Consider what Christ had
said, “I no longer call you servants, I call you friends, I have chosen you. I
love you! A new commandment I give to you ‘Love one another’" and He even
said, “Whatever you ask will be given to
you.” My dear friends, God loves you in
a very special way with these ordinandi. It is like God saying, “See, how much
I love you, I am sending to you young priests who will teach you, who will
sanctify you, who will lead you, they are my gifts to you. These priests whom I
am giving you, they are the concrete expressions of my
love and if I am sending them to you, It is because I want that through them
you would love me even more.
You
have heard the Lord saying “ Whom shall I send? Whom shall I send to gather
people for my Kingdom. Whom shall I send to build up my Kingdom? And here you
are after so many years of formation, training and purification. And with the
grace of God you have stepped forward and said “Here I am, send me O Lord.”
He
knows who and what we are, He knows our
limitations, our capabilities, our weaknesses, yes also our strengths. He knows
our fears and our anxieties, yet he has drawn us. He had said “Come”, It is He
Himself who had given us the courage to
step forward and we remember what Jesus had said. “You have not chosen me but I
have chosen you.”
Holy
Orders provides mankind with ministers through whom divine life is infused into
the human society. Elevating it to that spirituality called the mystical Body
of Christ, incorporating man into the Society of God Himself. The human family
through the sacrament of Matrimony guarantees us that the number of those becoming the sons of
God grow. Just consider these young men to be ordained today, they came from
the very first society – the family. We thank you dear parents, the families of
our ordinandi for giving your sons to the Lord. I assure you there is no family
more fortunate than your family, for in giving your son, to the Lord especially to the priesthood, the Lord is as
if telling you, " I love your family in a very special way. You are
special to me.”
Priesthood is the sacrament that
gives power, that gives grace to the one who is ordained and to participate in
the priesthood of Christ’s power. What tremendous power
my dear friends, these young
men will be receiving after ordination. You will see them as ordinary people just
like you have seen them all these past days.
But by the imposition of our hands, by
the anointing of the Holy Spirit, these men will be transformed.
They
will be given tremendous powers especially the power to administer the
sacraments; the power to baptize and cleanse babies from original sin; the
power during the celebration of the Holy Mass to make Christ present; to make
Him very much alive; the power to liberate sinners from their sins; the power
to anoint those who are sick and dying; the power to preach the Word of God; to
feed the people. Yes, this is what you will be my dear ordinandi. Your identity
is very, very clear as you are to be ordained. You are Christ.