Homily of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See

Ordination of 36 Legionaries of Christ

San Giovanni in Laterano. December 10, 2016

Unofficial translation of the original Italian text

Dear brothers and sisters:

The path that has led these ordinands here today, coming from various countries, has a single origin: the fact of being seekers of God, of having been seduced by Him, as the prophet Jeremiah said: “You have seduced me, Lord, and I was seduced! You have overpowered me, and you have prevailed!” (Jer 20:7); the fact of having allowed Christ Jesus to reach them, like the apostle Paul (cf. Phil 3:12); the fact of having wanted to put Christ in the first place in their lives, as Saint Benedict exhorted in his rule: “Nihil amori Christi praeponere (Nothing before the love of Christ)” (IV, 21).

We are grateful to the Lord who has called them and also to those who have helped them reach this step: their families and the parish communities from which they come, and the religious institute of the Legionaries of Christ, particularly the formators.

I am pleased to remember all of you and to express my greetings and gratitude also to those present: bishops, priests, religious, and the faithful who, with their presence, contribute to making our celebration solemn and joyful.

Dear ordinands, you are consecrated to the Lord to be missionaries of the Gospel among the people. It is the Holy Spirit who, through the imposition of hands and anointing, enables you for service as ministers of the Lord in the midst of God’s people, so that every believer can encounter Christ through the proclamation of the Word that saves, through the celebration of the Sacraments (which are the effective signs of His presence, transforming and sanctifying us), and through that pastoral charity that must animate every moment of your lives, as Saint John Paul II wrote in Pastore Dabo Vobis: “The inner principle, the virtue that animates and guides the spiritual life of the priest as configured with Christ Head and Shepherd is pastoral charity… that virtue with which we imitate Christ in His self-giving and service. It is not only what we do, but the giving of ourselves that shows Christ’s love for His flock” (n. 23).

The words with which the prophet Isaiah expresses awareness of his mission now take on a particular meaning for you: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me” (Is 61:1), as we heard in the first reading. The true protagonist of the action we are performing is the Holy Spirit of the Lord, who soon will consecrate you with an intimate and ineffable anointing so that you become living instruments of the one Shepherd, so that you can participate, in a special way, in the priesthood of Christ, and act in His name. It is God who consecrates you with His anointing, it is God who sends you “to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim a year of grace from the Lord” (Is 61:1-2), to be a transparent sign of His faithful and merciful love that never tires of seeking each of His children, that never gives up in the face of indifference and the hardness of lost and confused hearts.

In the second reading, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, we heard: “The high priest is taken from among men and appointed to intervene on behalf of men in everything that pertains to God’s service” (Heb 5:1). The sacred author emphasizes the common nature of the priest and of other men, highlighting the purpose of his mission: he is at the service of others and must, therefore, give himself completely to his brothers. And all this from a fundamentally spiritual and supernatural perspective: this giving of oneself must take place within the realm of “religious” life.

Dear ordinands, your life will not be a rejection or an escape from the world, but a serene incarnation in history so that those who meet you may live the religious dimension, that is, the relationship with God that is at the root of human existence. In this apostolic action, however, it is necessary to avoid the mentality of the world.

As we well know, this is a danger that Pope Francis always warns us about, speaking of “spiritual worldliness” as the “most serious risk facing the Church,” even a “catastrophe for the Church.” In 1953, in his book Meditations on the Church, Cardinal Henri de Lubac, SJ, already anticipated the theme of spiritual worldliness, defining it as “the greatest danger for the Church – for us who are the Church – the most insidious temptation, one that always reemerges, insidiously, when all other temptations have been overcome, nourished even by these victories.”

For this reason, Jesus, as the Gospel reminds us, did not pray for the world, but for His disciples, so that the Father would protect them from the evil one and that they might be free and different from the world, even though they live in the world (cf. Jn 17:9, 15). At that moment, at the end of the Last Supper, Jesus raised the prayer of consecration for the apostles and all priests of all times to the Father when He said: “Consecrate them in the truth” (Jn 17:17). And He added: “For their sake I consecrate myself, so that they also may be consecrated in truth” (Jn 17:19).

Becoming a priest, in the Church, means entering into this self-giving of Christ, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, and entering fully. Jesus gave His life for all, but in a particular way He consecrated Himself for those whom the Father had given Him so that they might be consecrated in the truth, that is, in Him, and so that they could preach and act in His name, represent Him, and continue His saving gestures: breaking the Bread of life and forgiving sins. Thus, the Good Shepherd offered His life for all the sheep, but He gave and continues to give it, especially, to those whom He Himself, with a love of preference, called to follow Him along the path of pastoral ministry.

Celebrating the Eucharist, they are helped by the grace of the Holy Spirit to experience the joy of being loved by Christ. May their lives therefore be conformed to Christ the priest, missionary of the Father. The Lord, in fact, has chosen and loved them to lead them to offer their lives to Him and to their brothers and sisters. Their ordination places them before so many brothers and sisters who already belong to the ecclesial community or who are sincerely seeking God, with the persuasion of bringing them the light of Christ, the news that He has come to seek us through gestures of unparalleled generosity, with a love of incomparable delicacy. I wish that they show everyone that humility and simplicity that Christ lived to win our trust and save us.

May the Virgin Mary, who sang in her prayer the greatness of humility, make them humble and grateful as She knew how to be, so that they may become, increasingly, collaborators in that manifestation of love and truth which, as an attractive light, has come into the world in the humility of His Son.

May the saints, whose devotion is particularly alive in their respective countries, accompany them. We ask for their intercession so that the Holy Spirit, which has been poured out abundantly upon you, may benefit the entire family of the Legionaries of Christ, so that each one may be faithful to their calling and their ministry. May the entire Congregation continue to walk generously and bravely along the path of renewal and evangelical authenticity, following the lines traced with the support of the Holy See, for the greater glory of God, for the service of the Church, and for the salvation of the world. So be it.

download: Homily of the priestly ordinations 2016 (Spanish, PDF)