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I WILL arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants." [Lk 15:18-19]

Artist: Victor Luciano Rebuffo

(1903-1983)

Buenos Aires, Argentina

FIRST MASS _[1]

CHRIST, HIGH PRIEST

1. I reflect about many things when I pray with God's Word. Some are the private sort and would not be appropriate for a homily. Moreover, every Bible verse seems to contain a homily within itself and one has to choose.

2. Human beings, like little lambs, are God's creation. God created us, we did not create God.^[2] No person has power to present himself before God with or without sin. Sinners and righteous souls alike need a high priest to bring them before God and to mediate on their behalf before the Divine Mercy. Our high priest is Jesus Christ, and it is he who has won for us a hearing before God his Father.

CRY FOR DELIVERANCE

3. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we sin. Sometimes we become lost with no human hope of finding our way back to shelter and peace. When ordinary eyesight fails and darkness consumes human mortality, we cry out instinctively for help. In our heart of hearts, we know that we are powerless to answer our own cries and save ourselves. We are made to cry outward and upward for the comfort and help we desperately need.

4. Out of human nature, fallen as it is, emerges the wordless conviction that the primordial human cry is not a song of death but rather a cry of profound hope for deliverance--precisely because there exists someone who can deliver us! That someone, that deliverer is Jesus Christ the son of the eternal Father. If we as Christians bend the knee at the name of Jesus, if we are not afraid to implore him in prayer and supplication, our Lord will leave everything and risk everything to bring us back to him.

PRODIGAL SON'S BROTHER

5. No "desert land", no "howling waste of wilderness" can deter our Saviour from encircling us, caring for us and keeping us "as the apple of his eye". [Deu 32:10] The scriptures today tell the familiar story. I was lost, but because I didn't know what I was doing in my unbelief, I have been treated mercifully. The grace of our Lord has been granted me in overflowing measure. [cf. 1Tim 1:13-14] It is the Good Shepherd who rescued me.

6. The story of the Prodigal Son is probably the most well-known of all of the parables in the Gospels. What about the prodigal son's brother? Dom Helder Pessoa Camara, Archbishop of Recife and Olinda in northeast Brazil, met many persons over the years who mirrored the spiritual and behavioral posture of the elder brother. Addressing the question Which one of the brothers is closer to salvation? (conversely, Which of the two souls is in greater peril?), the archbishop wrote: "I pray incessantly for the conversion of the prodigal son’s brother. Ever in my ear rings the dread warning. 'The one has awoken from his life of sin. When will the other awaken from his virtue?'"^[3]

"THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT"

7. Many shepherds in our communities and in our nation, in secular and religious positions, are faithless to those they claim to serve. They feed themselves rather than their sheep. [cf. Eze 34:1-6] You can smell these faithless shepherds, and it is not the aroma of the sheepshed I am talking about. A little girl wrote, "Smells are things to know about. When people do good things they smell sweet. When they do bad things, they don't smell sweet at all. Dogs know about this." ^[5]

8. One day I must answer to God for my stewardship as your priest. It is the Lord who feeds his sheep with justice. Let it never be said, Ninety-nine sheep came in search of a shepherd but Father Barker was nowhere to be found.

TOWERING FIGURE

9. When I reflect about the woman and her lost coin, I think how gifted women are at searching diligently and retrieving what is lost and valuable. I know very many women today who form the backbone of the local Church and its ministries. At our large parish, as in every parish in the country, they assist the Church out of their means--just like the women did for Jesus. The women of Jerusalem stood vigil at the foot of the cross when all seemed lost on Calvary.

10. Mary Magdalene, from whom seven devils had been cast out, came to Jesus' empty tomb in the early morning on the third day. Not comprehending the miracle at first, she nevertheless searched for what was lost, her Saviour. By God's grace, she became the first witness to the resurrection. My mother, like yours perhaps, is a towering figure of faith in my life. Like great spiritual women and saints of past generations, she salutes from afar the second coming of Christ and the day of her own birth into eternity. My mother has birthed me twice, the first time December 22, (Year) and the second, only yesterday September 12, 1992 when she helped to clothe me in priestly vestments when I received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. She always will be my "first witness" in the mysteries of faith.

STRONG HANDS

11. When I reflect on the parable of the generous and loving Father, I think of my father's strong hands. The wrinkles, veins, old scars and new tell me who he is and often what he's done. To this day, I can point out to you where one day many years ago, he caught a baseball the hard way. It's not uncommon for me to see him sporting a fresh cut or bruise as a souvenir of his latest skirmish with a water pump, restoring an old handsaw, or the backyard fence he's rebuilding. He has a firm handshake and an iron grip--

"NO, IT'S not given to sons to know everything of their fathers--or human beings to know everything of God--mercifully perhaps--but I have in my fathers' hands the evidence of the obligations he met, the sweat he gave, the honest deeds he performed. I like to think that I can look at those hands and read the better part of his heart." ^[6]

12. My father's hands and heart tell me something of God's open arms, his generosity, and his covenant faithfulness. Personal responsibility and social commitment are important values and take on special significance with respect to the virtue of humility. I never felt these more strongly than yesterday when I lay prostrate on the floor as the Litany of the Saints was sung.

"ALWAYS REMEMBER"

13. Last week, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza invited me to his office to talk about the Sacrament of Holy Orders and to ask, Are you ready? In the course of the conversation, he said Always remember who you are—as a priest and as a man. Although the archbishop's exhortation was informal—it did not carry the weight of sacramental priestly vows—it nevertheless tacitly presumed a pledge on my part to be worthy of the Church’s trust.

