My dear friends, this is
the call to ministry within the church. I would like to underline what I’m
going to say now. Ministry in the church is the ministry which enables the
church to become truly a community of Christ’s disciples. A community of faith,
hope and love. The ultimate reality brought into being by the sacrament of
the Eucharist is the Unitas Corporis Christi, the oneness in the love of the body of Christ
which is the Church.
Each
day as we gather around the table of the
Lord, the Lord tells us in the Eucharist what we are meant to be – the
community of his disciples bound together in love and faith. St. Augustine
says, “be what you see, receive what you are –the body of Christ.” If only we
could understand this, if only we could realize it! Our ministry towards one
another in the church is meant to create among us communion and participation.
We are meant to share ourselves, our gifts and our responsibilities as brothers
and sisters in discipleship.
The priests in the christian community, have two
roles. One is the functional, and the other is symbolic.
The priest by function is called to be the leader of the christian community.
To be the minister of each unity in the common life of faith, hope and love.
He is in his own person
given a symbolic task. It is fulfilled most deeply and fully in his role as
leader of the community in its worship as presider over the community’s
celebration of the Eucharist. There above all, he acts in Persona Christi, a “standing in” visibly for the invisible head.
The priest is the symbolic presence of Christ
He is minister of each
unity, he is responsible for the many ways of that unity to be achieved. He is
called for a true sharing of gifts, of tasks, of responsibilities within the
community. He is like an orchestra conductor holding the ‘baton’ --
coordinating, collaborating, making people cooperate, communicate to one
another so that the talents, the gifts, the charisms of the lay people and of
all would all be towards the building of Christ’s church.
The tasks of the priest is a ministry of enabling, of
empowering especially of the lay. He is
in the words of St. Paul: “called to equip God’s people to be able to work in
His service for the building of the body of Christ.” (Eph.4,11) This is the
priest’s special ministry. Because of the priest’s tasks to enable the koinonia to be real within the
community.
The ministry within the
Church summons us to become truly One body, One community of faith and
discipleship in Christ, to become his body in the world. Our oneness is that we
may in fact be the Eucharistic Res
Sacramenti, the one true Body of Christ in the world – the church!
Do
this in remembrance of me. Be what you see, become what you receive. Become the
Body of Christ given for the life of the world. Make the world into Eucharist.
This is the Christian vocation itself to which the Eucharist calls us.