June 26, 2009

A Shepherd's Message

By Daniel Cardinal DiNardo

Last Friday, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated a “Year for Priests” for the whole Catholic Church.  Earlier that day, the relics of St. John Vianney, patron of diocesan priests, had been brought to the Vatican from Ars, France, to be venerated throughout the year at St. Peter’s.  The Pope used the occasion of the Feast Day and the procession of the saint’s relics to deliver a homily about the gift and the task of the priesthood.  It is a wonderful prelude to a whole series of reflections and celebrations in which he and the rest of the Church will be engaged in the course of the next twelve months.  In our own archdiocese, we will be inaugurating the Year for Priests on June 23 as we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of priesthood of our Auxiliary, Bishop Joe Vasquez.  His dedication to the gift and task of the priesthood these many years, most recently in the Office of Bishop as our Vicar General and Chancellor, becomes a fitting occasion for us to begin our prayer, reflection and celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the great dedication of the near 400 priests, both diocesan and religious, who serve in this local Church.

I return to the Holy Father’s words: the priesthood is a gift and a task.  The words and deeds of Jesus Christ, indeed his very life, are summed up in his Passion, Death and Resurrection.  This act of obedience to his Father arising from his relationship to the Father as “Son,” initiates the New Covenant and a new creation.  On the night before he died, Christ gives to his apostles and to the Church the gift of the Eucharist.  He anticipates his Death and Resurrection and bestows a living remembrance for his apostles to “do” until he comes again.  The Lord Jesus abides always in his Church and the special action of the Eucharist is the highest reality of that “abiding.”  The Eucharist represents his life giving death on Calvary through the lens of the Last Supper.  It establishes the Church even as the Church enacts the Eucharist.  The gift of the Mass and all that is involved with it, most especially Charity, is simultaneously the gift of the priesthood in the Church.  The priesthood is not an invented or a constructed reality but the gift of the Lord Jesus Himself through the Holy Spirit.

Like every disciple, a man who is a priest is first called to membership in the Church by Baptism and Confirmation.  Every disciple is a member of the common priesthood, part of the “priestly people”, the Church, initiated by Christ.  The priesthood involves a further call to be in service to the whole priestly people by the gift of “the laying on of hands,” a gift that marks the man forever as a distinctive “steward of the mysteries of Christ,” and a Shepherd who acts in the Person of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church.  Such a call and reality is truly a gift and therefore never a purely personal “achievement.”  If a man were to think that way he would have already compromised his discipleship and his priesthood.  Just as it is true with every disciple, it is more true of the priest: one depends upon the Lord Jesus and his gifts entirely.  I would therefore venture to say that without a life of deep friendship with Christ, not only as Savior, Lord and Brother, but also as first and original “Priest,” the priest will lose the savor and salt of his life and may well end up as a functionary.  The priest must be in affectionate relationship with Jesus, namely he is to be a man of prayer.  The special gift of the ministry of priesthood already involves a response, a task.  Stay in tune, be in harmony with the Lord Jesus.  The prayer of the priest, in communion with Christ, a prayer surprised by joy, is not merely and not solely for his own benefit.  His prayer as well as his life is of service to the Church; it is for the Church.  The longer and deeper the priest lives in friendship with Jesus, the more aware he is of the words of consecration he quotes in the heart of each Eucharistic Prayer: “This is my Body…;” “This is my Blood…”  He is to model himself on the mysteries He is called to lead and celebrate and draw all the faithful who celebrate with him into a life of intense communion with Jesus Christ, and thus with one another.  The priest will beg the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to constantly send down the Most Perfect Gift, the Holy Spirit, upon the Church and upon the priest’s own pastoral work so that God’s glory is more and more manifest in the members of the Church . The prayer and the life of the priest are “ecclesial;” meant for the Church.  Further, the prayer of the priest to God also allows him to be a faithful instrument of Christ  in his preaching and teaching.  Prayer soaks the study and preaching of the priest.  It is also prayer that prepares him for his role of shepherding and collaborating with other ministries in the governance of the parish or any ministry to which he is assigned.  More so today than in the past, the priest works with deacons and with a wide array of pastoral ministers and expert members of the people with whom he must collaborate in order to build up the Church in holiness.  This particular form of sharing and accountability is newer in the Church and, though it is a gift, it is also a task that demands prayer, study and listening.

I have been speaking about the priesthood as gift, but at every mention, the simultaneous demand or task of the priest has arisen.  The priesthood: Gift and Task; both dimensions act as an ordered pair, like two eyes.

At the beginning of this Year for Priests in our archdiocese, I want to express my deepest gratitude to our priests, both diocesan and religious, who labor and work as good stewards of our local Church and make even heroic efforts to build us up in holiness.  The overwhelming majority of them do their work quietly and without show; they genuinely love the people they serve and our people show equal affection for them and their labors.  I do ask our people to pray unceasingly for our priests that they continue to recognize the gift and the task that has been handed onto them.  (In this light please pray for our five newly ordained priests about to embark on their first assignments and for any priests who are experiencing difficulties or spiritual inertia.)

Bishop Joe Vasquez is celebrating 25 years of priesthood this week.  He was ordained for the Diocese of San Angelo by then Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, Bishop of San Angelo, in 1984.  In 2002, Archbishop Fiorenza ordained him as Auxiliary of Galveston-Houston, and I know how proud he is of Bishop Vasquez and of his human and priestly gifts.  Since becoming Ordinary here in 2006, I asked Bishop Vasquez to become Chancellor and Moderator of the Curia for this very large and complex local Church.  He has responded splendidly with real dedication and intelligence to the task! The task is “multi-tasking” the administration of this archdiocese.  I would say even more but if I speak too much about his excellence they may move him, and I am selfish enough to want him to abide here for some time.  I will just say that I am in deep gratitude to Bishop Vasquez for his kindness, his focus, his delight in the priesthood and his care to administer in this archdiocese with intelligence, firmness and humor.  Ad Multos Annos!  

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