The Heart of the Priesthood
It does not seem possible that 15 years ago we celebrated our 25th anniversary as the Diocese of Palm Beach. The theme for the celebration was 25 Years, a Eucharistic People. As we now come to our 40th anniversary, Oct. 24, the same theme is true for who we are as a Diocese: 40 Years, a Eucharistic People. As we celebrate Priesthood Sunday on this weekend of Sept. 29, on behalf of all of us, I wish to express gratitude to our wonderful priests of our diocesan family for the ministry they carry out, especially in regard to their celebration of the Eucharist for us.
The Eucharist is essential to the life of a priest. To celebrate the Eucharist is the reason that a priest is ordained and, as Pope Francis said to newly ordained priests last year, being a priest is part of a Eucharistic adventure. So many bishops and priests recently expressed how the Eucharistic Congress this year reminded them of the celebration of the Eucharist as the centrality of who they are as priests.
A priest’s very heart is Eucharistic. When he is ordained, the priest is configured to Christ in a unique manner so that he is able to act in the very Person of Christ, most especially in the Eucharist. Through ordination, a priest relates to Christ and to the Church in a new way, and this relationship alters his very being. It is appropriate to say that at ordination a priest acquires a new heart, a new center of being, which is Eucharistic. His way of life and his relationship to Christ and to His Church flow to and from the Eucharistic action of Christ, which he is privileged to celebrate. The words spoken to him by the bishop at ordination, when he receives the bread and wine to be offered in the Eucharist, reflect this new heart and way of being: “Receive the oblation of the holy people to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.”
The more the priest identifies himself with the words of Christ at the Last Supper, the more his heart becomes the heart of Christ. The presence of Christ will always come about through the priest’s uttering Christ’s words, “This is my Body given up for you. ... This is the cup of my Blood poured out for you.” However, as these words become the very words of the priest himself, he personally grows in his relationship to Christ and in his priestly identity. This is a unique and lifelong process that permeates every aspect of the priest’s daily ministry.
The celebration of the Eucharist is the foundation and most important part of the priest’s life and day. On the occasion of his 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood, St. Pope John Paul II stated how the Eucharist is the heart of the priest’s daily existence. He wrote, “The priest, in his daily celebration of the Eucharist, goes to the very heart of this mystery. For this reason, the celebration of the Eucharist must be the most important moment of the priest’s day, the center of his life.”
St. Pope John XXIII gave us a wonderful encyclical on the priesthood on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars. It reflected his own priestly spirituality and gives a summary of that of St. John Mary Vianney as a model for priests. The pope stressed that the Curé’s celebration of the Eucharist was indeed the heart of his priesthood. He expounded, “But we too hope to say something worthwhile in this matter by showing the principal reason why the holy Curé of Ars, who, as befits a hero, was most careful in fulfilling his priestly duties, really deserves to be proposed to those who have the care of souls as a model of outstanding virtue and to be honored by them as a heavenly patron. If it is obviously true that a priest receives his priesthood so as to serve at the altar and that he enters upon his office by offering the Eucharistic sacrifice, then it is equally true that, for as long as he lives as God’s minister, the Eucharistic sacrifice will be the source and origin of the holiness that he attains and of the apostolic activity to which he devotes himself. All of these things came to pass in the fullest possible way in the case of St. John Vianney.”
On this Priesthood Sunday, we realize even more deeply the gift of our priests, who give us the Eucharist. Let us express our gratitude to all of our priests in the Diocese of Palm Beach for giving their priestly hearts in such a generous manner to the service of God’s people. May the Eucharist continue to strengthen and nourish the hearts of all of us as we soon celebrate our 40th anniversary as a diocesan family, being A Eucharistic People.
Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito
