Francis Cardinal Arinze

The Eucharistic Convention
2010

THE PRIESTHOOD

Address at Eucharistic Convention,
Diocese of Auckland, NZ, 10 April 2010

+ Francis Cardinal Arinze

“This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me” (I Cor 11:24). Our beloved Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in giving us his Body and Blood in the ineffable mystery of the Holy Eucharist, also ordained his Apostles priests by instructing them to “do this in remembrance of me”. It is, therefore, fitting that in this Eucharistic Convention we begin by reflecting this morning on the Sacred Priesthood in the Church that Jesus founded. This theme is also particularly indicated by the current Year for Priests.

We shall begin by saying who the priest is. We know that he offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice; he preaches the Word of God, and he gathers the people together under the authority of the Bishop. The priest is announcer of the Transcendent God. He helps the people to be, and to remain, oriented towards God. He is a mediator who brings God’s graces to the people and intercedes for them. It is therefore important that we should have priests. All of us are involved in the promotion of priestly vocations and in the support for our priests.

These will now be the elements for our reflection.

1. Identity of the Priest

Christ is the eternal high priest. By his positive decision he chose some men in his Church and conferred on them the priesthood. By the laying on of hands (cf Acts 6:6; I Tim 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6) the gift of the Holy Spirit is transmitted to these men so that they become empowered to continue in the Church the ministry of reconciliation, of shepherding the flock of God and of teaching (cf Acts 20:28; 1 Pt 5:2; Pastores Dabo Vobis, 15). The Roman Pontifical, in the Rite of Ordination of Priests, teaches that priests are ordained “so as to serve Christ the Teacher, Priest and Shepherd, by whose ministry his body, that is, the Church, is built and grows in the people of God, a holy temple”. Priests officiate and minister “in the name and person of Christ the Head and Shepherd” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 15).

The Preface of the Chrism Mass states in an authoritative way the origin, identity, mission and demanding nature of the mission of the priest and his ministry: “By your Holy Spirit you anointed your only Son High Priest of the new and eternal Covenant. With wisdom and love you have planned that this one priesthood should continue in the Church. Christ gives the dignity of the royal priesthood to the people he has made his own. From these, with a brother’s love, he chooses men to share his sacred ministry by the laying on of hands. He appointed them to renew in his name the sacrifice of redemption as they set before your family his paschal meal. He calls them to lead your holy people in love, nourish them by your word, and strengthen them through the sacraments. Father, they are to give their lives in your service and for the salvation of your people as they strive to grow in the likeness of Christ and honour you by their courageous witness of faith and love” ((Roman Missal: Preface of Chrism Mass).
The Cure of Ars, St John Mary Vianney, Patron of Priests and of this Year for Priests, spoke of the priesthood as a great gift and task entrusted to a human creature and beyond our power to understand fully: “O, how great is the priest ... If he realized what he is, he would die ... God obeys him: he utters a few words and the Lord descends from heaven at his voice” (B. Nodet: Le Curé d’Ars. Sa Pensée, p. 97). Indeed the Saintly Parish Priest of Ars regarded himself inadequate and unworthy to shoulder the responsibilities of parish ministry and only total obedience to his Bishop prevented him from running away (cf Benedict XVI: Letter of 16/6/2009 to Priests).

2. The Priest Offers the Eucharistic Sacrifice

The highest and central ministry of the priest is to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice. Jesus Christ, at the Last Supper, anticipating his sacrifice on the Cross of the following day, consecrated bread and wine into his Body and Blood, offered himself to his eternal Father, and ordered his Apostles to do the same in remembrance of him.

The priest is Christ’s minister and instrument in the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice which is the sacramental re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary. The Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and the Eucharistic sacrifice are one single sacrifice, because as the Council of Trent teaches us, “the victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the Cross; only the manner of offering is different” (Council of Trent, Doctrina de ss. Missae Sacrificio, C.2: DS 1743; cf also CCC, 1367).

At Mass, the priest is at the height of his calling. There is nothing that the priest does which is greater than celebrating Holy Mass.

3. The Priest Proclaims the Word of God

The priest proclaims the Word of God to the people, catechizes them, and in the homily relates the Word of God to the realities of life in the world of today. Man does not live by material bread alone (cf Deut 8:3; Mt 4:4). He also needs the bread of the Word of God.

The priest helps the people to realize that we have on earth “no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). He guides the people, therefore, to understand who created them, why they exist, where they are going and how they can get there. People on their earthly pilgrimage need a road map. It is the honour and the responsibility of the priest to preach this Gospel.

And in preaching it, he follows the instructions of St Paul to his disciple Timothy: “Preach the Word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching: (2 Tim 4:2). The priest, therefore, does not get worried about political correctness or whether his preaching will buy him popularity. Rather, he preaches the Gospel without discount because he is aware of the duties of the watchman, as God told the prophet Ezekiel: “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes, and takes any of them; that man is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand” (Ezk 33:6). The priest, after all, is a servant, not a master, of the Word of God. He proclaims it. Those who refuse to accept it and be guided by it will be condemned by the Word that they ignored (cf Jn 12:48).

