My dear People of God,
Here I am among you today, seemingly a stranger far from my homeland, and yet so near to you all because I am your brother. I am one drawn into the Family of God the Father by the compassionate love of His Son, Jesus, and kept alive by the power of His Spirit. I am one for whom the Kingdom of God is very near, in fact it is in our midst. " The Kingdom of God has come in the Person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into Him" (C.C.C. 865). Those incorporated into Christ - the Baptised - are brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ and of one another and they form the Church, of which He is the Head. To His Church Christ handed on His Mission of establishing His Father's Kingdom on earth and all who are Church, that is the Baptised, are caught up in that Mission. Indeed, the Church is in service of the Kingdom, endeavouring to permeate the society in which we live with the values of the Kingdom, values enunciated by Jesus Himself in the Beatitudes of the Gospel. As we pray each day the prayer which He taught us, the 'Our Father', we pray that His Kingdom may come. This will happen through the Church present in the world. The Church is inseparable from the Person of Jesus and has a Mission of salvation for the whole world. As the 'Sacrament of the Kingdom' She is God's choice, not ours, and is called to accomplish with the Holy Spirit His plan for creation: the salvation of the whole world. She, the Church, exists in the world and for the world as Jesus' chosen agent to carry on His Mission to gather all people into the one family of God.
And so, my dear People, as members of the Church we are, what I would call,
" Kingdom Christians", people who believe that, despite the contrary
indications all around us, God will eventually swallow up all evil, hate and
injustice. We are a people who believe that the leaven of the Kingdom is already
at work in the dough of creation - to use Jesus' own parable. This gives Christians
an unworldly, audacious confidence that enables them to go right on doing what
others say is impossible or futile. Looking at the world of today, we have reason
to doubt that the human species has the requisite capacity to change. Many view
the present world situation with despair. Jesus came, not to despair of the
world, but to reveal His Father's love for the world and because of that His
followers are a People of Hope, a People who believe that there is a power at
work in us that can transform even our distorted wills. This transformation
is not subject to our control but comes as a gift. We call it Grace, and we
can put no limits on the extent to which Grace can make us into new men and
new women. Saint Paul puts it like this: " For anyone who is in Christ,
there is a new creation; the old creation has gone and now the new one is here.
It is all God's work"
(2 Cor. 5: 17).
It is from this new creation, from among these Kingdom-minded Christians that God calls persons to play a leading role in the establishment of His Kingdom. He may issue that call to be lived out in the secular world in the vocation of parents, teachers, doctors etc; He may issue that call to be lived out in the vocation to the Religious Life, in commitment to the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience, " pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come" (C.C.C. 916); He may issue that call to those whom He chooses to exercise the ministerial Priesthood in the Church, that is " to act in the power and place of the Person of Christ Himself" ( Pius XII Enc. Mediator Dei: AAS. 39). The call is often referred to as a 'vocation'. The beauty of a vocation is that one's human life, one's human actions become the carriers of God's saving actions in the world. One who has received a calling to the ministerial priesthood will become aware of the fact that God has woven into his life a deeper dimension of following, not because of any merit on his part but just because Jesus chose him out of love, because He wanted him. Why He called him will remain a mystery forever. Anyone who asks the question: " Why me?", will only get the answer God had already given the chosen people of the Old Testament: " I did not choose you because you were more virtuous, more gifted, more suited. No, I chose you because I loved you".
Today, here at this Cathedral Church, dedicated to the mystery of the Most
Holy Trinity, the Church, in the name of Christ, has just called by name nine
men and chosen them, our brothers, for priesthood in the presbyteral order.
They have been chosen from among the People of God, trained for the ministry
they are about to assume and they have been found worthy. The Church rejoices
today, my dear brothers, with you and because of you. You have been preparing
for years for this moment in your lives, you have discerned under good spiritual
guidance and you have responded to the Grace of the call of the Lord by generously
presenting yourselves to be ordained Priests " of the order of Melchizedek,
and for ever" (Heb. 7:17). Remember the most basic and significant elements
of your call. They are threefold:
1. The Lord has chosen you - " you did not choose me, no, I chose you"
( Jn. 15: 16);
2. The Lord called you to be with Him - "make your home in me, as I make
mine in you" ( Jn. 15: 3);
3. The Lord called you to send you out - " I commissioned you to go out
and to bear fruit, fruit that will last" (Jn. 15:16).
If you are to be credible Ministers of Word and Sacrament, my brothers, if you are to be recognised by the people as men of God, if you are to remain faithful to the calling you have received today, then you must make as a priority in your lives intimacy with Jesus. You cannot minister in His name, you cannot be fruitful in your ministry, you cannot reflect His presence in your lives unless you remain strong in your personal prayer life, faithfully transparent in your liturgical life and generously dedicated in your pastoral life. In the Rite of Ordination today, as you receive the gift of bread and wine from the People of God, the ordaining Bishop will say to you: " Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord's Cross" (Rite of Priestly Ordination). Brothers, be conscious of the great dignity being conferred on you today and of the grave responsibility that goes with it. You are called to serve in the name of Christ Who " did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mc.10: 45).
