Priesthood Ordination Homily

 

Saint Teresa Church, Trumbull, CT

by the Most Reverend William E. Lori
Bishop of Bridgeport
May 17, 2003

Dear friends,

May I ask you to listen in prayer and solidarity as I address a few words to these men, your sons, brothers and friends, in these moments prior to their priestly ordination. Pray that they will be good holy priests, joined with the good and holy priests of this Diocese, fully committed to Christ and the Church, fully committed to the service of God’s Holy People.

And so, dear brothers in the Lord: On the ordination card of the late theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, three simple words are printed: “Benedixit, fregit, dedit” – “blessed, broken, given.” That is what Christ did on the night before He died. He took bread: blessed it, broke it, gave it. This is exactly what you will do each day, for the rest of your lives. In living memory of Christ, you will bless, break and give the Bread which is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.

But celebrating the Eucharist is not merely a professional duty; it’s not just your job; rather, it is who you are. You become priests primarily to celebrate the Eucharist. As priests, you will be shaped and identified by the Eucharist you celebrate. Indeed, dear brothers, by the prayer of the Church and the laying on of hands, your very name, your very identity will be Eucharist. Ordained to the priesthood, you will be men who are blessed, broken and given: benedixit, fregit, dedit. Allow me to explain.

Benedixit.

Christ takes and blesses you today in the power of the Holy Spirit through these sacred rites of ordination. You are not only blessed but consecrated, changed in the depth of your being so as to resemble Christ, the High Priest, Christ, the Head and Shepherd of His Church. You are blessed: changed, consecrated, set aside not as a honor for yourself, but rather for the sake of priestly service. In spite of human frailty, Christ has chosen you and will empower you to speak and act in His name – to make present and available to Church and world what He Himself did to bring about our salvation. You are blessed, so as to speak in the person of : Already as deacons, and now as priests you are charged to preach not yourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord – and to apply the truth of the Gospel as it comes to us through the Church to the daily lives and your work of parishioners, helping them to face life’s challenges and to live their faith with integrity, justice and love.

Acting in the person of Christ, Head and Shepherd, you will have the joy and privilege of imparting the new life of grace in the waters of baptism, of forgiving sins in the sacrament of reconciliation, of anointing the sick and helping the dying to prepare for their definitive meeting with the Lord. You will work with couples preparing for marriage and witness their married love, even as you help them to live the challenging vocation of marriage and family.

Above all, you will celebrate the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Church’s life. You will make present to them the One Sacrifice of Christ – His saving death and resurrection – by which we and the world are redeemed. You will enable the people you serve to join with you in offering Christ, the Divine Victim, to the Father and, at the same time, offering themselves to God as a living sacrifice of praise. You will nourish those you serve not only with the banquet of Christ’s Word but indeed with the banquet of His Sacrifice.

Benedixit. Christ blesses, consecrates you, so that you may be a blessing to His Church. And what a blessing you are as this local Church celebrates its golden jubilee. May the name of the Lord be praised!

You are blessed, but you are also broken: fregit. Just as Christ broke the bread at the Last Supper, just as Christ’s Body was broken on the Cross, and just as you will break the Bread that is His Body at the Masses you will celebrate – so too, again and again, in your lives as priests you will be “broken.” In union with Christ you are called to re-produce Christ’s own sacrificial style of life. As Christ laid down his life for us and our salvation, so you are called to put your lives at the service of the Church.

To do this, you must be “broken.” Again and again, the power of sin must be broken in your lives. As Saint Paul urges, you and those you serve must renounce shameful, hidden things; none of us must not act deceitfully or falsify the word of God. Rather, with a clear conscience we must proclaim the mercy, goodness and saving power of Christ. Jesus says it best: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

It follows that you are also “broken” in making the promise of obedience – in laying aside your own plans and preferences in favor of the needs of the Church’s mission. The promise of obedience includes not only accepting the assignments I shall give you, but also in cultivating that docility of spirit by which bishop and priests become true co-workers, laboring side by side for sake of God’s Kingdom. In breaking human willfulness in all its forms, you open your hearts to Christ who truly makes you whole.

And the Christ-centered “broken-ness” of the priesthood also includes celibacy. Imitating Christ, you have foregone the joys and challenges of marriage and family. You do this not because priests are busy people – almost everyone today is far too busy – no, you do this as a witness to Christ, and because you are deeply in love with the Church, deeply in love with the people you serve.
In living celibate love, you will experience – as most married couples experience – loneliness. You know and will know what Saint Paul means when he refers to that earthen vessel in which we carry about the dying and rising of Jesus. You will not escape the Cross. It will appear in your lives in many forms. So, you must embrace it through daily, sustained prayer before the Blessed Sacrament Reserved, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and through regular Marian devotion, especially the Rosary. In these moments of daily prayer, (missing pg 12 and 13)

Ask your brother priests. Ask family members and lay friends. Each of them can tell you of those who no longer practice their faith, those who are alienated from the Lord and the Church, those who may be searching for the truth. Never can we say, “sooner or later, they’ll show up.” We can’t sit in our offices and say, “here we are, come and get it.” As priests, you are given, you are sent – you are called to join with me, with brother priests and deacons, and with the whole Church – in bearing powerful, convincing witness to Christ, in going out to gather into the Church’s communion all those who presently are lapsed, lost or looking. Fairfield County – no less than places we regard as far-flung – is mission territory and with all of us you are called to be missionaries. You are commissioned to preach to the people and to testify that Christ is the One appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

Benedixit. Fregit. Dedit.

Dear brothers, may the Christ in the Eucharist truly be the very center of your lives. Through the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and the Mother of the Church, may your priestly lives be in the sight of God and in the sight of the Church a living sacrifice of praise. God bless you!