Jesus did not leave us to make our way through life — our pilgrimage to our eternal home — alone, uninstructed and without leadership. Our pilgrimage is entrusted to the care of shepherds after the image and likeness of the Good Shepherd.

At the beginning of the solemn liturgy of ordination, I recalled that all of us in the cathedral church were participating in an ancient ritual that links us directly with the apostles and the apostolic church. In a sacramental action that has not changed except in liturgical detail, in direct continuity with what we find in the pastoral letters of St. Paul, I imposed hands and invoked the power of the Holy Spirit on the four men, Sean Francis, Thomas Kunz, Kevin Poecking and Daniel Straughn, to ordain them to the order of priest and the service of the church.

An unbroken line

St. Paul said to his disciple Timothy: “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Tim 1:6). In a more direct way in his letter to Titus, he reminds him: “This is why I left you in Crete, that … you appoint presbyters in every town as I directed you” (Titus 1:5).

In an unbroken line going back to Peter and Andrew, James and John, Paul and their disciples Timothy, Titus, Ignatius of Antioch, Linus and Cletus on to our own day, this sacred ritual has been enacted in and for the church. With all of the sacramental power invested by Christ in his church, what we did visibly has actually effected invisibly, spiritually and supernaturally the transformation of these four men into priests of the new covenant.

In the ritual of ordination we see how a priest receives the spiritual power to do what only he can do. In the account of the Last Supper we find out what exactly it is that only the priest can do.

On the same first Holy Thursday on which he instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ conferred priesthood on the apostles: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

Re-presentation of the cross

In instituting the sacrament of the Eucharist, our Lord created what would be a living re-presentation of his death and resurrection. In his encyclical, “On the Church and the Eucharist,” our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, reminds us: “When the church celebrates the Eucharist, the memorial of her Lord’s death and resurrection, this central event of salvation becomes really present and the work of our redemption is carried out” (11).

To ensure that the saving effect of his death and resurrection will reach each of us, Jesus instituted the Eucharist as a means of our sharing in it as if we had been present at Calvary and the Easter garden. Catholic teaching uses the word “re-present” — that is, to make present anew — the sacrifice of Christ. Thus what is repeated in its memorial celebration, its commemorative representation, is the sacrifice of the cross.

In order that this life-giving mystery could continue down through the ages, Jesus called, charged and anointed in the Holy Spirit apostles who would carry on this sacred mystery forever in his memory.

The church identifies the origin of holy orders in the will of Christ and his explicit words and actions on that first Holy Thursday. Holy orders and the paschal mystery are inseparable. Christ the priest offered himself for our salvation; the Eucharist is the continued re-presentation of that salvation; and the priesthood is the special human participation in that divine work.

This is also a time of great expectation because priestly ordination is an act of regeneration for the church. In every ordination the church is renewed and another generation of spiritual leadership is brought forth. It is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that ensures new spiritual leadership that enables the church to carry on its mission and the very work of Christ.

The church is called the new creation because it is here that the life and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are gratuitously offered to all those who are born of water in the Spirit and called to relive the communion of God and to manifest and communicate it in history.

The new creation takes form and is manifest as the new body of Christ. As Jesus in his earthly body made visible the eternal word of God, so the church after the resurrection of Jesus manifests the enduring body of Christ of which we are all members in grace.

Identification with the Lord

In his most recent encyclical, “Pastores Gregis” (“On the Ministry of Bishops”), our Holy Father reminds us that all ministry is ultimately directed to the salvation of souls and the building up of the Christian community — the church. A priest is charged to teach, to lead and to sanctify.

In calling these men to orders I called them to communion with Christ and all ordained priests. At the same time, I called them to a communion of pastoral ministry with me for the good of this diocesan church.

Our Holy Father reminds us that the fullness of the priesthood resides in the bishop and he shares it with presbyters, priests, precisely so that they might be co-workers with the bishop in carrying out the work of Christ.

In explaining how the priest can function as Christ, the church speaks of the priesthood as an identification with the Lord on the most fundamental level. In their reception of holy orders, the Second Vatican Council teaches us, priests are “consecrated to God in a new way.” They become “living instruments of Christ, the Eternal Priest” so they may be able to “accomplish his wonderful work of reuniting the whole society of men with heavenly power” (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, 12).

In his exhortation “Ecclesia in America” (“The Church in America”), the pope reminds us: “The field in which priests work is vast. Therefore, they should concentrate on what is essential to their ministry: ‘letting themselves be configured to Christ the Head Shepherd, the source of all pastoral charity, offering themselves each day with Christ in the Eucharist, in order to help the faithful both personally and communally experience the living Jesus Christ’ (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, 14). As witnesses and disciples of the merciful Christ, they are called to be instruments of forgiveness and reconciliation, putting themselves generously at the service of the faith in the spirit of the Gospel” (39).

This is the image of church and the priesthood that our Catholic faith holds up for us. Jesus continues to walk with us. We are never abandoned to our own capabilities alone. In the person of the priest, Jesus is with us in a sacramental ministry every bit as profound as the mystery of his coming among us 2,000 years ago. The vessel of grace is different, but the enduring presence of the Lord is real.

The free giving of themselves to Christ for his people is a testimony of the deep faith of the four newly ordained and a source of great encouragement to all of us. It also accounts for the profound joy that fills this diocesan church.

Our prayer for Father Francis, Father Kunz, Father Poecking and Father Straughn is that their ministry will always reflect our conviction that Christ continues to live in his church and their priestly service will always be a cause of joy. May God who has so wondrously begun this good work in them bring it to fulfillment.