Priests Rooted in the Eucharistic Mystery

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Bishop of Arlington
(From the issue of 5/22/03)

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on May 13, at Good Shepherd Parish in Alexandria for the Annual Diocesan Priests’ Jubilee Mass.

First, a word of heart-felt congratulations and sincere gratitude, accompanied by the pledge of prayerful support — in all our names — to our brother jubilarians! Yes, we your brother priests are grateful to the Lord for choosing you for service as a priest in the presbyteral order; we are likewise grateful to you for saying "yes" — "Adsum" — to His call and for the many blessings so many have received from God through your priestly life and ministry these 55, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30 and 25 years. Surely, the people who form the Diocese of Richmond and, since 1974, this Diocese of Arlington, have been enriched by you, my brothers — you who have served them both as diocesan priests and as religious priests. I echo again congratulations and gratitude from all of us here present and from all God’s people, whose lives you have touched in countless ways.

We are assembled in this holy place dedicated to the Good Shepherd to recall not only the ordinations of our brother jubiliarians but also our own and, together, to give thanks to the Lord for that gift and to be renewed in the grace of that mystery.

I invite us to use two lenses as we look once again at our ordination: Jesus in the Eucharist and Mary, Mother of Christ the Priest and our Mother too.

Each of us was ordained through the Sacrament of Holy Orders to act "In Persona Christi" for the welfare of God’s people. Today’s first reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians recalls for us the institution of both the Eucharist and Holy Orders. Today’s Gospel account from St. John reminds us that love for Jesus necessarily means taking care of the flock — pastoral love in its fullness.

At the heart of our priestly life and ministry is the Eucharistic Mystery. In other words, in the celebration of the Eucharist, both Sacrament and Sacrifice, we find the core of our identity: to be the living icon of Christ, Head and Shepherd of the Church, to act "In Persona Christi!" We also find the secret to pastoral love: living out in service to God’s people the sacrificial love we have experienced in the Eucharist. In his most recent encyclical, Pope John Paul II speaks so powerfully about the centrality of the Eucharist, not only in the Church’s life, but also in the priest’s life and ministry.

"If the Eucharist is the center and summit of the Church’s life, it is likewise the center and summit of priestly ministry. For this reason, with a heart filled with gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ, I repeat that the Eucharist ‘is the principal and central raison d’etre of the sacrament of priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist.’ Priests are engaged in a wide variety of pastoral activities. If we also consider the social and cultural conditions of the modern world it is easy to understand how priests face the very real risk of losing their focus amid such a great number of different tasks. The Second Vatican Council saw in pastoral charity the bond which gives unity to the priest’s life and work. This, the Council adds, ‘flows mainly from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is therefore the center and root of the whole priestly life’" (Eucharistia De Ecclesia, para. 1, 2).

If we truly wish to be zealous and joy-filled, to be priests after the heart of Christ, then, the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice must hold a primary and privileged place in our daily schedule. Again, our Holy Father tells us that this is so. "We can understand, then, how important it is for the spiritual life of the priest, as well as for the good of the Church and the world, that priests follow the Council’s recommendation to celebrate the Eucharist daily: ‘for even if the faithful are unable to be present, it is an act of Christ and the Church.’ In this way priests will be able to counteract the daily tensions which lead to a lack of focus and they will find in the Eucharistic Sacrifice — the true center of their lives and ministry — the spiritual strength needed to deal with their different pastoral responsibilities. Their daily activity will thus become truly Eucharistic" (Ecclesia De Eucharistia, para. 1).

Moreover, the centrality of the Eucharist has a direct causal relationship to vocations for the priesthood. Our Holy Father points out: "The centrality of the Eucharist in the life and ministry of priests is the basis of its centrality in the pastoral promotion of priestly vocations. It is in the Eucharist that prayer for vocations is most closely united to the prayer of Christ the Eternal High Priest. At the same time the diligence of priests in carrying out their Eucharistic ministry, together with the conscious, active and fruitful participation of the faithful in the Eucharist, provides young men with a powerful example and incentive for responding generously to God’s call. Often it is the example of a priest’s fervent pastoral charity which the Lord uses to sow and to bring to fruition in a young man’s heart the seed of a priestly calling" (Ecclesia De Eucharistia, 31, para. 3).

On this day, May 13, we recall Our Blessed Mother’s first apparition at Fatima to three children: Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta. In fact, in the revised liturgical calendar, an optional memorial entitled Our Lady of Fatima may be celebrated today.

Mary is the Mother of Christ the High Priest and also our mother, given to us at the foot of the Cross. From her, we learn how to surrender to the Lord in faith, so that we may be truly transformed into the image of Her Son, Christ the Priest, Head and Shepherd of the Church. Blessed Columba Marmion speaks so eloquently about the transformation effected in us by the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of our ordination. This transformation is renewed and deepened the more we repeat and live out, with Mary’s example and help, our "fiat," our "let it done to me as you say," our "Adsum." Allow me to quote from Blessed Marmion’s book Christ the Ideal of the Priest. "Remember what happens on the day of ordination. On that blessed morning, a young levite, overwhelmed by the sentiment of his own unworthiness and weakness, prostrates himself before the bishop who represents the heavenly Pontiff; he bows his head under the imposition of hands by the consecrating prelate. At this moment the Holy Ghost descends upon him and the eternal Father is able to contemplate with ineffable complacency this new priest, a living reproduction of His beloved Son: Hic est Filius meus dilectus. While the bishop holds his hand extended and the whole assembly of priests imitate his gesture, the words of the angel addressed to the Virgin Mary are accomplished anew: ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee’ (Luke 1:35). At this moment, full of mystery, the Holy Ghost takes possession of this chosen one of the Lord, and effects between Christ and him an eternal resemblance; when he rises, he is a man transformed: ‘Thou are a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisisdech’ (Ps. Cix. 4)" (p. 49).

Yes, my brothers, even as we rejoice with our brother jubilarians, we, with them, renew our commitment to be priests rooted in the Eucharistic mystery, so that we may love Jesus ever more deeply and serve His people ever more faithfully. May our Blessed Mother Mary, in whose month of May so many among us were ordained priests, keep us close to her Son and to each other as, together, we walk in priestly fraternity and lay down our lives in priestly service.

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