Preaching is so important and dear to the Church that it is entrusted as a ministry only to deacons, priests and bishops at their ordination.

4. Priest, Announcer of a Transcendent God

One aspect of the priest’s preaching that needs special emphasis today is that God is transcendent. God created us. We owe everything to him. Adoration, praise, thanksgiving, reparation and supplication are due to him from us. This is what religion is all about. It is our duty. It is obligatory. It is not optional.

A human being who dares to deny God this practical recognition of his Transcendence and Providence should be regarded as not only dishonest but also as ridiculous. For “without the Creator, the creature would disappear ... When God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible” (Gaudium et Spes, 36).

Secularism is the ideology which wants people to live and act as if God did not exist. It is an error mistaken in its thought form, poor when it is put under examination and disastrous in private and public life. It is one of the challenges in our time which the priest cannot ignore. As Pope Benedict XVI said “Secularization that presents itself in cultures as planning of the world and of humanity without reference to Transcendence invades every aspect of daily life and develops a mentality in which God is in reality absent, totally or in part, from human existence or consciousness” (Benedict XVI: Address on 8/3/2008 to Pont. Council for Culture).

The priest therefore shows people how the will of God, his law and his plan, written into human nature, and expressed in the Ten Commandments, should guide people’s entire lives: in the family, in the place of work and recreation, in school and politics, in trade and commerce, in law and medicine, etc. No part of our lives is outside God’s Providence and law. Psalm 119 praises the will of God, his ways, precepts, commandments, law, promises, statutes, justice or ordinances, as this longest of Psalms calls the law of God in different words.

5. Gathering the People of God Together

The Church on earth is visible. It is the congregation of those baptized in Christ, professing the same faith, celebrating the same Sacraments and living the new life won for us by Christ especially by serving one another and in particular the needy.

This visible family of God on earth is shepherded by the Bishop who has his priests as his closest co-workers. The priest works in the unity of the diocesan presbyterium under the direction of his Bishop. Most priests are assigned to parish work. But some are called by the Bishop to work with him in the Diocesan Office, or at special assignments such as the communications media, or as chaplains to educational institutions or to lay apostolate groups.

Whatever form it takes, the priest is a shepherd under the leadership of the Chief Shepherd in the diocese, the Bishop.

6. The Priest Provides People with Orientation in Life

The priest has the honour and the responsibility to help people to be properly oriented in life. He awakens and educates consciences. He helps people see their duties and responsibilities. To young people, he recalls the importance of honesty, generosity and chastity in their preparation for a state of life. He reminds medical doctors that they are called to care for life and enhance it, not to truncate it by abortion or euthanasia. To people in politics and in government he underlines service, honesty, provision of the structures and services needed by the people, and the need to be content with their pay. He reminds the rich of the universal destination of earthly goods (cf Gaudium et Spes, 69; Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 171-175). The rich, whether individuals or States, are bound to remember the poor and to share with them. Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical Letter, Caritas in Veritate, stresses the role of solidarity, acceptance of interdependence and observance of an economic system which does not exclude the poor from the banquet of life (cf Caritas in Veritate, 58).

The priest also orients people in difficulty to see meaning in life and identify the way forward. He helps the terminally sick to accept God’s will and prepare to meet their Creator. To the amputated soldier and the sick and elderly he gives the comfort and assurance that God has not forgotten them. To the young widow whose husband died in an aeroplane crash, and to the mother whose only son was shot dead by thieves, he offers some light in the tunnel. To oppressed and repressed people he announces Christ the true liberator and he also seeks ways to disarm the oppressors. To people addicted to alcohol, drugs or sex, he preaches a Gospel of liberation in Christ, if they will be willing to be pulled out of the mud. To HIV/AIDS patients he offers solidarity and organizes anti retroviral drugs and service.

It is also the ministry of the priest to orient people to appreciate their dignity as members of the Church and their share in her mission. He helps them realise that the Church is one of the objects of our faith as expressed in the Credo. And we accept the actual Church that exists, even with members who are not yet perfect. Our faith is not in an imaginary Church. In this Church, everyone has an apostolate to carry out. The lay faithful, in particular, are reminded of their specific mission, to evangelize from within the secular order, that is the family, work and leisure, politics and government, trade and commerce, science and technology. The priest, moreover, awakens the interest of the lay faithful in the evangelization of the whole world, since only one-third of humanity is Christian.

7. The Priest brings God’s Grace to the People

It is a great honour for the priest to be God’s instrument in bringing down God’s graces and blessings to the people. He does this principally by administering the Sacraments, the chief means of the dispensation of the graces of redemption. The priest baptizes, liberates people from the chain of sins, anoints them when they are sick, and blesses their marriages. Above all, he celebrates for them the Eucharistic Sacrifice and administers to them the Body and blood of Christ.

The priest’s hands, at ordination, are anointed. With these hands he offers sacrifice to God. He imposes these hands on the people and prays for God’s blessing on them. Let us note the words that he pronounces when he blesses the people: “May the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, descend on you and remain with you always”. It is the blessing of almighty God. The priest is only God’s instrument.

