Archbishop Kevin's homily at the Ordination
of Sean O'Connor and Behruz Raf'at
on Saturday 7th October 2006
at Saint George's Cathedral.

Readings:
Numbers 11:11-12,14-17,24-25
I Corinthians 10:16-17
John 6:51-58
 

 

The celebration of Ordinations to the Priesthood is an important event for the life of our diocese as well as being an important day, indeed a milestone, in the lives of those being ordained. The readings chosen for today’s Mass speak to us about the challenge and, indeed, the cost of priesthood as well as unfolding the role of the priest in the life of the Church.

In fact, the readings begin with a rather robust complaint made by Moses to God. He is saying to God: “Why have you burdened me with these people? I didn’t create them. You did, and what did I do to deserve them?” Of course, no Southwark priest has ever felt that way about his flock, nor they about their priest! But that reading does tell us something central about priesthood, namely that it’s about people. A priest is a public figure. He’s ordained for people. For all  its people. He’s not a private person. Obviously, he needs and must secure his solitude, time alone, time for prayer and recollection, for recreation. But his life is a life for others, for people. He is at the service of people and he draws life from people. His home is with his people. But that reading puts very clearly, as I have said, the cost of priesthood. We go to the people to whom God calls us: people we don’t know but who become our people. And this is something that has characterised the life and mission of the Church since its inception.

The apostles were called from their nets and fishing boats to be with the Lord and, after Pentecost, went to preach the Risen Lord in different places, new and unknown to them. Last month I was at our parish in Charlton for the centenary of the parish and the first priests and nuns there were Augustinians who were expelled from France, as were all religious orders at the beginning of the 20^th century. Missionaries throughout the centuries have gone to distant lands, usually, never to return but to make their home among those they evangelise. And motivating and enabling this is a special kind of freedom, a freedom Pope Benedict has often spoken of in his talks and homilies for Ordinations.

So the reading speaks of the burden of being for people and the demands that go with it but crucially God tells Moses to get people who will share the burden with him. And that dynamic of collaboration, cooperation and delegation has also been part of how the Church functions and operates. Our two new priests participate in my priesthood and help me with my responsibility for 400,000 Catholics, 184 parishes and all the schools and agencies that make up the life of the diocese. I’m grateful for their gift of themselves and I pray and hope you will pray for more vocations. Pray, too, for the eight young men who have recently begun seminary formation for the diocese.

But our new priests will also work and collaborate with you, the people of God. Parishioners are not just passive recipients of pastoral care but vital collaborators in the work of the Church. The life and mission of the priest would be impossible without the gifts, talents, the work and the support of all the baptised. The Church is a body made up of many parts, bearing many gifts. In the first letter of St Peter, he says: each of you has been given a special grace, so use it. That is the case with Sean and Behruz. They are gifted for the work and for the people to whom they have been sent. They will find people who need their gifts and they will also find people whose gifts they need.  

But the service and the work that will be theirs after today is of a very specific kind, and the other readings speak to us about that. Again, the context is people. The Gospel begins with the words: “Jesus said to the crowd.” But the crowd that is the primary responsibility of the priest, like the crowd gathered here today in the Cathedral is the gathering of people who will celebrate the Eucharist. It’s a Eucharistic community. That’s what the Church is. It’s what this local Church of Southwark is. Just over a year ago in Aylesford we came as near as we can to celebrating the Eucharist as a diocese. But every Mass in every parish is celebrated in communion with me, the bishop, and with Benedict our Pope. Every Eucharist, therefore, is celebrated in communion with the whole universal Church, the vast crowd of over a billion people that is the Catholic Church throughout the world: the body of Christ, present in the world, where the bread of life is given and where we drink the blood of the Lord, and the priest is the agent of the Eucharist. The agent of life.          

The Eucharist is the centre of the life of the priest and all else flows from it. The priest also reaches out to people and bears the grace of the Holy Spirit in the other sacraments, in baptism, reconciliation and anointing of the sick. And he will be a sign of hope for many others, often without realising it. be they people who have lost faith or have yet to receive the gift of faith. I often say that a meeting with a priest can often be a crucial event in someone’s life even if they only meet once. And these are constants in the life of the priest.

But the context in which priesthood is exercised is constantly changing. We live in a smaller, globalised world. A priest must work, witness and collaborate with members of other Christian Communions. And the life and witness of a priest, like any other Christian, is now shaped by the presence of members of other religions. Recently when the Pope met envoys from Muslim countries he reiterated the words he spoke in Cologne last year. He said: “Interreligious and inter-cultural dialogue between Christians and Muslims cannot be reduced to an optional extra. It is, in fact, a vital necessity on which, in large measure, our future depends.” So this, like work for justice and peace, like care for the environment, must come within the orbit of concern of us all. So a priest is for all people, for a world in which secularisation goes hand in hand with religious revival. In one way or another he is for all people. 

And yet the heart of his life will always be his personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. From that he draws the strength, motivation and reasons to use his gifts and to live with his limitations. And all this is a way of life that is very special. The promise of celibacy and obedience shape his prayer and create a unique kind of freedom for outreach to his people. They also create a special bond with them. We pray today that Sean and Behruz will be inwardly strong, that they will grow and have courage and confidence to respond to God’s call and I know that the prayers of each and everyone here will be with them.