If we put into action what we believe, we will recognize Christ in all people. Jesus instructs us to love one another, to seek the good for one another without counting the cost: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
This is the task of every Christian, of all the baptized, and in particular the task of the parish priest.
The priest, united to Christ, lays down his life out of love for Christ and others. The priest seeks and finds the presence of Christ is every person, in every situation, in every circumstance, no exception.
The priesthood is not a “job” or “career.” The priesthood is a total surrender of oneself out of love.
The priest is aware he is a priest not because of his great abilities or personal merit, but because he has been called by God for a unique role in the Church.
God does not choose the ready, he makes ready the chosen. “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”
The priest goes to wherever he is sent to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ because wherever there are ears to listen, there the Gospel must be preached.
The priest surrenders his whole being to those he serves, not as a master, but as a friend.
The priest is an instrument of unity, aiding anyone wishing to grow closer to Christ. The priest’s task is not to get in the way between Jesus and his faithful, but to be a guide.
The priest is indispensable when it comes to celebrating the sacraments, but a specific priest is never indispensable. The Priesthood of Jesus Christ has existed before any priest alive today and it will continue to exist after every priest alive today is dead.
[excerpt from a past homily]
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