Holy ministers of God's faithfulness (1)

Today, Maundy Thursday, the Church gives thanks to God, "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort" (2 Cor 1, 3), for the eminent gift of the ministerial priesthood.

The Dogmatic Constitution On The Church, Lumen Gentium, states plainly: "The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people". Since the priest is Christ fully alive among his own, every priest is the anointed presence of God's incarnated and faithful presence to his people.

The priest's faithfulness to God and his flock is deeply nourished by prayer. The late 16th century Archbishop of Milan and Cardinal, St Charles Borromeo, always insisted on the primacy of prayer before the carrying out of any pastoral duty.

"Are you in charge of a parish? If so, do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself". This entails living with God the Father, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Mindful of this basic reality, Borromeo advises us priests: "If we wish to make any progress in the service of God we must begin every day of our life with new eagerness. We must keep ourselves in the presence of God as much as possible and have no other view or end in all our actions but the divine honour."

Prayer and seeking God's glory continually transform our priestly identity and service. As Oswald Chambers put it: "Every time we pray our horizon is altered, our attitude to things is altered, not sometimes but every time".

I have always been greatly encouraged in my sacerdotal vocation by the lifegiving reflection which the present Pope made for us priests, at St Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, New York on April 19, 2008.

"The People of God look to you to be holy priests, on a daily journey of conversion, inspiring in others the desire to enter more deeply into the ecclesial life of believers. I urge you to deepen your friendship with Jesus the Good Shepherd. Talk heart to heart with him. Reject any temptation to ostentation, careerism or conceit.

Strive for a pattern of life truly marked by charity, chastity and humility, in imitation of Christ, the Eternal High Priest, of whom you are to become living icons (cf. Pastores Dabo Vobis, 33). Dear (priests), I pray for you daily. Remember that what counts before the Lord is to dwell in his love and to make his love shine forth for others".

It is solely through prayer that we priests can be still in front of the Lord and get that necessary and decisive impetus to spread in a priestly way "the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life" (2 Cor 2, 15-16). Prayer is the backbone for a flourishing priestly life, as that sketched by that illustrious Dominican father, Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire. "To live in the midst of the world without any desire for its pleasures; to be a member of every family, without belonging to any of them; to share every suffering, to be made a part of every secret, heal every wound; to go every day from men to God to offer Him their devotion and their prayers, and to turn from God to men to take to them his forgiveness and his hope; to have a heart of steel for chastity and a heart of flesh for charity; to teach and forgive, console and bless and to be blessed forever. O God, what kind of life is ever like this? It is your life, o priest of Jesus Christ!"

Opera Christi non deficiunt, sed proficiunt: Christ's works do not go backwards but forwards. God's faithfulness through the Catholic priesthood is a case in point!