14. As I knelt before my archbishop for the imposition of hands and anointing with chrism in the Sacrament of Holy Orders, I made his advice my interior prayer and my personal promise to God. In the ordination rite, the Bishop offered me the paten and chalice to be used for the holy sacrifice—already prepared with bread and wine—and charged me to: "Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him. Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross." ^[4]

HOLY PEOPLE

15. With these words, the Bishop instructed me that, in priestly ordination, Holy Mother Church does not merely introduce the ordinand to its laity. In point of fact, the Church entrusts the new priest to her children—“the holy people of God”—and empowers them to welcome him in the name of Christ. The newly ordained priest, for his part, is entrusted by the Church to receive their gifts properly. By consecrating bread and wine in their midst, a priest leads God's holy people into the mysteries of salvation.

16. Hence, my archbishop's challenge to me to respect my manhood and priesthood always finds its meaning in the context of self-less giving, personal holiness, maturing in the mind of Christ [1Cor 2:16], fruitful transformation, and homage to the transcendent. The experience of priesthood teaches me the importance of having a strong, priestly identity, loving the Pope and the Church’s heirarchy, the salvation and care of souls, and the two-fold image of father and groom.

COVENANT BOND

17. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a new priest enters into the heart of the nuptial covenant between Christ and his Church. Conforming himself to the high priesthood of Our Lord [cf. Heb 4:14-16], he bears the image of Christ as divine groom. St. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, proposes a remarkable theology of marriage. The lawful marriage of man and woman most perfectly images the covenant relationship enjoyed by Christ and the Church. Moreover, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass encompasses both the redemptive and nuptial character of God's love for his people.

18. This is to say that the covenant unity between man and woman can only be understood and fulfilled in the context of Christ as groom and Church as bride. Both covenant relationships are of one essence in Christ, and the marriage bond of each is indissoluble. Although St. Paul corresponds with the Ephesians to strengthen their understanding of the sanctity of marriage [cf Eph 5:21-33], we may properly examine these verses to interpret how the priest, imaging Christ the groom, relates to the Church.

NUPTIAL VOWS

19. As groom, the priest submits himself to the Church out of reverence for Christ. [cf. Eph 5:21] The priest loves the Bride of Christ and gives himself up for her. [cf. Eph 5:25] His is the ministry of sacramental cleansing and the proclamation of God’s holy Word. [cf. Eph 5:26] Through the priest, Christ acts to sanctify his Bride and clothe her with the righteous deeds of the saints before she is presented at the marriage feast. [Rev 19:7-9] The priest should love the Bride as he does his own body, for as Sacred Scripture says: "He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church." [Eph 5:28-29]

20. The promises of priestly ordination are nuptial vows uniting the priest in Christ to his Bride the Church. The priest unites himself to the Church in the image of Christ her spouse. The nuptial unity is nothing less than oneness--a covenantal, spiritual solidarity for which the priest gladly leaves his mother, father and possessions. "This (nuptial) mystery is a profound one", writes St. Paul, "and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church." [Eph 5:32] Therefore the priest’s prodigal, self-less love of the Church encourages the Church's members to know and respect her Groom. [cf. Eph 5:33]

LORD WHO DANCES

21. The priesthood is not a transparency layered over every so-called life-style, every way of life, every choice. Still less is it co-equal with the Word of the World. Nor may anyone view priesthood as a contemporary veneer by which one or many may gloss over the sins of the people. A Catholic priest images the groomship of Christ and the fatherhood of God. His priestly ministry is to manifest God's righteousness and to make present covenant of Christ before his people as a "light to the nations". [Isa 42:6] Christ our Light reveals and makes known and judges with desert-clarity what Christians do, who Christians are, and that which Christians are not.

22. Let us remember that our God rejoices! It is the Lord who dances in jubilation before the angels of heaven over the conversion of even one repentent sinner. Every time we celebrate Holy Eucharist (Gk. "thanksgiving"), the source and summit of our worship,^[7] we are renewed by the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the figure of the woman, and the image of his Father's hands. He caught sight of us when we were still a long way off and today welcomes us back to life in this holy hour. "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen." [1Tim 1:17]

^[1] September 13, 1992: Cycle C /Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time /Exo 32:7-11, 13-14 /1Tim 1:12-17 /Lk 15:1-32.

^[2] Cf Mikloshazy, Bishop Attila, "Creation, Anthropology and Sin" SAT2321F notes, St. Augustine Seminary, Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto, Fall 1989.

^[3] Dom Helder Pessoa Camara (Aug. 29, 1962), qtd. in "A Prophet's Vision and Grace - The Life of Dom Helder Camara", by Vicki Kemper with Larry Engel, Sojourners Magazine v.16, no.11, Dec 1987.

^[4] THE RITES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, "Ordination of a Priest", v. 2, no. 26 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991) 46.

^[5] Paul Bussard ed., THE NEW CATHOLIC TREASURY OF WIT AND HUMOR (New York: Meredith Press, 1968) 154.

^[6] Larry L. King, "The Old Man", in SONS ON FATHERS, A BOOK OF MEN'S WRITING, ed. Ralph Keyes (New York: HarperColllins, 1992) 297.

^[7] VATICAN COUNCIL II, Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 10 (1963). "Nevertheless the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the fount from which all her power flows. For the goal of the apostolic endeavor is that all who are made sons of God by faith and baptism should come together to praise God in the midst of his Church, to take part in the Sacrifice and to eat the Lord's Supper."

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