Day 214: Priests and the Presbyterate (1562-1568)

• It’s Day 214!!

• THE ORDINATION OF PRIESTS- CO-WORKERS OF THE BISHOPS

• What is that role?

• What is the dignity of the priesthood?

• What is the priesthood’s most sacred character?

• How are priests expected to live?

• They are expected to exercise the divinely given power in a way that imitates Jesus in EVERYTHING

• How did Jesus live out this priesthood?

• How did Jesus live out this ministry and this mission?

• Jesus spoke the TRUTH

• Jesus taught POWERFULLY

• Jesus healed the sick

• Jesus had this mission of SANCTIFYING and making whole again

• Jesus had a mission of establishing and leading people 

• From the very beginning, Jesus called people to Himself and led them

• The triple office of the bishop is to sanctify, teach, and govern

• The priest also participates in that

• Priests are the co-workers of the bishops

•  They form a unique kind of brotherhood in the Church

• What is brotherhood for?

• What is ministry for?

• The teaching, sanctifying, and governing ministry are at the service of the People of God for the glory of God the Father

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, thank you. Thank you for bringing us to this day. Thank you for giving us the gift of your grace. Thank you for continuing to bind up the weak. Thank you for continuing to heal our wounds. Thank you for continuing to forgive our sins. Lord, God, thank you for continuing to give us yourself in the Eucharist, pouring out your Holy Spirit upon us. Whenever we pray, whenever we ask you, Father, for your Holy Spirit, you hear the prayer of your children, and you respond with love because you are a good Father. We ask you, in this day, when we talk about priests, we ask you to please help these priests be good fathers. Help these priests to be men after your own heart. Help them to govern, to teach, to sanctify in the way that you would. And we ask you to please, please bless our local priests. Make them holy. Help them where they need help. Strengthen them where they need strengthening. Heal them where they need healing. Forgive them of all their sins. And, Lord God, help them to be the kind of men that we need. Help them to be the priests that we need them to be. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• If you have never been to an ordination, you might be confused

• SO BEAUTIFUL!!

• SO POWERFUL!!

• Even if Fr. Mike was not a priest, he would be doing backflips over this 

• BECAUSE THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD THE FATHER!!

• THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD THE SON!!

• THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD POURED OUT TO US!!

• That is what priests are supposed to be

• That is what the bishop is supposed to be

• Why?

• BECAUSE JESUS WANTS ALL OF US TO BE HOLY!!

• Jesus wants all of us to come into contact with Him and with the Father and to be filled with the Holy Spirit

• Paragraph 1562 says, “‘Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has, through his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying degrees various members of the Church with the office of their ministry.’”

• The bishops and priests are sent out into the world to extend and continue the mission and ministry of Jesus, who wants ALL HUMAN BEINGS TO KNOW GOD THE FATHER

• Jesus wants ALL HUMAN BEINGS TO COME INTO CONTACT WITH GOD THE FATHER AND HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THE FATHER

• SO POWERFUL!!

• Bishops are the ones who share in the fullness of Holy Orders and Christ’s high priesthood

• Paragraph 1563 says, “Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head.’”

• IN PERSONA CHRISTI CAPITIS

• Paragraph 1564 says, “‘Whilst not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office, and notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of their own proper power, the priests are for all that associated with them by reason of their sacerdotal dignity…”

• “Sacerdote” is Spanish for PRIEST

• SACERDOTAL DIGNITY means priestly dignity

• Paragraph 1564 continues, “...and in virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme and eternal priest, they are consecrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New Testament.’”

• They are consecrated to preach the Gospel

• That’s teaching

• They are consecrated to shepherd the faithful

• That’s governing

• They are consecrated to celebrate divine worship as true priests in the New Testament

• That’s sanctifying

• PRIEST, PROPHET, AND KING

• The role that all Christians have by virtue of their Baptism

• The role that bishops have by virtue of their ordination to the episcopacy

• Priests also participate and share in the same role

• Priest-sanctifying

• Prophet-teaching

• King-governing

• Leading is in the lens of service

• Paragraph 1565 says, “Through the sacrament of Holy Orders priests share in the universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. The spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them, not for a limited and restricted mission, ‘but for the fullest, in fact the universal mission of salvation ‘to the end of the earth,’ ‘prepared in spirit to preach the Gospel everywhere.’”

