This is the first year since Archbishop Lucas imposed hands on my hand and ordained me a priest of Jesus Christ that I have not concelebrated or ministered at the Chrism Mass with the Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. But it is also the first year that I have concelebrated the Chrism Mass with the Bishop of Rome.
Today the priests entered the Vatican Basilica through the famed Bronze Doors and vested in the long hallway just inside. As we were vested, someone came over a loudspeaker to announce that there was no need for us to jostle our way forward because a "bella posta," a beautiful spot, was prepared for each of us. At least for me and the priest I accompanied, the man could not know how true his words proved to be:
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| Taken from my chair before the beginning of the Chrism Mass |
In his homily, His Holiness Pope Francis spoke of the "littleness" of the priest, a littleness which I have often experienced and am particularly feeling at this moment (I will try to post more on this later today or tomorrow morning) and priestly joy, the text of which follows,
via Vatican Radio, with my
emphases:
Dear Brother Priests,
In the eternal “today” of Holy Thursday, when
Christ showed his love for us to the end (cf. Jn 13:1), we recall the
happy day of the institution of the priesthood, as well as the day of
our own priestly ordination. The Lord anointed us in Christ with the
oil of gladness, and this anointing invites us to accept and appreciate
this great gift: the gladness, the joy of being a priest. Priestly joy
is a priceless treasure, not only for the priest himself but for the
entire faithful people of God: that faithful people from which he is
called to be anointed and which he, in turn, is sent to anoint.
Anointed with the oil of gladness so as to anoint others with the oil of
gladness. Priestly joy has its source in the Father’s love, and the
Lord wishes the joy of this Love to be “ours” and to be “complete” (Jn
15:11). I like to reflect on joy by contemplating Our Lady, for Mary,
the “Mother of the living Gospel, is a wellspring of joy for God’s
little ones” (Evangelii Gaudium, 288). I do not think it is an
exaggeration to say that priest is very little indeed: the incomparable
grandeur of the gift granted us for the ministry sets us among the least
of men. The priest is the poorest of men unless Jesus enriches him by
his poverty, the most useless of servants unless Jesus calls him his
friend, the most ignorant of men unless Jesus patiently teaches him as
he did Peter, the frailest of Christians unless the Good Shepherd
strengthens him in the midst of the flock. No one is more “little” than
a priest left to his own devices; and so our prayer of protection
against every snare of the Evil One is the prayer of our Mother: I am a
priest because he has regarded my littleness (cf. Lk 1:48). And in that
littleness we find our joy.
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| At the conclusion of the Chrism Mass, Pope Francis prays the Ave, Regina caelorum. |
For me, there are three significant
features of our priestly joy. It is a joy which anoints us (not one
which “greases” us, making us unctuous, sumptuous and presumptuous), it
is a joy which is imperishable and it is a missionary joy which spreads
and attracts, starting backwards – with those farthest away from us.
A joy which anoints us. In a word: it has penetrated deep within our
hearts, it has shaped them and strengthened them sacramentally. The
signs of the ordination liturgy speak to us of the Church’s maternal
desire to pass on and share with others all that the Lord has given us:
the laying on of hands, the anointing with sacred chrism, the clothing
with sacred vestments, the first consecration which immediately follows…
Grace fills us to the brim and overflows, fully, abundantly and
entirely in each priest. We are anointed down to our very bones… and
our joy, which wells up from deep within, is the echo of this anointing.
An imperishable joy. The fullness of the Gift, which no one can take
away or increase, is an unfailing source of joy: an imperishable joy
which the Lord has promised no one can take from us (Jn 16:22). It can
lie dormant, or be clogged by sin or by life’s troubles, yet deep down
it remains intact, like the embers of a burnt log beneath the ashes, and
it can always be renewed. Paul’s exhortation to Timothy remains ever
timely: I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God that is within
you through the laying on of my hands (cf. 2 Tim 1:6).
A missionary
joy. I would like especially to share with you and to stress this third
feature: priestly joy is deeply bound up with God’s holy and faithful
people, for it is an eminently missionary joy. Our anointing is meant
for anointing God’s holy and faithful people: for baptizing and
confirming them, healing and sanctifying them, blessing, comforting and
evangelizing them.
And since this joy is one which only springs up
when the shepherd is in the midst of his flock (for even in the silence
of his prayer, the shepherd who worships the Father is with his sheep),
it is a “guarded joy”, watched over by the flock itself. Even in those
gloomy moments when everything looks dark and a feeling of isolation
takes hold of us, in those moments of listlessness and boredom which at
times overcome us in our priestly life (and which I too have
experienced), even in those moments God’s people are able to “guard”
that joy; they are able to protect you, to embrace you and to help you
open your heart to find renewed joy.
A “guarded joy”: one guarded by
the flock but also guarded by three sisters who surround it, tend it
and defend it: sister poverty, sister fidelity and sister obedience.
Priestly joy is a joy which is sister to poverty. The priest is poor
in terms of purely human joy. He has given up so much! And because he
is poor, he, who gives so much to others, has to seek his joy from the
Lord and from God’s faithful people. He doesn’t need to try to create
it for himself. We know that our people are very generous in thanking
priests for their slightest blessing and especially for the sacraments.
