Lombardi: Personal relationship with Jesus gives energy to priests

EDITORIAL
Octava Dies 630, July 2, 2011
By Federico Lombardi
Director, Vatican Television Centre


Friend of Jesus

“No longer servants but friends”. The homily Pope Benedict XVI preached to mark the 60^th anniversary of his priestly ordination, on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, was an intense expression of his own spirituality as a priest. Most striking is his insistence on a personal relationship with Jesus, the same Jesus who welcomed him at his ordination into the circle of those who were present at the Last Supper. This relationship becomes so intimate that a priest can honestly use the first person – “I” – when he speaks in the name of Jesus, repeating His own words in administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation or consecrating the Eucharist.
Since the day of his ordination, Benedict XVI has been on a long ministerial journey, fulfilling various ecclesiastical roles and responsibilities, up to the highest of them all. The Pope himself describes this journey as one he has travelled “beneath the sun and the rain, in serenity and in difficulty, through challenging times of purification and trial, as well as times of evangelical joy”. 60 years of loyalty, celebrated simply and without triumphalism, because they are a gift rather than an achievement. They are a gift to the whole Church and to priests in particular. Benedict XVI never tires of reminding priests, through his words and his example, that their personal relationship with Jesus, their friend, is what gives energy and encouragement to their vocation and to their priesthood.