Ordination to the Priesthood

of

Rev. Liam Foley

Pentecost Sunday 2002

Church of Saint Colman, Macroom.

“ No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord ’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:3).

Today, my dear sisters and brothers in Christ, throughout the whole Church, in the great Basilicas and Cathedrals, in the parish churches and chapels, in the mission stations in faraway lands, the invocation of the Holy Spirit of God is made so that there might be an outpouring and infusion of the Spirit in the minds and hearts of all God’s people. We live now in the era of the Spirit, that Advocate sent by the Father so that the Mission given to His Son, Jesus, might continue to the end of time. As God’s people we have all been commissioned to spread the Good News of the Lord Jesus and this we can do only if we are under the influence of the Spirit. The whole sacramental life of the Church is made possible by the power of the Spirit. Indeed the Holy Spirit is the very oxygen of God enabling the Body of Christ, the Church, to breathe in the very essence of God, empowering each individual member of that Body to be engaged in mission. Saint Paul puts it very clearly:

“ There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit;

there are all sorts of service to be done, but always the same Lord;

working in all sorts of different ways in different people,

it is the same God who is working in all of them”(1 Cor.12: 4-6).

As we celebrate the coming of the Spirit on this Pentecost Day, we pray for a fresh outpouring of that Spirit on the whole Church and particularly on each one of us here so that truly, with all the vigour and enthusiasm of our being we can proclaim: ‘ Jesus is Lord ’. I am convinced that that is what is needed above all in the Church in our times, the capacity to personally declare that ‘ Jesus is Lord’ and set the world on fire with His Love. I recall those words spoken as a farewell message by the Holy Father to the youth of the world at the end of the Jubilee of Youth in Rome: “ If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze”. My dear friends, be open to the challenge of the Spirit and do not be surprised at the manner in which the Spirit will use you. As Saint Paul says: “ The particular way in which the Spirit is given to each person is for a good purpose” (1 Cor. 12:7).

Today, here in the Church of Saint Colman in Macroom, we have come together as Church to celebrate and witness how the Spirit of God is to be given in a particular way to Liam Foley, a Deacon of the Diocese of Cloyne, so that he might engage in the mission of the Church in accordance with God’s plan for his life. Today, for him, is a day towards which he has longed for many years. When eventually he decided – and certainly under the influence of the Spirit – to surrender himself to God’s plan for his life, he wrote these words to the Vocations Director of the Diocese: “ I feel that by becoming a priest I could get involved more deeply in the celebration of the Liturgy and in the promotion of God’s Kingdom”. Today his journey of searching is over. Today he has been chosen by the Church to be ordained a Priest forever. Today what Liam wrote many years ago as his motive for seeking priesthood comes to fruition. We find his words echoed in the instruction of the candidate for priesthood in the Ordination Rite: “ By consecration he will be made a true Priest of the New Testament, to preach the Gospel, sustain God’s people, and celebrate the Liturgy, above all, the Lord’s Sacrifice”. (Rite of Ordination).

I welcome you, Liam, in the name of the Church. I thank you for presenting yourself so generously so that God’s plan for your life might, through the power of the Spirit, come to fulfilment. As you offer yourself today to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, know that the Lord wishes to do great things in you. He wants you to be for His People the true ‘face of Christ’, one whom the people can easily identify as a man of God, one entrusted with the Divine Mysteries. Because you are entrusted with the eternal riches of God, you must be a man of trust, a man who can walk the journey of faith with anyone, a man about whom can be said the words of the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “ Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road?” (Lk. 24: 32). Liam, the treasure being entrusted to you today – the ministerial Priesthood of Jesus Christ – must be cherished and protected. You should always realise that, as long as you live, you carry it in an earthenware vessel that can be broken if not cared for. You carry it in the celibate state “as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ” (Rite of the Diaconate). “ By living in this state with total dedication, moved by a sincere love for Christ the Lord, you are consecrated to him in a new and special way. By this consecration you will adhere more easily to Christ with an undivided heart; you will be more freely at the service of God and mankind, and you will be more untrammelled in the ministry of Christian conversion and rebirth. By your life and character you will give witness to your brothers and sisters in faith that God must be loved above all else, and that it is he whom you serve in others”. (ibid). You can only remain faithful to this gift which God has given you by putting yourself daily under the influence of the Holy Spirit. A beautiful prayer of the Byzantine Rite expresses perfectly the spiritual gift conferred in priestly ordination:

“ Lord, fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit him whom you have deigned to

raise to the rank of the priesthood, that he may be worthy to stand

without reproach before your altar, to proclaim the Gospel of your

kingdom, to fulfil the ministry of your word of truth, to offer you

spiritual gifts and sacrifices, to renew your people by the bath of rebirth”

(Byzantine Liturgy, Euchologion).

The Church prays for you today, Liam. The Church invokes upon you the power of the Spirit. “ May Jesus preserve you to sanctify the Christian people and to offer Sacrifice to God” (Ordination Rite – Anointing of hands).

I welcome on this special occasion your family, Liam, and all your friends, especially your brother, Father Dermot, my fellow missionary colleague of Saint Patrick’s Missionary Society. I thank you all for the encouragement and support you have given Liam on his journey to priesthood. May you all be richly rewarded by the Lord.

I welcome and thank all those who have been responsible for Liam’s formation to Priesthood, both in the Seminary and in the pastoral placements he received. He himself knows how fulfilling were those opportunities of working pastorally with priests and people. In a very special way I thank the Priests and people of this Parish of Macroom with whom Liam has worked as a Deacon. You have been of immense help to him in the immediate preparation for this joyful day in his life. I must also pay a great debt of gratitude to his native Parish in the Diocese of Kerry. It was there that his faith was nourished and flourished into a priestly vocation.

I thank all the priests who have come today to concelebrate this Mass on the occasion of Liam’s ordination. I trust it will be for you a renewal in spirit and an encouragement to live with enthusiasm the calling the Lord has given you.

Liam, I now invite you to step forward and be ordained a Priest of God for service in the Diocese of Cloyne. May the Virgin Mary, who prayed with and for the Church at its birth on the day of Pentecost, be ever a Mother to you as you live out your commitment in priesthood to “ Jesus the Lord”.

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