Priesthood Ordinations
Bishop James D. Conley
Cathedral of the Risen Christ, Lincoln
May 24, 2014
Bishop Bruskewitz, my brother priests and deacons, beloved seminarians, consecrated women religious, parents and families of those who are to be ordained priests, dear friends in Christ,
Our Church is truly blessed today, as we celebrate the ordination of these four men to the sacred order of the presbyterate. Men—dear sons in Christ—today you will be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the laying on of hands and the anointing of sacred chrism. Today you will be configured to Christ and given a share in His eternal High Priesthood. You join today the Paschal Mystery, which is manifested in the call to sacrifice your entire lives so that you may sanctify the Christian people.
The Gospel of Luke records Christ telling the Apostles that his body and blood will be poured out—that they must drink of that cup and eat that flesh—and thereby partake in God’s new covenant. Men, today you enter into the gift and mystery of the priesthood. Your lives become a part of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. All that you are, dear men, and all that you do, will become intertwined with the Paschal Sacrifice of our Lord and Savior.
The ritual exhortation for the ordination of priests teaches that today you “walk in newness of life.” Today you will walk in the newness of life with Jesus Christ—a new life filled with grace and filled with wonder.
The powerful mystery of sacred orders is at the heart of the Church’s mission. We’re all called to “make disciples of all nations,” to invite the world to know, love, and serve Jesus Christ. At the heart of discipleship is the sacramental presence of Jesus Christ. And at the heart of the sacramental order—dispensing grace in the power of the Holy Spirit—is the priest, standing before the world in the person of Jesus Christ—in persona Christi—to become stewards of God’s mysteries.
The beauty of the priesthood is an incomprehensible reality. Through you, dear sons, the world will know and experience God’s love, God’s generosity, and God’s mercy.
St. Francis de Sales, the holy bishop of Geneva during those difficult years immediately following the Protestant reformation, dedicated his episcopal ministry to the formation of priests—to assisting them in developing lives of prayer and discipleship. Saint Francis knew that a good priest—a generous, available, virtuous priest—could transform a community, a diocese, even the whole world. Saint Francis knew the potential and the power of the holy orders you will receive today. He put it simply. “How great,” he said, “is a good priest.”
Dear sons, become good priests. Become sons of Mary, fervent disciples of Jesus Christ, brothers to one another, and missionaries of God’s love. Become good priests, and the world will be transformed.
How great is a good priest.
John Daxacher was ordained to the sacred priesthood in 1863; one of very the first priests ordained for the newly formed Apostolic Vicariate of Nebraska. He was already 44 years old when he was ordained. He became the first resident pastor of Plattsmouth, until he went to Europe, to raise the funds that would help build the Diocese of Lincoln, the Diocese of Grand Island, the Archdiocese of Omaha. He sent money home to Nebraska, sorely needed, and he sent seminarians, eager to serve the pioneers of the Great Plains. From Europe, his missionary work built the Church in Nebraska—the generations that followed him are the legacy of his zeal. We are the legacy of his zeal. At his death, at 86, Bishop Scannell of Omaha called him a “heroic missionary” for Jesus Christ.
How great is a good priest.
Francis Kopecky was ordained in 1909 in Bohemia. He came to Crete six years later. He served the Bohemian families of the plains from a wagon—he’d travel everywhere a family needed a priest. One Sunday, he got off the train in Tobias. There was a blizzard. But there was also a sick child, dying perhaps, who needed to be baptized. Father Kopecky traveled by wagon for hours to baptize the child. He prayed along the way, through the wind and the snow, that the child would be healed. The child was healed, and baptized by a family member. When Father Kopecky finally got to the house and discovered that all was well, he traveled back to Tobias in the wagon through the blizzard. He got to Church at one in the morning, and there in the sacristy he fell asleep, and woke up ready for early Mass.
How great is a good priest.
Henry Denis was ordained in Poland in 1936. Three years later, he was sent to a concentration camp. He lived there for five years, fasting, and suffering, and ministering to his fellow prisoners. He was nearly executed there. He came to Nebraska in 1948. To honor the Blessed Virgin, who had saved his life in Dachau, he built Arapahoe’s Shrine to Our Lady of Fatima. Many of you have been there. Father Denis spent the rest of his life inviting families to say the rosary, to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, to become her sons and daughters.
How great is a good priest.
Dear sons, you follow in the footsteps of these good priests—and countless others who served the Lord and his Church here on the plains of Nebraska. Our Diocese has been blessed—immeasurably so.
Each of us can call to mind the holy priests of Lincoln who have revealed to us the living Christ. You follow in their footsteps. You carry their legacy. You must be the missionary disciples—the good and holy priests—of today, and tomorrow. Your stories must carry on the work of our Church.
The priests I described lived in challenging times. They faced poverty, and war, and persecution. They faced secularism, and nihilism, and anti-Catholicism. We face those things too. The world needs, and has always needed, Jesus Christ. But the priests of our diocese—and all good priests—will not be deterred by the challenges of the day. Good priests always find a way to encounter the living Christ—in order to counter the influence of the world, and the evil one.
Saint Augustine told the faithful of his diocese, the ancient Diocese of Hippo in North Africa, that they could not be deterred by the challenges of their day. “Bad times, hard times” he said, “… this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times. Such as we are, such are the times.”
“We are the times,” says St. Augustine. As we live, the world shall see goodness. Good and holy priests encounter the world with love, so that the world might know the love of God. Be priests of love, dear sons. Be servants, the least among you being first, as you imitate the blessed “one who serves.” Be missionaries of the Father’s love and mercy. As you live in love, so the world will encounter Jesus Christ.
In a few moments you will begin your priestly ministry—as you concelebrate the Eucharist with me, and with your brother priests. Do not forget that priestly ministry must begin with the Eucharist. If you begin with the Eucharist, you will joyfully become missionary disciples of Jesus Christ. If you begin with the Eucharist, you will lovingly embrace the vocation to celibacy. If you begin with the Eucharist, you will be unafraid to go out into the world, to heed the advice of Pope Francis, to “take on the smell of your sheep,” to journey to the “existential peripheries,” bringing Christ to the lonely, the marginalized and the unloved, just as those good and holy priests before you have done.
Rely on the Holy Eucharist, dear brothers. Rely on the grace of confession. Rely on the fraternity of the priesthood, and on holy friendship with the families of your parishes. Rely on the loving embrace of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Be good and holy priests, dear sons.
How great is a good priest!
