THE GOOD NEWS
ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN
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June 18, 2006 The Good News ...Feed My Sheep Ordination Homily My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: What a great joy it is to gather here tonight for this ordination ceremony! How thankful we should be to our good and loving God Who has called us. Daniel Letourneau, I congratulate you as you are about to be ordained a priest of Jesus Christ. I thank you for responding affirmatively to the call of God. I will speak to you further but first let me address others in this assembly. Lloyd and Delores Letourneau, parents of Dan, thank you for giving your son to the Church for ministry as a priest. Your good example, your prayers and your direction prepared him to hear and answer God’s call. I thank you and I congratulate you and your daughters and your entire family. I thank all the priests gathered here tonight. Many of you have directly assisted Dan in the discernment of his vocation and in his six years of formation. All of you have prayed for him and led your own congregations to do the same. Priests of this Archdiocese, you have now expressed your enthusiasm in welcoming Dan into the presbyterate. May we always work and pray and rejoice in the goodness of Jesus, the High Priest. It is He Who shares His eternal priesthood with us for the good of the Church and the salvation of souls. Brothers and sisters of this Archdiocese and visitors from other places, we are a people of faith. We believe in Jesus and we trust Him and we love Him. It is this belief, this trust, this love that gathers us and unites us for this ordination ceremony tonight. The story of the life of each priest, just as all other individual people, is unique. Each priest’s life is made up of countless stories of their call, their response and later, their experience as priests. As a very, very young priest - almost a hundred years ago - I experienced a moment that has always remained in the forefront of my memory. One cold, dark winter night in my very first priestly assignment, I was awakened by a phone call from a local hospital. Someone in the emergency room was asking for a Catholic priest. When I arrived, the director of the emergency room told me to go a particular room. I entered the designated room and introduced myself to the family gathered around the bed of the patient. It seemed as if the people were surprised at my presence so I asked who called for a priest and I was told none of them. Then the wife of the patient spoke up and said none of them were Catholic but she was glad I was there. Then she produced a holy card from the patient’s wallet. It had a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary on one side and the Memorare prayer on the other. Someone gave this card to him and he was fascinated by it. He read these words often and would say “Someday I will be a Catholic.” Yes, I said he will be a Catholic. In a few moments, I baptized him conditionally, anointed him and absolved him, blessed him with the crucifix of my rosary and read aloud the Memorare from his prayer card. Two hours after I left, the man died. The meeting and ceremony took only fifteen minutes but as I walked toward the exit, the (emergency room) director approached me and said: “Father, I’m sorry, I gave you the wrong information. The people who asked for you are down this other area and they are still waiting.” I went to that patient, who was not seriously ill, gave him a blessing and returned home. Was that a mistake when I was sent to the “wrong” room? Was it just a coincidence? Or was it Providential? In any event, I wasn’t the one personally needed. What was needed was a priest. A priest was needed to act in the Name of Jesus and to lead a dying pilgrim to our Father in heaven! In the most important moments of life, the priest, representing Jesus and acting in His Name and on His authority, brings to people the love, the mercy, the forgiveness and salvation of God. Daniel Letourneau, tonight, through the imposition of hands, you will be ordained a priest forever. You are to minister to God’s people in the very Name of Jesus. By obedient and faithful collaboration with your Archbishop, your priestly ministry will be both effective and fulfilling because you will seek to do the will and the work of God and not your own personal wishes, plans or agenda. The society in which we live highly extols self-esteem of the individual. As a priest you should seek to receive your esteem from your priestly unity with Jesus. You are not your own man. You are the man of God. The priest is ordained for the kingdom of God and the salvation of souls. Priesthood is a gift bestowed on the humanity of Jesus by the Father. As soon as the Word was made Flesh, the eternal God looked on His Son with infinite joy and approval. He acknowledged Him as the one Mediator between heaven and earth, a priest forever. Jesus proclaimed this truth frequently in the Scriptures. He also revealed that He would share His eternal priesthood with others as He sent His apostles to act in His Name, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Dan, in this ordination ceremony tonight, you are consecrated to God. Priests are consecrated as co-workers who offer to God oblations and sacrifices, prayers and worship, on behalf of the people. In return, God chooses priests to communicate to people His gifts of grace, of mercy and of pardon. When the eternal Son of God became Flesh, He took complete possession of this humanity. Thus the moment of the Incarnation was the moment Christ was marked as the one eternal Mediator between God and us. As Saint Paul says: “He was anointed with the oil of gladness” and “it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled and made higher than the heavens. (Hebrews 7:26) Until the end of time, priests on this earth will receive no power which is not a part of His. Jesus is the one source of the whole priesthood which glorifies God in the manner ordained by Him. Your priestly ordination gives you a share in this Divine, eternal priesthood of Jesus. As a priest, you are to serve your brothers and sisters as Jesus did. You will do this well only if you are truly united with Him. It was very insightful of you, therefore, to select the Gospel passage just proclaimed. In that Scripture, Saint John records one of Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances to His apostles. It includes that famous conversation between Jesus and Saint Peter. Jesus asks: “Simon, do you love Me?” Peter answers: “Yes, Lord.” A second time, Jesus asks and Peter responds. And yet a third time: “Do you love Me?” Three times Peter responds, then Jesus concludes this triple affirmation with the command: “Feed My Sheep!” The ordained priest as a minister of God fulfills his role only in union with Jesus. This union occurs only when we truly love God first and foremost. In your ordination tonight, Dan, God is asking you if you love Him. If your response is “Yes, Lord, You know that I do,” then Jesus says: “Feed My Sheep.” And you are a priest forever!
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