ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Your Eminence,
Dear brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Deacons,
Dear Seminary Faculty, Religious, Seminarians,
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ and especially you, Ronald, Keith, John, Jaehwa, Michael, William and Stephen as you await the laying on of hands and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Holy Orders,

On this sacred occasion you are gathered here, dear Ordinands, in the presence of family, friends, your brother seminarians, your brother priests, so many different representatives of the People of God. We are all assembled with you in thanksgiving to God for having sustained you throughout the years of your seminary preparation and for having brought you to this hour.

This is truly an hour of joy, when the words of Jesus are fulfilled in your regard: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

This is a time of encouragement for your brother priests: to welcome you to the priesthood, to have your collaboration in their ministry and in the fraternity of the presbyterate.

This is a time of recommitment for all of us to the ideals of the priesthood and to the standards of the Gospel as we confess that all effective priestly ministry demands total fidelity to celibacy, justice and pastoral charity.

This is an hour of hope for the Church. Your brother deacons at Saint Charles Seminary are eager to follow you next year at this time, and we are confident that the Christ who called you will continue to call still other generous young men to His priesthood. We believe in the power of intercessory prayer. We believe in the power of Christ’s Paschal Mystery to draw young men to His priesthood in every age.

You are here this morning to receive your mission from our Lord Jesus Christ—the One who has risen from the dead, the One who has triumphed over sin. In our midst, it is He—the Risen Christ—who in and through the Church and in the power of the Holy Spirit, calls you to the ministry of the Priesthood, repeating: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."

Our Lord Jesus Christ is sending you out today on a mission that belongs to Him. It is the mission of redemption—redemption from sin, and consequently from death.

You are being called above all to become a minister of the Eucharist. The teaching of the Second Vatican Council is very important. It says: "Priests fulfill their chief duty in the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. In it the work of our redemption continues to be carried out" (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 13). The work of the redemption is carried out because in the Eucharist, the Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ are renewed for His people. You will belong to a priesthood that exists so that, in union with Christ and in the Holy Spirit, the People of God can adore the Father in spirit and in truth.

You exist to proclaim conversion and to be examples of holiness of life. You exist, as does your priestly mission, so that God’s people may live in holiness and walk in newness of life. You can be sure that Christ’s grace will always sustain you in the struggle against sin and in the quest for holiness.

In the very moment of the Consecration, when the blood of the new and everlasting covenant is offered to the Father, the Church proclaims that this blood will be shed "so that sins may be forgiven." In the very act of the Eucharist, you will be a minister of forgiveness, as you offer up the Sacrifice of the Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.

This ministry of forgiveness will be applied to individual hearts by the Sacrament of Confession, which is the Sacrament of Penance, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Sacrament of Mercy.

This ministry of mercy was extremely important to the Risen Christ on that first Easter, when He said: "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive, are forgiven them; whose sins you retain are retained."

And so, both in the Eucharist and in Confession, your ministry expresses the victory of Jesus over sin, the victory whereby He purifies His people and frees them from the power of evil.

You yourselves will need the Sacrament of Penance, and it will be up to you to make it readily available to the people and to give them the example of your own lives of ongoing conversion. The humble recognition of your own weaknesses and sins must never be an excuse for ceasing to strive for holiness through a life of prayer and discipline.

You are convinced, in the words of the Letter to the Hebrews, that "Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins." And you are further convinced that every priest "is able to deal patiently with erring sinners, for he himself is beset by weakness and so must make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people."

Your priestly ministry requires both an understanding of human weakness and a resolute determination, with God’s help, to live a transparent life of holiness according to the Gospel. Your faithful observance of celibacy in all its aspects is absolutely imperative for your integrity of life, for the effectiveness of your ministry and for the honor of Christ’s Church.

In the Eucharist you will find the source of all your pastoral charity and the source of the joy that will be indispensable to your perseverance in the priesthood until death. Remember that the words of the Father spoken to Jesus will now apply to you: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."

Your life as a priest must be consistent; and everything you do must be related to the Eucharist that you celebrate:

-- over and over again you will proclaim the Gospel, but your proclamation of the Gospel will reach its culmination in the Eucharistic Sacrifice;

-- you will give yourself to teaching the faith, but those you teach will most effectively recognize and encounter Christ in the breaking of the bread;

-- you will devote yourself to the building of community, but every community is united and fully one only when it shares the Eucharist;

-- your pastoral love must always be with the poor, the sick, with sinners, with those in need of love and hope and consolation, but the strength of this pastoral love will come from your Eucharistic contact with the Risen Lord.

Remember how Jesus called His Apostles—Saint Mark tells us—first to be with Him, to experience His friendship, to know His love, to reflect on His teachings, and then to be sent out to proclaim the Gospel.

Dear brothers Ronald, Keith, John, Jaehwa, Michael, William and Stephen: This is your lot in life, your vocation: to be with Jesus and to be sent out to proclaim His Gospel. Alive in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church has many things to ask of you:

-- she asks fidelity in your personal life, fidelity to prayer, to the Liturgy of the Hours—which is part of the praise and worship of the Church;

-- she asks fidelity to the teachings of the Apostles as transmitted and interpreted by the living magisterium under the action of the Holy Spirit;

-- she asks for you to love and serve in the name of Christ: to love all the people whom you are called to minister to in the name of Jesus, to love especially your brother priests, to stay close to them, to support them and be supported by them.

-- the Church asks you to be just and courageous, merciful and chaste, and by your own life to proclaim these virtues to others.

-- the Church asks you to love Mary the Mother of Jesus and to learn constantly from her the mystery of her Son and the mystery of His Church.

And finally the Church asks you to trust—to trust in Jesus, to trust in the power of His Paschal Mystery, to trust in His strength. To trust that He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to fulfillment. To trust that all the weaknesses and sins of the world are not equal to the power of the living Christ, who says to you today: "Peace be with you .... As the Father has sent me, so I send you .... Receive the Holy Spirit."

Dear brothers: the People of God need you to exemplify and to proclaim total trust in the Christ who sends you, the Christ who loves you, the Christ whom you represent. And remember always that the Mother of Jesus will protect and sustain you until the end. Amen.