Church celebrates with every ordination to the priesthood

(Homily delivered by His Excellency Archbishop Gaudencio B. Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, at the Mass for the Ordination of Rev. Juanito Aroco and Rev. Solomon Jardinero, at the Manila Cathedral on November 6, 2004.)

This morning we are celebrating an important event in the church. Not only because we celebrate the Eucharist of Jesus, because every mass is the offering and the prayer to His Father, but we made this Eucharist special because we ordained two of our brothers to the sacred priesthood of Jesus Christ. And because priests are priests of the Church, the event we celebrate today is a celebration not of a group, not of a parish, not of a movement, not of a family, and not of a diocese. It’s the church celebrating today because every ordination to the sacred priesthood is a gift to the church and not to a family or to a group or to a diocese. The event that we are witnessing this morning is an event that has repercussion and consequence in the entire church of Jesus Christ. And you came here to be witnesses of this great event. May I say you will take part in the ordination and as we go through the reflection, I will indicate to you the parts you have to play.


First let’s concede at two things, Why the priesthood? In the teachings of the Holy Mother the Church, particularly in Presbyteral ordinances, say, that through the ordination that you are witnessing now, a priest, an ordination of the priest makes a person share in the task of Jesus Christ. So in other words, Rev. Juanito and Solomon, through what it’s going to take this morning will start to share in the task of Jesus Christ. Makikibahagi sila sa gawain ni Kristo. What are these tasks of Jesus Christ? Happily the Church says there are three tasks of Christ. What are they? Number one to teach, number two,to sanctify, and number three, to shepherd.


Teach, sanctify, shepherd. These three are nouns. Prophecy, sanctification, shepherding. Again the three words could be sum up into three. The priest, the prophet and the pasturer. Let’s take every one, one by one. I have already gone through this with Rev. Solomon and Rev. Juanito last night, until 9:30 we were reflecting on this. What does the priest in imitation of Christ do for the people or the flock? Number one, they prophesy. Prophecy does not mean to foretell, manghuhula, no. A prophet is a teacher and so the priest is going to teach. A prophet is the one who censures and therefore the priest should censor. What for? To form the people of God. Teaching is the number one task of the priest. So important that in the acts of the apostles they were saying, that the priests were busy attending to so many social works, attending to the poor, attending to the widows and there was a small crisis in the early Christian community. And Peter said they’re complaining, are widows, are poor not attended to? And what did the apostles said, “ Is that a problem?” Then take for you, select seven men of wisdom; proven men, wise men. And we will appoint them to serve, to attend to your needs. Deacons, the diaconia, and here comes the underliner or the sacredness of the priesthood so that the priest can pay attention to the preaching of the word of God reflecting on the word of God and that they could pray. That is how important priestly role is in the Church. There can be no substitute. Other tasks would be relegated to other helpers like deacons, lay ministers, church workers, etc. But not the task of reflecting, praying, contemplating, refining, adopting the word of God for the people. These belong to the priests. And prayer too, which says, you cannot preach without praying. And so then to perfect the prophetic is the first task of a priest.


The second is the priestly. What is it? It is the sanctifying task of Jesus Christ. Jesus was a prophet, Jesus was a guru, Jesus was a teacher. But Jesus is also a priest. He sanctifies those whom He encounters. He understands those who are in need of understanding. And in fact those people who are sorry, Jesus forgave. He forgives. He encourages. And the last, he gave them the sacrament, the Eucharist. All these things that have to do with holiness, making a man good and holy, loving God and being compassionate to his brothers and sisters, that belong to the second task of Jesus.


Actually, in this reflection, were trying to divide, but the task of Christ and the priest, actually there is no division in Christ. Christ was a fully integrated person. That’s what we’re exactly trying to do in the seminary. To integrate all these into the life of man. We’re just doing this for reflection sake.


The priestly and the third the shepherding, the pastoral. Attending actually in concrete cases to those in need, to the ignorant, to the sick, to the poor, those who have nothing to eat and that’s exactly we’re trying to do to awaken the church in Metro Manila about this. You have heard of the new movement of the catechesis Pondo ng Pinoy. It’s exactly one way of doing this. We’ve gone to reflect on the word of God. Kind, to imbibe it, incarnate it into our lives. Priestly and the shepherding. These were the task, the prophetic, the priestly and the shepherding. And then the doctrine of the church said, what for? The teaching goes, in order to build up the body of Christ, the people of God so that all those who listen in this morning in the cathedral that you would become the people of God and through these triple tasks, to make you into a body of Christ and then the temple of the spirit. The teaching said this. In other words, this furthers the reflection we are building up the church. The body of men and women, children and the old, the weak and the poor, the ignorant and the learned, the powerful and the weakest, and mold them into the body of Christ that will live by and witness to the kingdom of goodness that is in heaven.