• This mission has been entrusted to priests to be lived out and carried out in season and out of season

• It has to be carried out with his whole life and not be limited to just one area of his life

• His whole life must be conformed to Jesus the High Priest

• This is the call of every Christian

• All of us are called to conform our lives to Christ

• We have to live out that mission with every breath

• We have to live out that mission in every moment

• This is a high call

• Paragraph 1566 says, “‘It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of the faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred office; there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their heard, and in the sacrifice of the Mass they make present again and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the Father.’ From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly ministry draws its strength.”

• This is the office of sanctifying

• THAT IS SO POWERFUL!!

• This is the great mission

• What is happening at every Mass?

• When we show up for Mass, we offer ourselves because we participate in the baptismal priesthood of Jesus

• The ministerial priest is uniting our offering of the faithful to the sacrifice of Jesus Himself

• Jesus’ sacrifice is presented and offered to the Father

• The priest is offering not only Jesus

• The priest is offering himself and us to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit with Jesus Christ, the great sacrifice once for all

• SO INCREDIBLE!!

• This is so essential to a priest’s life

• From offering Mass on a daily basis, their whole priestly ministry draws its strength

• What is at the heart of the priesthood?

• The priestly heart of Jesus who offers Himself to the Father in the Power of the Holy Spirit, who brings His people and includes them in the sacrifice

• SO INCREDIBLE!!

• The priest does not do this on his own

• He does this in union with his bishop

• In the priestly ordination there is this promise, even at the diaconate ordination, of OBEDIENCE they make to the bishop

• There is this moment where the soon-to-be ordained priest prays with his hands together and the bishop takes his hands in his and says, “Do you promise obedience to me and my successors?”

• “I do” is the answer to that question

• At the end, there is this sign of peace, the embrace

• Paragraph 1567 says, “The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his coworkers, his sons, his brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience.”

• There is a hierarchy here

• It’s not meant to be a business

• This is the family of God

• They are coworkers in the vineyard

• They are sons because the bishop is a spiritual father to them

• They are brothers and friends because they share in this priestly ministry

• What does Jesus say?

• “I no longer call you slaves because a slave does not know what his master is about. I have called you friends.”

• I HAVE CALLED YOU FRIENDS!!

• The bishop is to consider his priests his friends in that way that Jesus considered His disciples as friends

• IT IS REMARKABLE!!

• There is also a brotherhood in the priesthood

• It sometimes manifests itself in really great ways and in really thin ways

• Paragraph 1568 says, “‘All priests, who are constituted in the order of the priesthood by the sacrament of Order, are bound together by an intimate sacramental brotherhood, but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to which they are attached under their own bishop…’”

• Some dioceses are thinner

• It’s not like the brotherhood does not exist

• It’s always unique

• It is a mysterious, sacramental brotherhood

• Sometimes there is not the emotional brotherhood

• Some priests may find themselves alone 

• They have brothers but they may not be able to be in brotherhood with those brothers

• So we need to pray for those priests who have lost their fire, lost their love for Jesus in the Eucharist, those who have lost their love for Our Lady, those who have lost their love for God’s people

• We need to pray for them right now because that is not what God wants for any of them or us

• We are ONE FAMILY

• We are ONE BODY

• We all have different parts

• WE NEED EACH OTHER!!

• Pray to God for those great priests you have had in your life and that they continue to be great priests

• Pray that those who started well end well

• Pray for those who have started poorly or have lived poorly

• Pray for them to be strengthened with faith, hope, and love

• Pray for them to be renewed

• Pray for them to be brought back to the heart of the Father

• Pray that they may fall in love with God once again, in love with the Eucharist, in love with the People of God, in love with the Sacrament of Confession

• Pray that they walk in the fear of the Lord every day of their life

• Pray for those priests

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!