Holy Mass with the Ordination of Priests (17 June 1984)

On Sunday, 17 June 1984, the Holy Father celebrated Holy Mass in Sion with the ordination of priests. In his homily, the Pope reflected on the meaning of the priesthood, the role of those being ordained. “ ”Those who today receive priestly ordination become ministers of the sacrifice accomplished for the salvation of the world: They make it present."

Dear Brothers and Sisters ,

1. “Sursum corda”: “Let us lift up our hearts!”. Today the heart of the Church responds with particular fervor to this invitation that introduces every Eucharistic prayer. Today we respond with a very special intensity of faith: “Habemus ad Dominum”: “Let us turn it to the Lord!”.

In the admirable setting of these mountains, perhaps better than anywhere else, let us rise like Moses towards the God of heaven and earth. Let us contemplate in faith the Mystery of God. It is towards Himself that our faith turns. An unfathomable mystery. God is God, the Being beyond all that we can conceive, greater than that which rises to the heart of man. Christian revelation partly lifts the veil on His intimate Life, but it leads our faith to the threshold of an even deeper mystery: the unity of the Trinity. He who is the one God is at the same time Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each of the divine persons is uncreated, immense, eternal, all-powerful, Lord; and yet there is only one God uncreated, immense, all-powerful, Lord. “The Father was made by no one, he is neither created nor begotten; the Son comes from the Father alone, he is neither made, nor created, nor begotten; the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son, he is neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but he proceeds from them”. Thus was expressed a very ancient profession of faith (the so-called Athanasius Creed). This God of infinite Majesty who manifests himself to Moses and stands in the mysterious cloud, this transcendent God who reveals his unfathomable life, the tenderness of his infinite love, we are permitted to approach him: we adore him, prostrate before him. The happiness is given to us, in faith, to contemplate in him the Holy Trinity, before the full vision of his Glory.

2. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” ( Eph . 1:3). “He so loved the world that he gave his only Son” ( Jn . 3:16). Through his Son, not only has he revealed his Name, his Glory, as in an Epiphany of God which manifests him in a unique way, but he has shown towards us his tenderness, his mercy, his love, his fidelity, far beyond what Moses could have glimpsed: “He destined us beforehand to become sons through Jesus Christ”, “to become his people” ( Eph . 1:5, 11). Our adoration, our song of praise is at the same time an act of thanksgiving for this “free gift with which he has filled us in his beloved Son”. For “the first gift given to believers” is the Spirit who continues the work of the Son and “completes all sanctification” ( Prex eucharistica , IV), the Spirit who gives the Church the unity of the Body, calls her to manifest salvation to men, because through him the presence of God dwells in her.

3. “You will make us a people for your own possession” ( Ex . 34, 9.). The whole Church is the people of the living God. And in its bosom, our liturgical assembly has its place. This is the Church that is in Switzerland, particularly the Church that is in Sion; it gathers, heir to a long history, since Saint Theodule. Patron of the diocese, at the foot of this hill of Valère dominated by the ancient cathedral dedicated to Our Lady, in the heart of the Rhone Valley. In the midst of their harsh mountain life, the Valaisans have known how to keep their Catholic faith and their Christian traditions alive, in communion with the Bishop of Rome, Successor of Peter, who is so happy to visit today the current cathedral, but above all this spiritual house made of living stones ( 1 Petr. 2, 5) that is the Church in Sion. And I greet with her the Church that gathers around the Abbey of Saint Maurice, in this same Rhone Valley, and which is heir to the faith professed to the point of martyrdom by Saint Maurice and his soldiers of the Theban Legion. Like Saint Paul, I come “to strengthen you, or rather to comfort one another through the faith that is common to you and me” ( Rom . 1:11-12). What binds us, in fact, is much deeper and more mysterious than an organic relationship or even an affectionate attachment: “The universal Church appears as a ‘people that draws its unity from the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit’” (S. Cypriani, De Oratione Dominica , 23: PL 4, 553).

4. In the framework of today's Eucharistic liturgy, sons of your Church - from Sion or from other Swiss dioceses or institutes - will become priests "according to the order of Melchizedek" ( Ps. 109 (110), 4; Hebr . 5, 6; 7, 17), by receiving the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Melchizedek offered the bread and wine to the Most High. Under the sign of the bread and wine, it is Jesus Christ who offers himself to the Father in his unique and definitive sacrifice, made actual and present by the ministry of the priests. Through them, Jesus accomplishes what he did during the last supper. In offering the bread, he says: “This is my body, given up for you . . . take and eat”. In offering the wine, he says: “This is the cup of my blood, poured out for you and for many . . . take and drink” ( Luke 22:19-20).

