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A Call to Holiness: The Priest's Role in a Parish First Homily in New Cluster
Homily Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish, Emmett, and later in Sacred Heart Parish, Yale, and Sacred Heart Mission, Brown City
Jesus Christ, the Lord and God, was crucified to redeem us, and Jesus Christ was risen from the dead to give us eternal life. This is my message to you today. I have met only a small number of you, but I think most of you knew that today I would begin my priestly ministry among you. I am Fr. Paul Ward, a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit. I have moved here from downtown Detroit, which rather contrasts the surrounding beauty of our rural setting. I have lived for a couple years in rural parts, when I lived in Spain. My seminary training led me, in fact, to live in Spain, Germany and Italy for many years of my life, enriching opportunities for which I am grateful to Providence. It may take me a while to get used to the fresh air of the days and the quiet of the nights! But I have not come among you to talk about myself. I have come to talk about Jesus the Lord. And so, naturally, the first thing a priest needs to ask himself when he begins his pastoral ministry at any parish is, “What am I trying to accomplish here?” For lots of activity with no clear goal is wasted time. And so I ask myself that same question. A priest does not come to behave as a social worker. A priest is not a referee. A priest is not a team captain. He is not the local branch manager of some big business. He is not the servant of the devil, the flesh or the world. He does not come so that people praise him or think well of him, to earn money or to eat well. When St. Paul came to the Corinthians, he said, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”[1] To the Galatians he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”[2] For I too have no other goal than to bring you to Christ, and to Christ crucified. I wish to help you become saints, in the ways that are proper to a priest, namely: the Eucharist, confession, the preaching of the Gospel, the discipline of the Church, and the serious exhortation to the living of all the virtues, shown us in the person of Jesus Christ. So who is this Christ? Who is this one who, in today’s reading[3] claims the authority to have disciples, and then to send them forth? Who is this one who puts such high demands on his followers, including homelessness, the abandonment of friends and family, and the sacrificing of everything just for him? We find the answer in the whole of the Bible, for both the old and the new testament are all about him. But we can find a very concise answer in the Creed, which we pray every Sunday and on other select occasions. Jesus Christ is Yahweh, he is the Lord, the Son of God who is consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is the eternal Word, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virginal womb of Mary, the Mother of God. He is the one who created each one of us personally, and, to save us when we had earned our damnation by sin, he became man, yes, “For us and for our salvation.” He rose from the dead, conquering sin forever. And he established a Church, one Church, the Catholic Church, as the inexhaustible means for us to get to heaven. This is what the Catholic Church is about: Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls. This is what this parish is about: Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls. Now, when the priest steps into the midst of the assembly, and he takes bread and wine, and he says, “this is my body,” it is not his body, but Jesus’ body. By the sacrament of Holy Orders, he can speak in God’s name, and make the bread and wine become God. When he absolves, he says, “I absolve you from your sins,” and it is not that man who absolves you of your sins, but God who does so. By the sacrament of Holy Orders, he can speak in God’s name, and bind or loose. For these and more reasons, a priest may truthfully be called, “another Christ,” for indeed he is; not that he is a second Christ beside Jesus, but through his priesthood Jesus is present even visibly, if mysteriously, in his Church. This is the principle that is to define the relationship of each person to a priest, and even one priest to another. But it requires faith to see, not faith in man, but faith in God and in his seven sacraments. Let our relationship be one, then, defined by the holiness of life to which each one of us is called, and the role that a priest plays in pursuing that goal. And with the exhortation to holiness, I finish my first homily with you.
To my great mortification, and by request of my pastor, I omit:
I have one explanation to offer for today’s Mass. Today, and whenever I celebrate Mass, I usually offer communion under one species, which has been the practice of the Church for many centuries even to the oldest times. I offer communion in this way for several reasons, but for now I wish to present to you only the most obvious one, and it is a concern of health. You know that only the priest or deacon may purify the vessels after communion. Purifying the vessels means consuming the remainder of the precious blood or of the particles of the host. This is a reserved act, because it involves giving oneself holy communion. I have found that when after communion I receive the remainders of the chalices which are distributed to the congregation, there is not only the precious blood, but plenty of saliva, lipstick, eyelashes, and other unidentified floating objects in the precious blood. This has posed, shall I say, an objective challenge to my health. It is even a threat to the health of all at large; you know that occasionally in the world, bishops prohibit drinking from the chalice, either indefinitely or for a period of time, and in certain regions, when epidemics break out. It is no sin to receive from the cup, but the health risks are too high. Those extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion who help with only the hosts should come up at the proper time as is your custom. Yet you know that there is no difference between receiving the host alone, or the host and the precious blood – notice, I do not say “wine,” but rather “precious blood.” For in every crumb of the host, each person receives the entire body, blood, soul and divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If you receive half a host, you have not received half of Jesus, but all of him. And you loose nothing, absolutely nothing, by refraining from drinking his precious blood. So, those who are properly disposed, come at communion time, and enter into communion with your crucified God, and let your hearts burn with love for God and neighbor. Amen. |