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ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN

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June 14, 2009

The Good News...

           ...Ordination Homily

        Ordinations to Priesthood
Cathedral of Our Lady
June 5, 2009

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

With great joy and with gratitude to Almighty God, we gather together here tonight for the ordination of two new priests.

William Lewis and Long Phan, I congratulate you and I welcome you and your parents, your families and friends to the Cathedral of Our Lady.  

You have both spent many years in prayer, study and various ministries discerning God’s call. I,    too, on behalf of the Church of this Archdiocese, have sought to fulfill the Lord’s Will with regard to your vocation. Tonight, therefore, with   confidence and joy, I shall ordain you through the traditional imposition of hands and the Power of the Holy Spirit. It is my conviction, along with yours, that the Lord Jesus is calling you to become His holy, Catholic priests. I said that you have both spent a long time preparing for ordination.  

Now, there are countless ways that people reckon time or measure  its passage. There are calendar years and fiscal years. There are school years, basketball seasons and other business, scholastic and sports times.  But here in Oklahoma — without even realizing it — we also have a Bible year!  

Because we have millions of acres planted in wheat and the annual wheat crop is important in our economy, even those of us who are not farmers or ranchers watch and observe the wheat phenomenon.  From the freshly plowed bright red soils receiving the wheat seed in September to the sparkling green blades shining forth through the snow and cold of winter to the rapid growth of springtime and the maturing and ripening of the golden waves in May and June, we watch and judge and comment. Is the weather right? Has there been enough rain? Did the hail damage the crop?

Throughout this whole annual cycle, we witness the fulfillment of the Scriptures’ example we just heard:  “Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (John 12:24)

William and Long, you have appropriately selected this Gospel passage for your ordination. In the years of your priesthood that lie  ahead of you, as you drive throughout Oklahoma, you will be reminded of this Scripture passage and I ask you to reflect on it constantly. It is more than just a pleasant thought or story.  This Bible verse reveals the plan of God for all His people reborn in baptism, but especially for both of you who are about to be ordained and the rest of us who are priests.

Our Catholic faith is founded and centered on the Person of Jesus. He is the eternal Son of God.  He is our Lord and Savior.  He is the High Priest.  

Almighty God, the Father Him-self, has established His Son Jesus as the eternal High Priest. Saint Paul, inspired to speak the Word of God, proclaims: “You are My Son, today I have fathered you. You are a priest forever.” (Heb. 5:4)

Priesthood is therefore a gift bestowed on the humanity of Jesus by the Father. In the very moment that God was made Flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Father looked upon His Son with infinite satisfaction. He acknowledged Jesus as the One Mediator between heaven and earth, a priest forever.  Priesthood is the Father’s divine gift to His Son Jesus and therefore human beings have no claim or right to priesthood.  Indeed, no one can take this honor upon himself. It requires a call from God.

William  and  Long,  tonight, through the Church, God is calling you to become His priests. He is inviting you to share in His ministry.  Just as on the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples to preach, to teach, to baptize, so does that same Spirit of God come to you tonight to ordain you and commission you as priests of Jesus Christ.

On this occasion, as your archbishop, ordaining you priests for the service of the Church of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, I ask you to reflect once more on the Gospel you yourselves selected for this Mass.

“Unless the grain of wheat dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.” You are the grains of wheat tonight. You must die to selfishness and sin.  

You must rise with the life of Jesus to Whom you are configured.  Each of you is to become another Christ.  Tonight you are consecrated  to God. This is what celibacy and priestly commitment are all about. It means that you freely, joyfully and totally unite yourselves to God forever.  But how can you make such a radical and permanent commitment? There is only one way. It is the way that Jesus tells us when He says love God first and foremost and your neighbor as yourself. Upon these two commandments is based the entire law and the prophets. It is all a matter of love of God.  

Priesthood must be modeled on the example of holiness that the great Doctor of the Church, Saint Therese of  Liseux, described when she said: “I have been called to love.” William  and Long, you are called by God to become His priests. Therefore, you must love God totally and completely.

In nature when the grain of wheat is planted in the ground, it changes radically as it receives the moisture and the nutrients needed to grow. It can rightly be said it dies unto itself as it is changed and grows and produces much fruit. So it is with the priest who, at ordination, gives himself totally to Christ. He dies unto himself and thus becomes an “alter Christus,” another Christ. From then on, the ministry of the priest must always be the ministry of Jesus working in and through him. We are not ordained to promote ourselves but to proclaim the Good News of Jesus which we can do only if we love God completely and are truly united with Jesus.        

Jesus came, as He said, to serve and not to be served. Indeed, all ministry  is  service  and  priestly ministry is the service of Jesus as accomplished through the instrumentality of the ordained priest.  The liberating proclamation of the Good News and the reality of the sacraments depend upon the power and grace of God. A priest then ministers to people in the Name of Jesus, in the Person of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The greatest human effort and work devoid of the love of God will amount to nothing lasting, nothing saving. Therefore, a priest, to be effective, must die to himself so that God works in and through him and produces much fruit.

William  and  Long,  tonight through the ministry of the Church and by the Grace of God, you will indeed be ordained priests. There-after, tomorrow and next week and next year and all the years of your lives, you must be men of prayer;  men who love God; men who are for the poor; men who work for justice and peace. You must always seek to serve and not to be served. You must strive daily to grow as good and holy and faithful and happy priests be-cause God says to each of you tonight:  “You are a priest forever.” (Hebrews 5:4)