These are your tasks. But how are these done? They have been looking forward to this day. This time 10 o’clock in the morning, Saturday. The communities have been looking forward to this and so are Solomon and Juanito. You take good grace that comes from eternity. This is your kairos. You’re going to receive it now. It’s yours for the taking and God has going to give it to you. And then the teaching of the church says how? Through the anointing of the hands. You will see the bishop followed by the priests, laying their hands on the head of Juanito and Solomon. And to a silent prayer ask the Holy Spirit to come down and anoint these two. It’s the anointing of the spirit more than it’s anointing of the oil. The priesthood is the creation of the spirit not only the priesthood of Juanito and Solomon. Even Jesus Christ was anointed this way. The spirit of the Lord is upon me. It is I who preach the good news to the poor, gives sight to the blind, make the lame walk and announce the time of the good news of salvation is here. Even Jesus was anointed by the spirit. And so is this with these young men. At that time of the touch, the priest and the bishop are just mumbling a silent prayer. No words at all. But with thoughts begging the good Lord the Father, “Unworthy as we are unworthy as we truly are, Father send the spirit upon these men.” The spirit of the priesthood, the spirit of Jesus, the spirit that knows how to know and how to love and how to be compassionate, the spirit of the priest.


And what happens to the man? Before they get up from their position of kneeling and begging for the spirit. They will be so configured, they will so be signed before the configuration. When the indelible sign that will mark them forever as Christ or priest in heaven or whatever. That is erasable. They call it indelible. And will make them so configured to Jesus, so one with Christ that they can no longer preach their own word or share their own opinion as side by side with the word and opinion of God as expressed to Jesus. No way for the priests to preach, preaching his own personal opinion. The worst that could happen when the priest would say, “alright this my opinion, I said this is not the opinion of Christ. I contradict the word of God. This the reason why the priest must be given that time to pray and to reflect so the acts would say in the ordination of the diaconate so that the priest will be able to be so configured with Christ, so configured with Christ. No talk of the priest in the evangelization that is personal. So that comes the last one.


In the teaching of the Church, they can act in persona Christi. They will be able to act in the person of Jesus. And that act of configuratio is so close to the priest that whenever he confects the sacrament he does not say may the Lord baptize you, he say I baptize you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. When he listens to confession he said may God forgive you, No, he says I absolve you, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is what happens to a priest in the ordination. Now it is our privilege today, November 6. You are witnessing the ordination of Juanito and Solomon to the priesthood. May I ask you to play your role, I know you’re here in prayer for these two men. I know you’re here precisely in prayer for these two men. But I ask you at that point in the ceremony when Juanito kneels before the bishop and Solomon kneels before the bishop and you see the bishop about to lay his hands, touching the heads. That is the essence of the ordination. The canon says, please as you stay there don’t just watch, I ask you to accompany the gesture and the quiet prayer of the official. Say your own words inviting the spirit to come and dwell in these new priest. Father something like this, you know we are unworthy, we are sinful, you know we have weakness, but in the name of Jesus please, please, please. We are not praying in our own name, not even in our community. May I ask you in the name of Jesus, “Father send the spirit. The spirit of the fullness of grace. The spirit that will make him a priest.


Understanding, forgiveness, compassion, wisdom, love, all these things. In that way you’re not going to lay your hands, only the bishop does and later the priest but you touch heaven. You will not touch the head but you will touch heaven because you are feeling that these men will receive the spirit. Now you know why every ordination to the priesthood is a celebration not of one family, not of one courageous look, not of one archdiocese but of the whole entire church. Please as we continue, accompany every gesture and every prayer until these two men are ordained. And after all, the whole ordination, we will be happy. We’ll be clapping, we’ll be dancing, we’ll be singing, we’ll be congratulating. We have lunch ready for us in a while. You will take part in the lunch, I’m sure. But that is not the end. It is only the beginning of the pilgrimage of these two priests. Accompany them with your prayer. Accompany them with your reminders. Accompany them with your presence. Encourage them by who and what you are. And for the parents of Juanito and Solomon, the brothers and sisters, I met them already yesterday. May I repeat now, not me, hindi po ako ang nagsasalita ngayon. Angsimbahan ang nagsasalita sa inyo. At ang mahal na simbahan ay nagpapasalamat sa inyo. Mga magulang ni Solomon, mga magulang ni Juanito. Maraming salamat at ipinagkaloob ninyo ang inyong anak sa simbahan. Habang kami’y nagpapasalamat sa ngalan ng simbahan gayun din inuulit hindi lamang ang pagkakaloob ng inyong anak, kundi inuulit ko nga sa inyo kahapon yung puhunang inyong ibinigay sa mga batang ito. Puhunang nagsimula kung kaya nakaisip ang mga itong maglingkod sa Panginoong Diyos. Yung unang diwa, maganda, malinis upang palaganapin ang mabuti, ipagpatuloy ang banal, marunong makiramay, yan po ay natutunan sa inyong bahay ng dalawang ito. And when we talk of families, you know all these things begin at home. Each family is a potential seat bed of vocation depending on the prayer that parents make. Depending on the reminders you give your children. The way you have depend them on how you have reared your children. Kung paano ninyo hinuboga ang inyong mga anak. Depende na rin sa kaloob ng Panginoon. All set we are happy. Happy for Juanito. Happy for Solomon. Happy for your families. Happy for everyone here. But especially for the church of Jesus Christ. May these two young men, faithful, holy and compassionate priests. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.