Is 61:1-3; 2 Cor 5:14-20; John 20:19-23
I first want to recognize members of the family of Hector, who are here celebrating with us. May our Lord continue to bless them even more through the ordination of Hector.
The setting for this ordination is the “Year for Priests” declared by His Holiness Benedict XVI, and it is good to reflect at this ceremony a little on his words in relation to priests.
In announcing the Year for Priests, our Holy Father emphasized the difference of the “common priesthood” of the Faithful, received through baptism, from the ministerial priesthood which the priest receives through sacramental configuration to Christ through ordination, which Hector receives today. Our Holy Father stated that through the imposition of the Bishop’s hands and the consecratory prayer of the Church, the candidate becomes a new man, he becomes a “presbyter”, configured to the person of Jesus Himself.
He then emphasizes that the priest must strive for spiritual perfection, “which above all,” he says, the effectiveness of his ministry depends. If Hector is to be a good priest he must always strive to grow daily closer to the Lord Jesus in his own personal life, if his life is to speak of the presence and love of Jesus to those he ministers.
Earlier Our Holy Father on the occasion of the Year of the Eucharist emphasized that the secret of the sanctification of priests lies precisely in the Eucharist. He says: “By virtue of Holy Orders, the priest receives the gift and commitment to repeating in the Sacrament the gestures and words with which Jesus instituted the memorial of his Pasch at the Last Supper.” He then speaks of this “great miracle of love” being renewed in his hands. For this very reason, he says, “the priest must be first and foremost an adorer who contemplates the Eucharist, starting from the very moment in which he celebrates it.”
Jesus through this ordination sends forth Hector just as His Father sent Him, to proclaim the Good News, especially to the poor and to the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those captive by sin, and to bring God’s reconciling, merciful, forgiving love, to this world. But the effectiveness of his ministry will always be found in his continuing struggle and striving for sanctification, found especially by his centering His life on Christ in the Eucharist.
How important is this ministerial priesthood? Let us listen to the words of Pope Benedict in his statement announcing the “Year for Priests.” “The centrality of Christ brings with it the correct appreciation of the ministerial priesthood, without which there would be neither the Eucharist, nor even the mission nor the Church herself.”
Thank you Hector for responding to God’s call in your life, as the world and we need priests, men who are willing to forgo wife and family to give of themselves totally to God’s people, and who give their lives over in obedience to the Bishop for the good of all God’s people. Know that in your striving for perfection, in the midst of human weakness and the daily struggles that are in the lives of all priests, that you have the support of your fellow priests, and the prayers of the faithful whom you serve.
Let us all ask our Blessed Mother to constantly renew each day the commitment of Hector and all priests, to Jesus in the celebration of the Eucharist so that we priests may always witness through our lives the mystery that is placed in our hands for the salvation of the world.