From Archbishop Donoghue

Ordination to the Priesthood
June 24, 2000
Holy Cross Church
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[See Georgia Bulletin account]

Dear Friends in Christ,

It is always right and proper to begin any celebration of our Church, with profound thanksgiving to God for the blessings He has made manifest among us. This holds true, from the simplest and most humble prayer novena to the highest, most splendid of pontifical liturgies. And sparking our imagination, or rather our need to elaborate and comprehend these blessings, which motivate all our prayers, whether of thanksgiving or supplication, is the simplest and most beautiful prayer of all – the prayer that began our celebration today – the sign of the Cross. We remember this, because none of the blessings of God for which we are so joyful today, would be ours to claim, were it nor for the suffering, the pain, the death and sacrifice, and the ultimate triumph of Christ on the Cross. In the cross, Jesus our Lord and Savior restored once again, the open channel of grace which flows upon us from the Godhead, from the Father in Heaven as we see Him in our minds, and opened as well, the infinite dynamo of the Holy Spirit’s power, to move us, to reform us, and to guide us on our path as we approach the culmination of the ages, and prepare for Christ to return, to establish His Kingdom for once and forever.

And so, in the wake of all that Christ suffered and won for us, we first offer thanks to God for the priests He gives us, and especially today, for our sons and brothers - Nathan Calhoun, Bob Frederick and Marc White. What they have brought to God, in imitation of our Lord, are gifts specifically meant for us, for the Followers of Christ who inhabit this local Church. And although what they have brought magnifies the glory of God in that it fills out and makes more whole His plan for the salvation of mankind, it is to us specifically that His care is shown in the gift of these men. For our sakes, and in fulfillment of the responsibilities placed upon them on this day, by Christ and by His Church, these men will now take care of many of our needs – the need to be forgiven and to know the mercy of God – the need to hear God’s word preached and the teaching of His Holy Church explained – the need to have our children brought into God’s adoptive care – the need that we all must have assuaged, of dealing with death and the dying, our own, and of those whom we love, who will precede us into heavenly being – and most especially, the need that takes its place with the greatest hunger that mankind can know, the need to be fed with the Body of Christ – for having heard the wishes of Christ when He spoke at the Last Supper, we know that without this most precious of spiritual infusions, His Body, we cannot progress in the way of true love, the way of the Gospel, and thew way that leads to heaven.

These men who are about to take up this heavy and yet uplifting burden of joining themselves in an act of self-immolation, to the high priesthood of Jesus Christ, deserve the honor that we pay them, when we thank God for having given them life, and for having raised them to the care and service of His Holy Church in this our home, the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

These are some of the duties, that transformed by the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, will now become the privileges and delights of these men, and their labors for us, will become, by that same grace, the sweetest of gifts that God could bestow on His loving people, who must live, who must die, and who must await the Second Coming of His Son, who will bring us all the glory we long for.

And now, dear friends, having disposed of our obligation to bless God for His blessings, and to enumerate the reasons why we should also be thankful to these men for their own sacrifice, their own gift to the Church Universal and to us especially, I wish to address them directly, with words of counsel and encouragement, regarding the three strengths which will make of them, successful priests, and faultless ministers in union with the priesthood of Christ.

Dear brothers and sons,

As you have approached this day, through the years of your formation, and especially by your service to the Church as ordained deacons, I know that it has grown ever more clear to your hearts and minds, just how precious, and how necessary it is for the ministers of Jesus Christ to imitate Him in His earthly life, and most especially, in those virtuous characteristics which we call the evangelical counsels, and that are know to us under the titles of poverty, chastity and obedience. This is especially critical in times like ours, and we know this, because nothing is new under the sun, and our times are nothing that has not been enacted before, in the grand sweep of the universal progression to wards its own culmination and the everlasting Kingdom of God. For in times when these virtues are rejected, and their rejection is applauded and praised, the duty of Christ’s priests to live as paragons for the sake of His Church becomes supremely important. For when poverty and chastity and obedience are rejected, it is those whom Christ loved the most who suffer the most.

