Ordination to the priesthood - The Feast of the Apostle Barnabas, June 11, 2004

On this feast of the Apostle Barnabas known in the 1st century Church for his courage and missionary zeal, we celebrate the ordination of our brothers Thomas Fitzpatrick and Justin Wachs. We welcome their family and friends and we pray in thanksgiving for their generous “yes” to God. May the words of Acts 11: 24 used to describe St. Barnabas also be said some day of their priestly lives: “For he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.”
Before Vatican II the virtue in a priest most emphasized was zeal for souls. Today it is pastoral charity. These two virtues do not contradict one another - live both of them, the people need it.
This demands that “Father” is not just something you are called, but rather who you are in the explicit way you serve - in the proclamation of the Word, the celebration of the sacraments, the giving of a shepherds care to a community, and the fostering of the unity of the Church and the presbytery. As a priest you do not choose either your mission or your identity. God calls you to it so show a little fire.
Keep the words of today’s Gospel close to your heart: “I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world.” (John 17:14)
You will find little support or understanding for your ministry in the culture, and yet you will find people hungry and thirsting for God. Be for our world a sign of contradiction. Ignore the culture and its false values and talk to us about God with words that come from your heart because you have listened to his heart. Only a man who becomes vulnerable to the mysteries of Christ can happily sustain the twin crosses of priestly life: serving lay holiness and embracing chaste celibacy.
In order to cultivate your new spiritual fatherhood, never compromise with the spirit of the day - materialism, intense self-centeredness and a life of convenience and comfort. Spiritual fatherhood can only be accomplished through regular prayer and reflection, spiritual direction, ongoing conversion, detachment and priestly fraternity.
As priests of the New Covenant, you will be conformed to Christ in a unique and powerful way. Christian tradition speaks of ordination in the most astonishing terms. It is commonplace of Catholic speech to say that the priest is alter Christus, another Christ. The Catechism tells us, further, that the priest acts “in the person of Christ” and, like Christ, he is a “living image of God the Father.”
You are invited to stand at the altar of God and feed the people with the Bread of Life. As a priest of the Church, the Eucharist is the “heart” of who we are in Jesus Christ. Therefore our knowledge of and devotion to the Holy Eucharist, together with the daily celebration of the Mass, is to characterize our day, our identity and our priesthood.
Are you ready?
If you are, then yours will be a most glorious life lived in the shadow of the cross. In truth you will bring not peace but the sword, and sinners will rise from the death of sin and shed their ghostly wrappings as Barnabas shed his skin in martyrdom and, who knows, become great saints like him.
If you are willing to be poor, your poverty will enrich the world. You will be chaste with the chastity of an immense and burning love for God who first loved you and your chastity will be a grace to help heal lust in many hearts.
If you are willing to risk loneliness, bathed in the Father’s love, your presence will be a blessing to others. Your hands will heal, and bless and help.
Remember the words of Paul to Timothy: “Do not neglect the gift you have…conferred on you…with the imposition of hands…attend to yourself and your teaching; persevere in both tasks, for by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you. (1 Timothy 4: 14-16)

Ordination to the Diaconate - The Memorial of Our Lady on Saturday, June 12, 2004

Today we celebrate the ordination to the transitional diaconate of Dana Christensen and Robert Lacey. This is a day of great joy for the entire diocese, and we ask the intercession of the Blessed Mother that they both may be generous servants of the Gospel.
The words of today’s Gospel set the stage, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest. Go on your way; behold I am sending you like lambs among wolves.” (Luke 10:2-3)
As deacons you are invited to bring the Word of God to believer and non-believer alike, preside at public prayer, baptize, assist at marriages, give viaticum to the dying, lead the rites of burial, perform works of charity, wash the feet of the poor and embrace the charism of celibacy. Your ministry will be counter-cultural and your life considered radical.
As Dana and Robert commit themselves to life-long celibacy and service for their brothers and sisters in Christ, we share with them the words of our Blessed Mother in the Canticle of Mary, “My whole being proclaims the greatness of the Lord.” May your “yes” mean “yes,” and may you never take back what you freely offer to God this day.
You are making more than an intellectual commitment and must embrace the call to celibacy in your heart. As our Holy Father Pope John Paul II said in Pastores Dabo Vobis, “Celibacy should not be considered just a legal norm or as a totally external condition for admission to ordination, but rather as a value that is profoundly connected with ordination, whereby a man takes on the likeness of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd and Spouse of the Church, and therefore as a choice of a greater and undivided love for Christ and his Church, as a full and joyful availability in his heart for the pastoral ministry.”
Jesus presented his teaching on celibacy in the context of speaking about the permanence of marriage (Matthew 19:3-12), and actually celibacy and marriage serve one another. Celibacy is a special grace, a gift and therefore we clearly understand that not all receive it. However, those who do receive the gift witness to the evangelical value of virginity and to chastity aiding all their brothers and sisters in faith no matter what their vocation.
Chastity is an essential virtue of the Christian life. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta frequently said during her life, “If there is no chastity, there is no holiness.”
Your seminary training has been intellectual, pastoral, human and spiritual. There is a presumption that yours is a permanent commitment, and yet we know that you must continue to experience God’s love and discover Christ in an ever deeper way through a life of prayer and meditation and faithfulness to the Liturgy of the Hours. Without ongoing spiritual growth through regular spiritual direction, the sacrament of penance, daily Eucharist and “lectio divina,” your pastoral work would lose its foundation and your commitment to obedience would be a heavy burden.
With a deep and spiritual commitment, you will communicate the amazing and blessed message of Christ to others. This is what is meant in the ordination rite when we say, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”
Finally, at the end of the summer, you will return to the seminary for your final year of preparation. You must continue to take on the likeness of Christ and form, more completely, the habit of drawing close to him, as a friend, in every detail of your life. (Decree On Priestly Formation, 8).
We will all continue to pray for you that you will soon be one of our priests. We will ask God to bless you so that as a transitional deacon today and, God willing, a priest in the future, you might minister fully to all those who hunger and thirst for God.