“Are you resolved to consecrate your life to God for the
salvation of his people, and to unite yourself more closely every
day to Christ the High Priest, who offered himself for us to
the Father as a perfect sacrifice?”
Pontificale Romanum: De Ordinatione Episcopi, presbyterorum et
diaconorum,
Edition typical, Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis 1990
From the Vatican,
15th October 2009
Dear Brothers in the Priesthood,
The one motivation
for our lives and for our ministry is Jesus of Nazareth, Lord
and Christ! The existence
of Priests finds in Him, and only in Him, its origin, its aim
and the development proper to it in time. The intimate and personal
relationship with the Risen Lord, living and present, is really
the only experience which might drive a man to give himself completely
to God for his brethren.
We know well, dear brothers, how the Lord seduced us, how
his fascination was irresistible for everyone, as the prophet
says, “O LORD, you seduced me, and I was seduced; you are
stronger than I, and you have prevailed” (Jer. 20: 7). This
fascination, like every truly valuable thing, needs to be continually
defended, treasured, protected and cultivated lest it be lost
or, perhaps worse still, lest it become a faded memory which
is unable to take on the sometimes aggressive thrust of the world’s
reality. The divine intimacy, the origin of every apostolate,
is the secret for treasuring in an enduring fashion the fascination
of Christ.
We are priests prior to any other reason, however good, to
be “united more closely to Christ the High Priest”,
united to Him who is our only salvation, the Love of our hearts,
the Rock on which we build every act of our ministry, He who
knows us more closely than we know our own selves, and whom we
desire more than any other thing. Christ the High Priest draws
us within himself. This union with Him, which the Sacrament of
Order is, carries with it a participation in His offering: “Being
united to Christ calls for renunciation. It means not wanting
to impose our own way and our own will, not desiring to become
someone else, but abandoning ourselves to him, however and wherever
he wants to use us” (Benedict XVI, Homily, Holy Mass of
Chrism 9th April 2009). The expression, “to be united”
reminds us that none of this is our work, the result of our own
efforts, but the work of Grace within us: it is the Spirit who
unites us ontologically to Christ the Priest and gives us the
strength to persevere, all the way to the end, in this participation
in the divine work and thus also in the divine life. The “pure
victim” then, which Christ the Lord is, reminds each of
us of the irreplaceable value of celibacy, which implies perfect
continence for the Kingdom of Heaven, and that purity which renders
our offering for our fellow man “pleasing unto God”.
May the intimacy of Jesus Christ and the protection of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, the all-beautiful” and “all-pure”,
sustain us in this daily journey of participation in that Work
of Another, in which the priestly ministry consists, knowing
that such a participation is replete with salvation above all
for us who live it: Christ, in that sense, is our life.
Mauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop of Vittoriana
Secretary
THIS LETTER ADDRESSED
TO PRIESTS COMES FROM THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY. I am printing it in the bulletin
for several reasons: (a) because I think it is a beautiful letter;
(b) because it can help people to understand what a priest is
all about; (c) because it might motivate people to pray for me
and for other priests, so that we do not lose sight of what we
are all about.
As for myself, I would like everyone to know that I am very grateful
to God and to the Catholic Church for calling me to be a priest
and I would like the people of Girardville (and surrounding area)
to know that there is no place in the world that I would rather
be at this point in my life than right here in Girardville. I
invite boys and young men of our two parishes to consider the
possibility that God might be calling them to be priests. It
is a beautiful life. I cannot think of anything more beautiful
this side of heaven.
I know what it means to be “seduced” by the Lord and
I have found “how his fascination was irresistible”. |
Saturday,
24 October