Consider, that when poverty as an ideal for all men and women is cast aside, then excess becomes the vulgar measure by which success and popularity is adjudged. And yet, those whom Christ has told us to accept that we will always have with us, those we call the poor, go on suffering in their inability, to squeeze from the excessive holdings of others, even a modicum of what people need to have a bearable and dignified life. The evidence lies all around us – and I do not point to the third world or to the poorer countries of our hemisphere to account for this – in our own country, the extremes of cruel want are clear to see, and especially in those we have cast out into the street by our excess – the ill, the unwanted, and the old. Blessed Sister poverty, and Christ Himself, allies with these who suffer, and in this time, when the profusion of wealth and its vulgar display are so common and welcome, then Christ’s priests must make a preferential choice, to embrace poverty, and to help first those who need help the most. And in this equation must also be included those who suffer from spiritual poverty – for without the desire in the heart that the human soul be lifted on high to God, then spiritual squalor becomes the lot of any, who would substitute wealth and power for the love of God.

And again, in this time the virtue of chastity – of celibacy, of the love of faithful spouses - also suffers great indignity – and who suffers the most from this lack of human delicacy? – the children, those whom Christ called around Him, and whom He described as bearing for the sake of men and women, the faces and the character of those who are already in Heaven. Our nation, sadly, excels in the mockery of these sacred marks of the life of Christ – children are exploited on the streets, used as pawns in games of greed and corruption, and then tossed aside, unhealed, often to end their days locked up away from any hope of reclamation and restoration – the young, rather than to hold themselves sacred and devote their energies to art, to scholarly pursuits, or to following the life of Christ by making of their own religious lives, stumble into the confuse maze of drifting from one situation to the next, always vulnerable, always open to victimization and exploitation, and to early burn-out.

And obedience – the very name and concept of submissiveness has become anathema to most of our society – self-expression, self-definition, and the absolute rejection of tradition and prior experience have become road-signs touted to bring success and happiness, when in fact they make of people’s souls abysses of darkness, where life can only fall in on itself, and never look outward, never look to the wisdom which comes from outside, form those who have learned before, form those who care only to guide those who falter, back to the path of sharing, back to the path of troubles borne together and not alone, back to the path of obedience to God’s laws and the laws of His Church, of believing Christ, who Scripture says, "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant ... and became obedient unto death."

Dear brothers and sons, what you have chosen, and what God has called you to become, through the grace of this Sacrament we celebrate today, the Sacrament of Holy Orders, is no less than the teacher, for the sake of our Church and our society, of these supreme virtues, that come to us from the life of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Poverty, chastity and obedience are for all, but in the priest, they must reflect the perfection of Christ is such a way that they shine before men like a light on the hill – and they must shine day and night, year after year, until the light of your lives is finally quenched in the blaze of the rewards which God is even now preparing for His faithful servant-priests who are ordained this day. This is no rhetoric – this is the will of Jesus Christ and of His Spirit which resides in the Church. The instruction from the rite speaks clearly of your obligation:

…conscious of sharing in the work of Christ, the Head and Shepherd of the Church, and united with the bishop and subject to him, seek to bring the faithful together into a unified family and to lead them effectively…to God the Father. Always remember the example of the Good Shepherd who came not to be served but to serve, and to seek out and rescue those who were lost.

Finally, dear friends, let us pray for these men who have given so much to us, and ask God, who has given us so much in them, top protect them and to keep them strong in His ways and the ways of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The Fathers of the 2^nd Vatican Council understood well the tremendous challenges and hardships that priests would face, as the world moves into the post-industrial era, and ever closer to the culminating moment of its history, and the climax of its being – and they offered consecrated men this encouragement, and in it, the seed of the prayer which we must all now promise to keep in our hearts for the sake of these men for the rest of our days:

Let priests remember that in carrying out their task they are never alone but are supported by the almighty power of God. Believing in Christ, who has called them to share in his priesthood, let them devote themselves to their office with all trust, knowing that God who is Almighty, will increase in them, the power of His love.

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