Many people, in speaking of the crisis of priestly identity, fail to
realize that identity presupposes belonging. There is no identity – and
consequently joy of life – without an active and unwavering sense of
belonging to God’s faithful people (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 268). The
priest who tries to find his priestly identity by soul-searching and
introspection may well encounter nothing more than “exit” signs, signs
that say: exit from yourself, exit to seek God in adoration, go out and
give your people what was entrusted to you, for your people will make
you feel and taste who you are, what your name is, what your identity
is, and they will make you rejoice in that hundredfold which the Lord
has promised to those who serve him. Unless you “exit” from yourself,
the oil grows rancid and the anointing cannot be fruitful. Going out
from ourselves presupposes self-denial; it means poverty.
Priestly
joy is a joy which is sister to fidelity. Not primarily in the sense
that we are all “immaculate” (would that by God’s grace we were!), for
we are sinners, but in the sense of an ever renewed fidelity to the one
Bride, to the Church. Here fruitfulness is key. The spiritual children
which the Lord gives each priest, the children he has baptized, the
families he has blessed and helped on their way, the sick he has
comforted, the young people he catechizes and helps to grow, the poor he
assists… all these are the “Bride” whom he rejoices to treat as his
supreme and only love and to whom he is constantly faithful. It is the
living Church, with a first name and a last name, which the priest
shepherds in his parish or in the mission entrusted to him. That
mission brings him joy whenever he is faithful to it, whenever he does
all that he has to do and lets go of everything that he has to let go
of, as long as he stands firm amid the flock which the Lord has
entrusted to him: Feed my sheep (cf. Jn 21:16,17).
Priestly joy is a
joy which is sister to obedience. An obedience to the Church in the
hierarchy which gives us, as it were, not simply the external framework
for our obedience: the parish to which I am sent, my ministerial
assignments, my particular work … but also union with God the Father,
the source of all fatherhood. It is likewise an obedience to the Church
in service: in availability and readiness to serve everyone, always and
as best I can, following the example of “Our Lady of Promptness” (cf.
Lk 1:39, meta spoudes), who hastens to serve Elizabeth her kinswoman and
is concerned for the kitchen of Cana when the wine runs out. The
availability of her priests makes the Church a house with open doors, a
refuge for sinners, a home for people living on the streets, a place of
loving care for the sick, a camp for the young, a classroom for
catechizing children about to make their First Communion… Wherever
God’s people have desires or needs, there is the priest, who knows how
to listen (ob-audire) and feels a loving mandate from Christ who sends
him to relieve that need with mercy or to encourage those good desires
with resourceful charity.
All who are called should know that
genuine and complete joy does exist in this world: it is the joy of
being taken from the people we love and then being sent back to them as
dispensers of the gifts and counsels of Jesus, the one Good Shepherd
who, with deep compassion for all the little ones and the outcasts of
this earth, wearied and oppressed like sheep without a shepherd, wants
to associate many others to his ministry, so as himself to remain with
us and to work, in the person of his priests, for the good of his
people.
On this priestly Thursday I ask the Lord Jesus to enable
many young people to discover that burning zeal which joy kindles in our
hearts as soon as we have the stroke of boldness needed to respond
willingly to his call.
On this priestly Thursday I ask the Lord
Jesus to preserve the joy sparkling in the eyes of the recently ordained
who go forth to devour the world, to spend themselves fully in the
midst of God's faithful people, rejoicing as they prepare their first
homily, their first Mass, their first Baptism, their first confession…
It is the joy of being able to share with wonder, and for the first time
as God’s anointed, the treasure of the Gospel and to feel the faithful
people anointing you again and in yet another way: by their requests, by
bowing their heads for your blessing, by taking your hands, by bringing
you their children, by pleading for their sick… Preserve, Lord, in
your young priests the joy of going forth, of doing everything as if for
the first time, the joy of spending their lives fully for you.
On
this priestly Thursday I ask the Lord Jesus to confirm the priestly joy
of those who have already ministered for some years. The joy which,
without leaving their eyes, is also found on the shoulders of those who
bear the burden of the ministry, those priests who, having experienced
the labours of the apostolate, gather their strength and rearm
themselves: “get a second wind”, as the athletes say. Lord, preserve
the depth, wisdom and maturity of the joy felt by these older priests.
May they be able to pray with Nehemiah: “the joy of the Lord is my
strength” (cf. Neh 8:10).
Finally, on this priestly Thursday I ask
the Lord Jesus to make better known the joy of elderly priests, whether
healthy or infirm. It is the joy of the Cross, which springs from the
knowledge that we possess an imperishable treasure in perishable earthen
vessels. May these priests find happiness wherever they are; may they
experience already, in the passage of the years, a taste of eternity
(Guardini). May they know the joy of handing on the torch, the joy of
seeing new generations of their spiritual children, and of hailing the
promises from afar, smiling and at peace, in that hope which does not
disappoint.
I was able to take another photograph of Pope Francis as he made his way back to the sacristy:
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