Living the Truth in Love Homily - Priesthood Ordination of Brian Campbell and Tom Lafreniere Immersed in Christ During his Chrism Mass homily this year at St. Peter's Basilica, our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, shared some very personal words about the eve of his ordination to the priesthood. He reflected "On the eve of my priestly ordination, fifty-eight years ago, I opened the Sacred Scripture because I wanted to receive once more a word from the Lord for that day and for my future journey as a priest. My gaze fell upon this passage: 'Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.' Then I realized: the Lord is speaking to me. This very same thing will be accomplished tomorrow in me. When all is said and done, we are not consecrated by rites, even though they are necessary. The bath in which the Lord immerses us is Himself - the Truth in person. Priestly ordination means: being immersed in Him, immersed in the Truth. I belong in a new way to Him and to others, 'that His Kingdom may come'." My dear brothers, Thomas and Brian, the long awaited day of your priestly ordination has 1
arrived. The eve of your ordination has been well spent in the years of preparation of study and prayer. During these years the Lord has spoken to you personally and you have grown in a personal relationship with Him. The eve has passed and the day has dawned. Today you will be immersed in Him who is the Truth. You will belong to Him and to others in a new way. You will truly be bathed in Christ. However, while the day of ordination has dawned, the eve of continuing growth, prayer and study in the Lord continues in a radical new manner. Your priestly ordination today takes place during a significant year, the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of our Diocese of Palm Beach as well as the Year of St. Paul. Both speak personally to you regarding the immersion into Christ which you are about to enter. Both say something significant as to the new way that you will belong to Christ and to others. Our diocesan family is celebrating the fact that for twenty-five years we have been a Eucharistic People. We realize that the life of the Church is centered on the Eucharist in which we celebrate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ and through which Christ truly becomes present as our food on our journey to His Kingdom. The Church is born in the Eucharistic action of Christ and the Church is always directed to that same action. My brothers, today you are ordained priests to celebrate the Eucharist. All of the other sacraments that you will celebrate and all of the other many joyful activities of priesthood are directed to the Eucharist and they flow from the Eucharist. Your daily celebration of the Eucharist is neither a function that you carry out nor a rite that you perform. It is the very soul of your being immersed in Christ today. Your presiding at the Eucharist for others is the new 2
way in which you will relate to Christ. As Pope John Paul II stated so beautifully in his apostolic letter on the Eucharist, the Eucharist "is the principle and central raison d'être of the sacrament of priesthood, which effectively came into being at the moment of the institution of the Eucharist." Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the new Archbishop of New York, exemplified your new relationship to Christ through the Eucharist. On the day of his appointment to New York, he went to the Archdiocesan Seminary of St. Joseph to celebrate vespers with the community. Addressing the seminarians, Archbishop Dolan said that after a long day of many exciting events, the one that stood out from the rest was the Mass he celebrated to begin the day. His poignant words were, "That is the most important thing that I ever do." The Archbishop's extraordinary energy flows from the Eucharist and is directed towards the Eucharist. So it must be with you from this day. The more the celebration of the Eucharist becomes the center of your lives, the more you will be able to do as priests. Through priestly ordination today you will be changed in the very depths of your being. Your manner of relating to Christ and to His people will be altered in a radical manner. Your purpose is now to be men of the Eucharist. You are to live the Eucharist as fully as possible. The most important part of today's celebration is not the laying on of hands and consecratory prayer. That action is ordered toward a greater one today when, for the first time, you will concelebrate Mass and change bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Upon this action is based the rest of your lives even into eternity. The words spoken to you when you receive the bread and wine this morning will now be the foundation of your lives, Receive the 3
oblation of the holy people, to be offered to God. Understand what you do. Imitate what you celebrate and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord s Cross. My brothers your immersion in Christ today also takes place during the year of St. Paul. Paul is a model of radical conversion. His encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus changed his entire being. He went from being a persecutor of the Church's way of life to being a living proclamation of that same life. So deep was his immersion in the Lord that he was able to say, It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20) as well as "My life is already being poured out on the altar" (2Tim 4:6). Indeed Paul's letters are filled with such references that express the complete giving of himself to the Lord in a manner in which Paul becomes a new being. St. Paul is a good example to keep before you in your priesthood. He was always conscious of his great unworthiness for the role that the Lord had chosen for him. However, he did not let his failings, limitations and sins, great as they were, prevent him from being used as an instrument of the Lord. Like St. Peter, his collaborator and co-pillar of the Church, he was always aware that God's wisdom was greater than his own folly. As the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness" (2Cor 12:9). Thomas and Brian, it will be the same for you in your priesthood. Despite your unworthiness and the challenges that lay before you, God's grace will always be sufficient and reap harvest even from your weakness. If you trust in Him, He will never let you down. Like St. Paul, never forget that it is He who has chosen you and not you who have chosen Him. 4
Last evening, when we prayed together, I used the passage from the Gospel of St. John which Pope Benedict the XVI had before him on the eve of his ordination, "Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth" (Jn 17:17). As with the Holy Father, the Lord is also speaking to you and about you. The bath in which the Lord will immerse you this morning is Himself - the Truth in Person. Priestly ordination means living that Truth in love. We are all unworthy of this call. Live your new way of belonging to the Lord centered on the Eucharist and, in the words of the Lord Himself, "Your joy will be complete" (Jn 5:11). Today you will become part of a great presbyterate and be of service to the wonderful and diverse faithful people of the Diocese of Palm Beach. We all rejoice with you and for you and assure you of our continued support. May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment. Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito May 22, 2009 5