From Archbishop Donoghue

Ordination to the Priesthood
June 10, 2000
Cathedral of Christ the King
+

[See Georgia Bulletin account]

Dear Friends in Christ,

When we survey the broad story of our salvation, from the earliest times of the Old Covenant, right through to the final revelation of God’s plan in Jesus Christ, we see that one of the most basic characteristics of the People of God, is their desire to bring gifts - to one another, and to the Father in Heaven.

At some times, this desire has been for the sake of appeasement – whether to still the wrath of God, when His laws or His justice had been outraged or violated by the Chosen People, or sometimes, to re-seal the covenant between the Creator and His people, as when David brought the Holy Ark to the hill of Jerusalem, and the richest and rarest gifts were brought before the Ark, to express the People's gratitude that God had led them out of the wilderness and into the holy place of His love and His abiding.

And then, when Christ came to the earth, this practice of gift-giving took on new and even more wonderful meanings. In His own life, gifts were brought to our Lord at every phase of His earthly journey - at the beginning, when the Kings from Orient brought to His birthplace, the precious substances, of gold, frankincense and myrrh - or when in His name and for His sake, Joseph and Mary took gifts to the Temple, to consecrate His soul to God, and to seal His own place among the Chosen People -and then later, in His public life, how many times in the Gospel do we read of the hospitality extended to our Lord, the generosity afforded to Him and His Apostles as they made their way, homeless, on salvation’s epic journey, a journey eased though not denied, by the graciousness of His friends, who took care of Him, not to gain anything, but because He was their Lord, and their joy was in serving Him, and in making His way a little easier. And the most precious gifts of all, given to Him in humility, in recognition of His greatness but at the same time, His mysterious and unstinted mercy and kindness - we think of the precious oil with which Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointed our Lord’s head and feet, the tenderness of whose gesture was met with indignation by those who thought only of the cost but whose indignation was turned once again, by the kindness of our Lord, who said

Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me…

And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.

And last but not the least, the gifts brought by the many sinners, and the many ill, and the many hopeless, who sought out the Lord for what they believed He could do - forgive them, cure them, and send them away with hope rekindled in their hearts. Our Lord did not welcome them with tolerance or condescension - He welcomed them effusively, and never withheld from them the grace of His power, the grace of His healing, and the grace of His tender mercy. These many, names not recorded in the Gospel or in Tradition, were the first of the Church - the first to comprehend and to be changed and to live from that moment on, with the touch of the Lord fast upon their souls and hearts and minds.

Our Lord departed from us on the day of His Ascension, and He will return in time, and His Kingdom will be restored fully on that day. But meanwhile, He has left us many means by which we are to realize and to continue the art of gift-giving and gift-receiving that He has brought forward to us, from the old times into the new - from the times of the appeasement of God, into the times of the gates of Heaven being flung wide open to reveal the true and everlasting love and mercy of the Father. The Lord has given us the Holy Spirit, who rules and guards and guides our Holy Church, and whose power keeps the Faithful on the straight and narrow path to salvation. He has given us the Sacraments, direct channels into the powerful love of the Creator-Father, who sits above all the universe, and who notes every event, every circumstance and every action of the lives of every man and woman here below. And the Lord, in His far-seeing wisdom, has given us the Priesthood, the special gift by which His ministry at the source of its power, is continued as a living, breathing force in our own day, and for all the days which we can imagine that will come.

For with the priest, and especially as we look out today, these newly ordained before us, come their own gifts now into the pool of strength which is the Church’s whole Priesthood - their young and hardy enthusiasm, their fresh dedication, the strength of the families who stand behind them, and their open and wide capacities, yet unfilled by the great experiences before them, but filled nevertheless with the hope and the dream of what can be done for the people of God - how they can be served, comforted, fortified, and eased through life’s thorns and into the beautiful pasture of verdant salvation. Such gifts cannot be enumerated in the space of a single sermon - they are of themselves a storehouse to be tapped by the Holy Spirit, who alone knows them, and who alone knows how they can and will be used for the glory of God and the prosperity of His Church.

But we can recognize them, as we do today, and return, as Christ would have us do, our gratitude, our kindness, and the warmth of our affection -and make our solemn pledge, to help, to support, to understand, to encourage, and to be with these young men, as they begin this so-important journey into the life of the Church, and into the increase which God’s Faithful will trust them to marshal.

We counsel them with those divine and wonderful counsels which come from the Gospel, from the life of our Lord, and which must stand as the pillars of their future lives - the counsels of chastity, of poverty, and of obedience - of single-minded and honorable love for the People of God - of life stripped down to the necessities which Christ displayed in His own life, a life poor in goods, but immeasurably rich in love - and of strict and mindful and constant enduring obedience to the laws of God and His Church. And we give them these words of advice from one of the Church’s great modern holy men:

“A priest should be exclusively a man of God. He should reject any desire to shine in areas where other Christians do not need him. A priest is not a psychologist or a sociologist or an anthropologist. He is another Christ, Christ himself, who has to look after the souls of his brothers (and sisters) - with the humility of a man who knows he is only an instrument, the vehicle of Christ’s love. For every soul is a wonderful treasure; every man is unique and irreplaceable. Every single person is worth all the blood of Christ.” (Josemaría Escrivá)

And is this not, dear friends, the greatest gift of all, and the gift which priests are made to produce, to handle, and to give, every day of their lives - the Body sacrificed, and the Blood poured out, by Jesus Christ, so that we all, without ever really deserving it, can know the boundless love of God the Father, and find our way home to Him, as life unfolds, and as death opens the door into our eternal home?

Our final word is to repeat, then, dear friends, what the prayers of this Mass of Ordination bid us pray, for the future of our brothers about to be made priests, and in gratitude to God, who never stops taking care of us:

“Father, accept this offering…from those you have chosen for the order of priests…protect the gifts you have given them, and let them yield a harvest worthy of you.”

+