of his mission. Only those who have an intimate relationship with
the Lord are grasped by him, may bring him to others, can be sent out. This is the
"being with him" that must always accompany the exercise of priestly ministry; it
must be the central part of it, above all in difficult times when it seems that the
"things to be done" should take priority.
I wish to highlight a second
element in today's Gospel. Immediately after Peter's confession, Jesus proclaims his
passion and resurrection, and he follows this announcement with a lesson on the path
his disciples must take, which is to follow Him, the Crucified, follow the road of
the Cross. And he adds - with a paradoxical expression - that being a disciple means
"losing oneself", but only in order to fully rediscover oneself (cf. Lk 9.22 to 24).
What does this mean for every Christian, but especially what does it mean for a priest?
Discipleship, but we can safely say: the priesthood can never be a way to achieve
security in life or to gain a position in society. The man who aspires to the priesthood
to enhance his personal prestige and power has misunderstood the meaning at the root
of this ministry. The man who wants above all to achieve a personal ambition, achieve
personal success, will always be a slave to himself and public opinion. In order to
be considered, he will have to flatter; to say what people want to hear, he will have
to adjust to changing fashions and opinions and thus deprive himself of the vital
relationship with the truth, reducing himself to condemning tomorrow what he would
praise today. A man who plans his life like this, a priest who sees his ministry in
these terms, does not truly love God and others, only himself and, paradoxically,
ends up losing himself. The priesthood - let us always remember - rests on the courage
to say yes to another will, in the awareness, to be nurtured everyday, that our compliance
with the will of God, our "immersion" in this will, does not cancel our originality,
rather on the contrary, it helps us enter deeper into the truth of our being and our
ministry.
Dear ordinands, I would like propose a third thought for your
consideration, closely related to the one just mentioned: the call of Jesus to "lose
oneself" to take the cross, recalls the mystery we celebrate: the Eucharist. With
the sacrament of Holy Orders you today are gifted to preside at the Eucharist! You
are entrusted the redemptive sacrifice of Christ, you are entrusted his body given
his blood shed. Of course, Jesus offers his sacrifice, his gift of love full and humble,
to the Church his Bride, on the Cross. It was on that wood, that the Father dropped
a grain of wheat on the field of the world so that in dying it would become mature
fruit, the giver of life. But in God's plan, this gift of Christ is made present in
the Eucharist through the sacred potestas that the Sacrament of Holy Orders bestows
on you Priests. When we celebrate Holy Mass we hold in our hands the bread of Heaven,
the bread of God which is Christ, the grain broken to multiply and become the true
food of life for the world. It is something that can not fail to fill you with intimate
wonder, vibrant joy and immense gratitude: now the love and gift of Christ crucified
and glorious, pass through your hands, your voice, your heart!
We pray
to the Lord to give you an ever vigilant and enthusiastic consciousness of this gift,
which is at the centre of your being priests! So that he may give you the grace to
be able to experience in depth all the beauty and strength of this and at the same
time your priestly service, the grace to live this ministry with consistency and generosity
every day. The grace of the priesthood, that soon you will be given, will connect
you intimately, even structurally, to the Eucharist. For this, it will deeply connect
in your heart the feelings of Jesus who loves to the end, until the total gift of
self, his being multiplied bread for the holy feast of unity and communion. This is
the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit, designed to ignite your soul with the love
of the Lord Jesus. It is an outpouring that, while telling of the absolute gratuity
of the gift, carves into your being an indelible Law – a New Law, the Law that urges
you to make the same love of the Crucified Christ’s gift a part of the tissue of the
specific attitudes and gestures of your daily life and to help it flourish. We again
hear the voice of the Apostle Paul, even in this we recognize that powerful voice
of the Holy Spirit, "you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ" (Gal 3:27). Already with Baptism, and now in virtue of the sacrament of Holy
Orders, you cloth yourselves with Christ. Care for the celebration of the Eucharist
is always accompanied by a commitment to a Eucharistic life lived in obedience to
one great law namely, that of love that gives itself entirely, and serves with humility,
a life which the grace of the Holy Spirit helps to increasingly resemble that of Christ
Jesus, the Eternal High Priest, Servant of God and men.
Dear friends,
the path that today's Gospel indicates to us is the path of your spirituality and
your pastoral action, its efficiency and effectiveness, even in the most strenuous
and arid situations. Moreover, this is the sure way to find true joy. May Mary, the
handmaid of the Lord, who conformed her will to the will of God, who generated Christ
gifting him to the world, who followed her Son to the foot of the cross in the supreme
act of love, accompany you in your everyday life and of your ministry. Thanks to
the this Mother's tender and strong affection, you can joyfully be faithful to the
conferral that today is given you as priests: to abide in Christ, Priest, who knew
to obey the will of the Father and love man to the end. Amen!