THE GOOD NEWS
ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN
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May 30, 2010 The Good News... ...Homily for 50th Anniversary OLOG Catholic Youth Camp My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: It is very humbling to hear the words of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, greeting me through his kind and thoughtful letter. He has written, as you just heard, on the occasion of my 50th jubilee of ordination to the priesthood which we are celebrating today. Whether by plan or by chance, the Holy Father actually signed the letter on April 20, exactly 32 years to the day I was ordained a Bishop in Tulsa! A priest, as the Holy Father just told us, is appointed a minister of divine grace, love and mercy. A priest is the servant of God who ministers to God’s people. Thus for me some 50 years ago and for young men today, the call of God to priesthood was and is both humbling and mysterious. God alone is eternal. He alone has no beginning because He is life itself. He has created everything else that exists. The crowning glory of His creation is the human person because He created human beings in His own Image and Likeness. He created us out of love and made us capable to receive His love and to love Him in return. God gave each of us the gift of life when, according to His plan, He created us through the cooperation of our mother and our father. We did not purchase our life nor did we earn it or in any way bring it about. Human life is an absolute gift from God created by Him for a purpose. The Divine Plan for us is to know, love and serve God on this earth so that someday we could live with Him forever in heaven. Through this simple but profound plan of God and His creative action, human beings possess an intrinsic value and an inherent dignity. When sin entered our world, God further revealed His plan for us. He said: “I will send My Son and He will save you.” This promise of salvation was fulfilled when Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the High Priest of the Universe, after living, suffering and dying on this earth, rose from the dead. Then, the Church which He had constituted and which He had sanctified with His Holy Spirit was born as the priestly people of God. From this new creation of God’s priestly people, the mission and ministry of Jesus is proclaimed to the whole world. Through baptism, people of all backgrounds, cultures and na-tions share in this priesthood and life of Jesus. And by the institution of Jesus, some of His people are also called to the ministerial priesthood. Thus they are ordained so that they might serve Him by serving and leading all people to life everlasting in heaven through the proclamation of the Gospel and the celebration of the sacraments. As one of those called to be ordained to priesthood, I stand humbly and gratefully before the Lord and before all of you who are joining me today for my golden jubilee celebration. I thank you for your presence here today and for all your many kindnesses and assistance to me over this long period of time. It has been a time of great blessing and much joy. As I briefly reflect on the past, I remember that Saturday morning, May 14, 1960, at Christ the King Cathedral in Atlanta, Ga. After eight years of seminary formation, I knelt before my bishop who, through the imposition of hands, ordained me a priest of Jesus Christ. That ordination ceremony ratified the call I had received from God. I stood up an ordained priest of God by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit. I was still the same energetic, skinny young man that I had been before, but now I was a priest of God forever. Little did I know then that 18 years later, again through the same biblical gesture, I would receive the fullness of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. How absolutely grateful I am to God Who called me to the priesthood. I thank Him for the wonderful 50 years of priesthood He has already given me and recommit myself to continuing priestly service for whatever days and years He grants me for I am a priest forever. |