From Archbishop Donoghue

Ordination of priests
June 12, 1999
St. Catherine of Siena Church
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[See Georgia Bulletin account]

Dear Friends in Christ,

The amazing thing about today’s Gospel reading is not that our Lord, even as a boy, possessed the knowledge and the demeanor necessary to keep a temple full of teachers enthralled - the amazing thing is not at all that He already knew who He was, the Son of His Father - the amazing thing is that when Mary and Joseph told Him to come home, he did it - obediently and without question. He had been entrusted by the wisdom of God to the care of Mary and Joseph, and He did not question this disposition of His life. He went home, and as St. Luke remarks, He “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.

This is the earliest incident recorded in the Gospels, of our Lord’s loving and patient obedience - but it is certainly not the last. In fact, if anything, if any word can be used to describe not only the life of Jesus Christ, but also His death, it is obedience. And His obedience cannot be circumscribed by saying that He owed allegiance to some code of law, or to some unwritten system of ethics. Truly, He did obey the laws of the Old Covenant, and He respected and kept all the great traditions of Jewish life. But what guided Jesus Christ, even in these particular fidelities, was His fidelity, His obedience to the over-arching law - the law of the love of God.

Love dictated our Lord’s behavior on this early occasion, when He submitted to the care of His parents - love guided His actions when, on so many occasions, He was importuned by the sick and the distressed, and yet paused in His journey to the Cross, long enough to heal their wounds, to comfort their distress, and to absolve them of their sins - and love kept Him firm, when at the end, He faced abandonment by his friends, ridicule and violence at the hands of His enemies, and in the suffering of the Cross, even if but for a moment, the necessary human temptation to disbelieve, and to despair.

But out of His cry, “My God, my God, why do you forsake me!” came the simpler, the quieter response, the response summoned from the wisdom into which He had grown, and which His mother saw now once again, exercised one last time, from the terrible throne of the Cross - “It is finished - it is done - it is accomplished - consummatum est.” Our Lord died upon this final surrender - this acquiescence to the will of God - and His life ended as it began, and as it has always progressed - in loving obedience.

Dear friends, and especially, our brothers about to be priests: this example that our Lord teaches, by His life and by His words, is a light for the life of all men and women, but it has special consequences for those who are called by God and who respond to His call to the priesthood. St. John Vianney, one of the great priests, has rightly written, and it is duly quoted in our Catechism, the “the Priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus Christ.” And since yesterday is the feast of that Most Holy Sacred Heart, it is only appropriate that we consider today’s events as in some way defined by and made memorable by our celebration of this immense gift to mankind - the obedient love of Jesus Christ.

Obedience is also one of the guiding precepts of the Church for all who accept religious life, and especially priests, along with its sister virtues, chastity and poverty. Today, in the presence of all these good Faithful people, I especially charge our newly ordained to now ingrain upon their minds and hearts, the two-fold meaning of obedient love for all priests.

First, that love is obedient to the Gospel, the message of Christ - that your conduct, your disposition, all your dealings with men and women be conducted in the spirit of love which Christ exemplified - the love which learns, as He showed in His youth; the love which heals and comforts, as He showed on His way as a man; and finally, the love which suffers and submits, as was revealed in His ultimate moments, in His Passion and Death. This is no simple task for any of the Faithful, but it is even harder for the priest, who must use these loves many times every day, and even when challenged by the most extreme circumstances and behaviors. Christ is only in you, if He survives in you, in spite of the many assaults which will inevitably come your way, and which as a part of your duty as a priest, you must meet without delay or dismay. It is good to remember the words of St. John - “Who is begotten of God, conquers the world…and the victory that conquers the world is our faith

And the second meaning of obedient love for all priests, after love of the Gospel, is obedient love of the Church. Obedience in what we say, obedience in what we preach, obedience in how we celebrate the Mass and the Sacraments, obedience to the living and efficacious will of the Holy Spirit, which is the Church, and which will never lead us astray - not us, nor the sheep we have been sent to tend, the Catholic Faithful, the ones for whom the priesthood was made, and for whom it still exists.

Dear friends, let us remember the special sacrifice that has been made by our brothers about to be ordained - they have given up many things, many expectations, that most men take for granted and pursue without question - and they have given them up for our sakes, so that we may enjoy the priestly care which Christ has willed as a part of His Church. Let us beseech the Holy Spirit on their behalf, that like the young Savior, the young Jesus Christ, these young priests, may now accept into their souls the absolute virtue of obedience - to the Word of God, who is Jesus Christ, and to the will of God, which is the Holy Church. And finally, may Mary, who took her young Son home to Nazareth, and there treasured in her heart all that she had seen and learned, take these men, these new priests, into her own heart as sons, and treasure them - treasure them with her love, as they now begin to see and to learn, what it is, that the Father expects of them, as they go about His business here on earth, and progress in the ways of wisdom and understanding.

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This homily was delivered at the ordination of Fathers Kevin Joseph Hargaden, Fernando Molina-Restrepo and Michael Gerard Kingery on June 12, 1999 at St. Catherine of Siena Church.