The Lord embraces us with compassion
This is an excerpt from the homily given by Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, at the May 14 ordination Mass of two priests.
Deacons Lucio Sung Min Choi and Mark James McGuckin have heard the call to follow the Lord as priests. How grateful we are to their families for the encouragement and prayerful support they have offered.
While all of us were called into life with Christ in the Church at our baptism, some have received a vocation to the ministerial priesthood.
When Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” the Apostle answers with a faltering voice, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” This question and answer is repeated three times, reminding Peter of his threefold denial. Now he is forgiven, and Jesus wants him, a repentant sinner, to be the shepherd of his flock.
It is clear that Peter can guide Jesus’s sheep only if he loves the Lord passionately, only if he is ready to give his life for Him. Likewise, the priest can only assume ministerial responsibility in the Church if he loves Jesus as his friend.
Only then can he feed the flock entrusted to him, and feed them with Jesus Himself, with His words and with His Body and Blood given in the Eucharist.
Only one who has first experienced God’s mercy in Jesus Christ can be entrusted with being a messenger of mercy to others.
Pope Francis frequently uses the image of the Church as a great field hospital after battle. Priests must be there, close to the people, because they have been anointed to be ministers of His mercy, forgiving sins in the sacrament of reconciliation.
The priest takes his wounded people to Christ’s embrace. They are the first responders on the battlefield who can enable people to live the lives worthy of the calling they have received to be holy and blameless in God’s sight.
Dear Lucio and Mark: because your ordination makes you images of the Good Shepherd and Eternal High Priest, you must be men of mercy and, like Jesus, among them “as the one who serves.” This is the pastoral priority for every priest: closeness to His people and compassionate love for souls. Priests are “able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward” because they themselves are “subject to weakness,” says the Letter to the Hebrews.
The words which St. John Vianney, the patron of priests, put on the lips of Christ, are meant for every priest: “I will charge My ministers to proclaim to sinners that I am ever ready to welcome them, that My mercy is infinite.” Learn to put the sacrament of reconciliation at the centre of your pastoral concerns. Indeed, put it at the centre of your own lives, for only those who have first experienced its greatness can be convincing ministers of God’s mercy to others.
A truly merciful priest has a heart of mercy, because his is now the heart of Christ. Pope Francis once addressed these words to ordinandi in St. Peter’s Basilica: “For the love of Jesus Christ: never tire of being merciful! Please! Have the ability to forgive that the Lord had, Who came not to condemn but to forgive!
“Be greatly merciful! And if you have scruples about being too “forgiving,” think of that holy priest who went before the Tabernacle and said: “Lord, pardon me if I have forgiven too much, but it is You Who have set me a bad example!”
Rejoice every time you can offer the divine gift of God’s forgiveness, and “never tire of being merciful.” In the confessional your whole attitude should demonstrate compassion and mercy: in the way you welcome, listen, advise, and absolve.
This attitude will be authentic when it stems from the way you live the sacrament personally: when you let yourself be embraced by God the Father and stay in His embrace, forgiven like Peter. If you live from mercy yourself, you can then offer it to others in your ministry.
You are priests of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. And so, dear brothers, the merciful heart of Jesus Christ engages your priestly ministry in a unique way. Always remember you are instruments of God’s mercy, aware that you yourselves cannot do without the mercy of God, Who chose you for this great ministry of reconciliation.
Dear Lucio and Mark, the Eucharist is at the heart of your ministry. When you offer the Eucharist, you enable Jesus to be with us, to live in us, to give Himself to us, to show us God’s infinite mercy and tenderness.
In every Eucharist, when you act in persona Christi, “in the person of Jesus Himself,” He “offers Himself for us to the Father, so that we too can be united with Him, offering to God our lives, our work, our joys, and our sorrows, offering everything as a spiritual sacrifice.”
Let the celebration of the Eucharist always be the spiritual core of your priestly life, and the centre of your ecclesial mission: to share in His mission, to be His witnesses, so that His Word may be proclaimed to all.
Now we implore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the whole host of heaven.