The Church has blessings in her Ritual Book for children, for expectant mothers, for mothers who are thanking God for their new-born baby, for the sick and also for objects such as houses, schools and offices, machines such as cars, aeroplanes and printing machines, for farm instruments and for radio and television stations, transmitters and computers. The priest is the usual minister of God and the Church for these various blessings.

The priest also calls on God to bless people’s efforts at reconciliation, justice and peace. Such initiatives can be at the level of the family, but also at national, regional and international levels. We need the priest’s mediator role and prayer for all such initiatives.

8. Priest Intercessor of the People before God

The priest is intercessor of his people before God. He brings their adoration, praise, thanksgiving, reparation and supplication to God. The people’s suffering, cries of anguish and unexpressed groaning are brought before God by the priest. During a plague, when there is local or other catastrophy, or when an epidemic breaks out, the priest is there to bring the people’s prayer to God.

Moses is his model in this. As long as Moses kept his arms raised in prayer and intercession, so long did the people of Israel continue to win in the battle field (cf Exod 17:11-12). Moses interceded for his people who were not always faithful to God and who even descended to the depth of adoring the golden calf (cf Exod 32:30-34).

Often people rightly ask the priest to pray for them. The sick, the lonely the old, the widow, the orphan and the unemployed should occupy a place of honour in his priestly heart. So should the youth, the newly married and all families in difficulty.

The Liturgy of the Hours, or the prayer of the Church for the different hours of the day, is entrusted to the priest to pray in the name of the whole Church for the Church and the World and to give God continued praise.

9. Important to have a Priest for a Catholic Community

From all that we have discussed, it is clear that a Catholic community has need of a priest. No Christian community can be built up unless it has a basis and centre in the celebration of the most Holy Eucharist: (Presbyt. Ordinis, 6). And no Mass is possible without a priest. Therefore every Christian community needs the ministry of the priest.

“There is little love of God in that parish; you will be the one to put in there”. That is what the Bishop told John Mary Vianney when he was sending him to Ars as Parish Priest. And John Mary fulfilled this role magnificently. “Leave a parish for twenty years without a priest”, said the Curé d’Ars, “and they will end by worshipping beasts there ... The priest is not a priest for himself, he is a priest for you” “(B. Nodet: Le Curé d’Ars. Sa Pensée, p. 100).

That is why the Church insists very much on the type of priest who will bring the love of God among people. The Second Vatican Council did this in two decrees, one on priestly formation, Optatam Totius, and the other on the priest’s life and ministry, Presbyterorum Ordinis. The Synod of Bishops celebrated in 1990, and the Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Pastores Dabo Vobis of 25 March 1992, dwelt on the same theme. On 19 June 2009 Pope Benedict inaugurated a Year for Priests with an Apostolic Letter to Priests.

The devil and other enemies of the Church know the importance of the priest for the life and mission of the Church and so they often attack priests and try to pour ridicule on them. If one priest is found to have given scandal somewhere, they suggest that that is the same for many other priests.

On the other hand, those who love the Church know that priests should be appreciated and supported and that priestly vocations have to be promoted. This is an affair of the whole Church. The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday, is dedicated in a special way to prayer for priestly vocations.

Where a priest is not available for the celebration of Sunday Mass, a Service of the Word is held on a Sunday. But such a solution, says Pope John Paul II, “must be considered merely temporary, while the community awaits a priest. The sacramental incompleteness of these celebrations should above all inspire the whole community to pray with greater fervour that the Lord will send labourers into his harvest (cf Mt 9:38). It should also be an incentive to mobilize all the resources needed for an adequate promotion of vocations” (Eccl. de Euch. 32).

10. Practical Support for Priests

These reflections lead us to ask what we can do to show support for our priests. We should begin by refreshing our faith in Jesus Christ, our Saviour and the eternal High Priest. Every Catholic needs to be informed on the role of the priest in the Church. This will lead all of us to look on the priest with the eyes of faith and see him as a minister of Christ, as another Christ. Respect and love will arise out of such faith.

Prayer for the priest will follow. The desire to see him succeed will lead us to work with him, to offer him professional and other help, and to encourage him, especially in moments of difficulty.

Parents by the respect they show to the priest will teach their children to do the same and never to join in attacking or vilifying the priest.

The greatest help that parents can give towards promoting priestly vocations is to be willing to bring many children into the world, to train them well, and to support those of them who desire to pursue the priestly vocation. Seminaries and dioceses also welcome people who make financial donations to the seminary or who pay for individual seminarians. The Pontifical Society for Mission clergy in the Vatican coordinates help worldwide for the promotion of local clergy in countries of recent evangelization.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, the priesthood is a great gift of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to his Church and to the world. By the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Priests, may all priests grow daily in love of God and neighbour which flowers in pastoral zeal. And may all of us contribute as best we can to the flourishing of the priesthood especially in this Year for Priests.

Signed: + Francis Cardinal Arinze

10 April, 2010

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