One day, while I was in the service of Pope Paul VI, of venerable memory, I had the joy of presenting to him a young deacon who was shortly to be ordained to Priesthood. Pope Paul said to him: "So you are about to be ordained to the Priesthood". And when the young man said 'Yes, Holy Father', Pope Paul immediately spoke to him about the importance of his relationship with his Bishop to whom he would promise respect and obedience. Pope Paul stressed the importance of a respectful and fruitful relationship between the priest and his Bishop and said that that relationship must be one of genuine communion in spirit. This is reiterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: " Priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on the Bishop and in communion with him. The promise of obedience they make to the Bishop at the moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination liturgy mean that the Bishop considers them his co-workers, his sons, his brothers and his friends, and they in return owe him love and obedience"(C.C.C.1567). Then Pope Paul asked the young deacon: "Tell me, what is a priest?". I could see the various formulae the young man had learned going through his head and then Pope Paul put him our of his agony by saying: " I'll tell you". And this is the last definition of a Priest given by Pope Paul VI, just six weeks before his death. " A Priest", he said, " is the diffuser of Christian Joy" and he added, " Christian Joy is the fruit of an intimate relationship with the Person of Jesus Christ". As the saying goes: ' If you don't have, you can't give it'. If your lives, my dear brothers, are not imbued with an intimate love of Jesus, if you have not experienced in your daily lives the palpitating Heart of the Saviour, then you cannot share it with your people.
My dear brothers, shortly you will stand at the Altar of God, in the person
of Christ, to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Make your daily Eucharistic
celebration the very fount from which you will draw your spiritual strength
for your whole priestly ministry. It is in the celebration of the Eucharist
that you will exercise, in a supreme degree, your sacred office (Cf. C.C.C.1566).
Never let a day go by without celebrating worthily and devotedly the Holy Sacrifice.
Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, admonished young deacons he was about to
ordain with these words:
" Nourish yourselves, therefore, on the Word of God; converse each day
with Christ, truly present in the Sacrament of the Altar. Allow yourselves to
be touched by the infinite love of His Heart and spend more time in Eucharistic
Adoration in the important moments of your life, such as difficult personal
and pastoral decisions, at the beginning and end of your day" and he added,
" I can assure you that I have experienced this and drawn from it strength,
consolation and support" ( Ecclesia de Eucharistia n. 25)". (Priestly
Ordination, 19th May 2003).
As you assume, my dear brothers, all the responsibilities of the ministerial
Priesthood, may I share one aspect of your priestly ministry which, today more
than ever, needs stressing. Today you become Ministers of Divine Mercy. You
will henceforth administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation, thereby fulfilling
the mandate passed on by the Lord to the Apostles after His Resurrection: "
Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain, they are retained" (Jn. 20: 22-23). Be
assured that you will witness wonderful miracles of grace worked by God's mercy
in the confessional! But, in order to be a faithful and available minister of
God's mercy in the confessional, you must be and be seen to be a man of God,
a man of Prayer and, above all, one who frequently experiences the mercy of
God yourself by regularly going to Confession. People need to encounter the
God of Mercy and Compassion, so as to receive the life-giving grace He won for
them on the Cross. Be then faithful and generous ministers of God's Divine Mercy
to His People.
Be men of Prayer: faithful to the Prayer of the Church, the Divine Office, faithful to your personal, daily prayer, especially to the Rosary which the Holy Father has called " a compendium of the Gospel "(Apost. Lett. 'Rosarium Virginis Marie'). In giving us the new Mysteries of Light in the Rosary prayer, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, stated that " each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very Person of Jesus"(Apost. Lett. 'Rosarium Virginis Mariae' N.21) and he placed at the heart of the Mysteries of Light the 'Proclamation of the Kingdom' with the call to Conversion. You are called, my dear brothers, to be Proclaimers of the Kingdom. Be faithful to that call!
As Deacons you approach Priestly Ordination in the celibate state. In your diaconate ordination you resolved, " as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ, to remain celibate for the sake of the Kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind". (Rite of Ordination of Deacons). Celibacy is a sign of the new life in Christ to the service of which your are being consecrated today. Accepted with a joyous heart, celibacy radiantly proclaims the Reign of God. May it be for each of you, my brothers, a special source of spiritual fruitfulness in your priestly ministry.
I wish to express my deep gratitude to His Grace, Archbishop Valerian Okeke, for the unique privilege he has given me by inviting me to ordain the priests of his diocese this year. Some forty-two years ago I came, as a newly ordained priest, to begin my priestly ministry in Nigeria, precisely in the Diocese of Ogoja. Now coming back as a Bishop to ordain priests in this country of my first missionary experience is indeed for me a great grace and honour. Thank you, Archbishop!
I wish also to thank all those who have had a hand in forming these young men for Priesthood: their parents and family members, their teachers at every level, their parish communities, the priests who have played such a significant role in their lives and the formation staffs of the seminaries where they were formed. May the Lord reward you all copiously and may these new priests ever remember you all at the Altar of the Lord.
Tomorrow, my dear brothers, you will celebrate your first Mass of Thanksgiving on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. May she, the first disciple of the Lord and the first pilgrim of the Church who has completed the pilgrimage journey of faith into the Kingdom of the Father, inspire you and protect you in your faithfully carrying out the Mission the Lord has given you, to proclaim His Kingdom and to set the world ablaze with His Love.
Come, then! Be ordained Priests of God and know that He " is with you always; yes, to the end of time" (Mt. 28: 20).
***************************