Ambassadors
“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings. Announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation” (Is 52,7). Here we are! Just for that! This clear and poetic description of what it is to be a priest is the Word of God. Saint Paul uses similar words when he speaksto the Corinthian Christians: “We are ambassadors for Christ” (2Cor 5,20).
THE TRADITION ABOUT PASTORS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
We as clergy are committed forever to take care of the people of God (1). From our ordination as deacons (2), confirmed with our ordination as priests. This responsibilitycompromises bishopsspecially. Read color wear by Cardinals means blood shedding, if necessary for the needs of the Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict XVI described very well the office of Universal Pastor of the Pope, the bishop of Rome, ontheday of his first Solemn Celebration in the Piazza San Pietro on Sunday 24 April 2005, at the The Solemn Mass Celebration of The Inauguration of His Pontificate (3).
During these last months of Ordinary Time, the Liturgy is filled with very good readings about our ministry in the Liturgy of the Mass and in the Liturgy of The Hours (4). We clergy pray them every day, except in special situations when we can commute toanother prayer. We have many reading excepts from the Book of Prophet Ezequiel and the pertinent comments given for St. Augustin about them. We have another, one on 3 September from Pope St. Gregory The Great, an extra one on 6 September from St. Augustin. Other one from St. Gregory The Great on the XXVII Sunday of the Ordinary Time. Others in the second readings for the Common of Pastors. And so on. Those readings refresh the Grace of God received in my freely accepted ordination for the rest of my temporal and eternal life…. These meditations are important part of my annual spiritual retreat.
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At these actual chaotic times for so many of us who try to be faithful to our Catholic Faith in our home, the Catholic Church, the Liturgy of the Mass and in the Liturgy of the Hours are a balm. Saint Peter helps us: “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for (someone) to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ (Jesus) will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little. To him be dominion forever. Amen.” (1 Pt 5,8ss).
To read how God Our Father never abandoned His Lovely Flock along the centuries, from the People of Israel at their bad moments to the actual moments of our History in the Civil Society and in Catholic Church. I am His Priest, consecrated to participate in His Redemptive Plan of Salvation. Every day in the last day prayer we ask “Protect us, Lord, as we stay awake; watch over us as we sleep, that awake, we may keep watch with Christ, and sleep, rest in his peace.” (5).
There are so many loyal priest working for the good of the faithful and of all human been. Saint Peter clearly warned us about these situations in history: “So I exhort the presbyters among you, as a fellow presbyter and witness to the sufferings of Christ and one who has a share in the glory to be revealed. Tend the flock of God in your midst, (overseeing) not by constraint but willingly, as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly. Do not lord it over those assigned to you, but be examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (I Pt 5,1-4).
MY LAST WILL
As priest in God’s Catholic Church, counting on His grace, in spite of my many miseries and limitations, I will try to follow Saint Paul’s “Be eager to present yourself as acceptable to God, a workman who causes no disgrace, imparting the word of truth without deviation” (2 Tim 2,15).I also dare to say with him until the last day of my life, “I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance... The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (2 Tim 4,8,18).
Edmonton 29 September 2018. Feast of the Archangels Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
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Notes
(1) The people of God, “His priests”, belong to God when we were baptized (cf. Pt 2, 5-9) This is an old Theological clear concept forgotten for many centuries, recovered in the Second Vatican Council teaching. Cf. Lumen Gentium Constitution n. 10 and in the foundation of the Gaudium Spes Contitution, the Decree Apostolicam Actuositatem (about the apostolate of the laity) and Ad Gentes (about the mission activity of the Church). Also clearly pointed in the Catechism of The Catholic Church (cf. 1591,1544ss). The Liturgy remind us this reality of our day life in the First Preface for Sundays of the Ordinary Time.
(2) At our Ordination as deacons, into others the compromise we take: to pray for the people of God in the Church specially by the “celebration of the Liturgy of The Hours”, and “teach the Faith according Catholic Tradition”. Ordaining Bishop gives us the Book of the Gospel saying “Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach”. See “Roman Pontifical, Ordination of Deacons, 21”.
(3) Pope Benedict XVI in Piazza San Pietro on Sunday 24 April 2005, at the The Solemn Mass Celebration homily of The Inauguration of His Pontificate:
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“Dear friends! At this moment there is no need for me to present a programme of governance. I was able to give an indication of what I see as my task in my Message of Wednesday 20 April, and there will be other opportunities to do so. My real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole Church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by Him, so that He himself will lead the Church at this hour of our history. Instead of putting forward a programme, I should simply like to comment on the two liturgical symbols which represent the inauguration of the Petrine Ministry; both these symbols, moreover, reflect clearly what we heard proclaimed in today’s readings.”
“The first symbol is the Pallium…
“One of the basic characteristics of a shepherd must be to love the people entrusted to him, even as he loves Christ whom he serves. “Feed my sheep”, says Christ to Peter, and now, at this moment, he says it to me as well. Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s word, the nourishment of his presence, which he gives us in the Blessed Sacrament. My dear friends – at this moment I can only say: pray for me, that I may learn to love the Lord more and more. Pray for me, that I may learn to love his flock more and more – in other words, you, the holy Church, each one of you and all of you together. Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves. Let us pray for one another, that the Lord will carry us and that we will learn to carry one another...
“The second symbol used in today’s liturgy to express the inauguration of the Petrine Ministry is the presentation of the fisherman’s ring. Peter’s call to be a shepherd, which we heard in the Gospel, comes after the account of a miraculous catch of fish: after a night in which the disciples had let down their nets without success, they see the Risen Lord on the shore. He tells them to let down their nets once more, and the nets become so full that they can hardly pull them in; 153 large fish: “and although there were so many, the net was not torn” (Jn 21:11). This account, coming at the end of Jesus’s earthly journey with his disciples, corresponds to an account found at the beginning: there too, the disciples had caught nothing the entire night; there too, Jesus had invited Simon once more to put out into the deep. And Simon, who was not yet called Peter, gave the wonderful reply: “Master, at your word I will let down the nets.” And then came the conferral of his mission: “Do not be afraid. Henceforth you will be catching men” (Lk 5:1-11). Today too the Church and the successors of the Apostles are told to put out into the deep sea of history and to let down the nets, so as to win men and women over to the Gospel – to God, to Christ, to true life. The Fathers made a very significant commentary on this singular task…”
Link to the whole Homily: https://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/homilies/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20050424_inizio-pontificato.html
(4) In the readings of the Mass and in the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of The Hours.
(5) Every day in the last part of the Liturgy of The Hours Night Prayer.