The Eucharist: the heart of the priesthood

Posted: 08.28.09

Part of our diocesan jubilee year, centered on the Eucharist, coincides with the current Year for Priests invoked by Pope Benedict XVI. The Year for Priests, which began on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart, is a special year of grace for the entire Church. It affords all of us the opportunity to reflect on the sublime gift of the ordained priesthood and on the ministry which our dedicated priests carry out for us in the Diocese of Palm Beach. The year gives us the opportunity to pray for our priests, to offer thanks to them and to support them in their ministry, which is truly Christ’s presence among us. The year also offers our priests a special time of reflection on their ministry as well as an opportunity to grow in holiness to which the priesthood is meant to lead all men and women. It offers an opportunity for priests to deepen their commitment to interior renewal for a more powerful witness to the Gospel in today’s world. It is very fitting for all of us to reflect upon the intimate bond between the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood “without which,” in the words of our Holy Father, “there would be neither the Eucharist, nor even the mission of the Church herself.”

The Year for Priests marks the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, the Curé of Ars. This patron of parish priests is known for his extraordinary holiness and intense living of the Gospel, which brought many to Christ and conversion of life. The saint had a singular devotion to the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, spending hours before the Blessed Sacrament in both prayer and work. He would often say, “The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus,” knowing that the priesthood is most fully expressed in Christ’s sacrificial giving of himself on the cross where his heart was pierced for love of all. Indeed, the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus and that heart loves most completely in the Eucharist, which is also the heart of priesthood and every individual priest.

A priest’s very heart is eucharistic. When he is ordained, the priest is configured to Christ in a unique manner so that he is able to act in the very person of Christ, most especially in the Eucharist. Through ordination, a priest relates to Christ and to the Church in a new way and this relationship alters his very being. It is appropriate to say that at ordination a priest acquires a new heart, a new center of being, which is eucharistic. His way of life and his relationship to Christ and to his Church flow to and from the eucharistic action of Christ, which the priest is privileged to celebrate. The words spoken to him by the bishop at ordination when he receives the bread and wine to be offered in the Eucharist reflect this new heart and way of being: “Receive the oblation of the holy people to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s cross.”

The more the priest identifies himself with the words of Christ at the Last Supper, the more his heart becomes the heart of Christ. The presence of Christ will always come about through the priest’s uttering Christ’s words, “This is my body given up for you. … This is the cup of my blood poured out for you.” However, as these words become the very words of the priest himself, he personally grows in his relationship to Christ and in his priestly identity. This is a unique and lifelong process that permeates every aspect of the priest’s daily ministry.

The celebration of the Eucharist is the foundation and most important part of the priest’s life and day. On the occasion of his 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood, Pope John Paul II stated how the Eucharist is the heart of the priest’s daily existence. He said: “The priest, in his daily celebration of the Eucharist, goes to the very heart of this mystery. For this reason the celebration of the Eucharist must be the most important moment of the priest’s day, the center of his life.”

Blessed Pope John XXIII has given us a wonderful encyclical on the priesthood on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of the Curé of Ars. It reflects his own priestly spirituality and gives a summary of that of St. John Mary Vianney as a model for priests. The pope emphasized that the Curé’s celebration of the Eucharist was indeed the heart of his priesthood. He expounds: “But we, too, hope to say something worthwhile in this matter by showing the principal reason why the holy Curé of Ars, who, as befits a hero, was most careful in fulfilling his priestly duties, really deserves to be proposed to those who have the care of souls as a model of outstanding virtue and to be honored by them as a heavenly patron. If it is obviously true that a priest receives his priesthood so as to serve at the altar and that he enters upon his office by offering the eucharistic sacrifice, then it is equally true that for as long as he lives as God’s minister, the eucharistic sacrifice will be the source and origin of the holiness that he attains and of the apostolic activity to which he devotes himself. All of these things came to pass in the fullest possible way in the case of St. John Vianney.”

A priest friend of mine who is celebrating his 50th anniversary of ordination this year sums up well his own priestly heart, as well as that of the priesthood as centered in the Eucharist. He tells of his early morning prayer and describes looking out the window of the rectory into the darkness before the sun has risen. He visualizes all of the people of his parish to whom his heart goes out. He sees the young, the single, the elderly, the healthy, the ill, all awakening, all beginning their various days. He prays as to how he is to care for them, to call forth their uniqueness and to show them Christ’s compassion and the message of the Gospel in all the joys and sorrows they will face. He feels a great awareness of love for his people, but also an awesome sense of responsibility for those he has been entrusted to care.

And then he sums it all up in a manner which reflects the true meaning of priesthood and the priestly heart. He says, “I go to the church and put on the priestly garments. I kiss the altar and begin the Mass. For my people, I appear before God to be the bridge between them and him. As best as I can, I make myself one with Jesus and together we offer ourselves for them. I tell him all about them. I hold up the chalice of salvation and show them how much his Son cares about them. I pray. Sometimes I beg. I’ve been known to cry. These are my people.” These words truly reflect the heart of the priesthood, which beats strongest in the celebration of the Eucharist.

During this Year for Priests, may we all grow in a deeper appreciation of our priests who give us the Eucharist. I wish to express my deep admiration of and gratitude to all my brother priests in the Diocese of Palm Beach for giving their priestly hearts in such a generous way to the service of God’s people. May the Eucharist continue to strengthen and nourish their hearts and ministry as we look to the future of our diocese centered in this great gift which they give to us.

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