This is how Jesus Christ spoke to the Apostles who were taking the last supper with him. And he added: “You will do this in memory of me” ( Ibid .).

Who then is Jesus Christ? He is the eternal Son in whom the Father loved the world. He gave him “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life . . . that the world through him might be saved” ( Jn 3:16, 17). Yes, he came for the salvation of the world. The sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered on the Cross—the sacrifice that he instituted during the Last Supper—is for the salvation of the world. In this sacrifice is manifested the love of the Father and the love of the Son. It is the cup of the new and eternal Covenant.

Those who today receive priestly ordination become ministers of the sacrifice accomplished for the salvation of the world. They make it present. They are ministers of the Eucharist: their priestly life develops from this center. Everything else will be like a preparation or an echo of this sacramental act. Day after day, present in human existence, they will have to introduce their brothers into the Redemption accomplished by Christ and celebrated in the Eucharist.

5. Priests are at the same time guides of their neighbor on the path to salvation.

They stand in the midst of the people of God and say like Moses: “Lord, deign to walk among us” ( Ex 34:9). With all their priestly being, they call upon the Lord to guide his flock as a Shepherd. They are themselves the servants of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

Like Moses, they climb the mountain to receive from God the testimony of the Covenant, and to take in their hands, as a sign of this Covenant, the tablets of the Commandments of God. According to these commandments - according to the whole truth of the Gospel, the charter of the new Covenant - they enlighten the consciences and guide those from among whom they themselves have been chosen ( Heb . 5:1).

They are masters of Truth, proclaiming the Gospel, arousing and strengthening faith, indicating the path to follow in order to remain on the path of salvation. They are the guardians of the rectitude of consciences. And thus they are the servants of that God who proclaimed before Moses: “Yahweh, the Lord, a God tender and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” ( Ex . 34:7). They are the servants of Jesus Christ through whom God forgives our faults and our sins, and makes us a people who belong to him ( Ibid . 34:9).

And therefore, these priests of the new Covenant are the ministers of the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation with God. Together with the Eucharist, this ministry will occupy a central place in their lives.

6. Around these central functions develop the other aspects of their priestly life which I am only mentioning. The priest shares in the office of the one Mediator who is Christ. But he knows his weakness. He does nothing by himself: he is strong in the strength of God, this by a permanent disposition which consecrates his very being. But he must seek to correspond to it. He must seek the holiness which is appropriate to the minister of Christ, with the Holy Spirit who was given to him by the laying on of hands: to offer himself entirely with him, “to live what he accomplishes” ( Prex ordinationis ), to transmit what he has contemplated. He must be a man of prayer, sometimes in solitude, like Moses on the mountain, sometimes as an animator or president of the prayer of his brothers. In the plain, he must live close to men, simply, poorly, at their service, like Christ who came to serve; he takes into account their concerns and their language in order to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ - the whole Gospel - in such a way as to be able to be heard. But at the same time he must initiate into the Mystery. By his way of life, he must appear as the man linked to Jesus Christ; through celibacy in particular, he becomes the “living sign of the world to come, already present by faith and charity” ( Presbyterorum Ordinis , 16). He is “the man for others”; he must be a witness, a prophet. Let him be courageous and accept to be in turn a sign of contradiction, sometimes the suffering servant, but always the man of peace that Christ came to bring to earth.

7. He will do all this as a collaborator of his bishop, who in turn is united with the Successor of Peter; by obeying both of them, the priest lives in communion with the whole Church. Indeed, his priesthood is based on that of the local bishop, who is the father of the entire presbyterate. In this way, the priest can contribute to the building up of the Church in unity. He does not arbitrarily dispose of the gifts of God. According to St. Paul, he is "a steward of the mysteries of God. And stewards are required to prove themselves faithful" ( 1 Cor 4:1, 2). Everything that the priest is has its basis in the Church, through the Church, for the Church. He must therefore love the Church, feel and think with the Church (" sentire cum Ecclesia "): not only the Church of the past, nor the Church that does not yet exist, but the concrete Church of the present, whose wrinkles and stains must also be removed by his humble help. This love prepares the priest for the tasks that the Church expects of him for the salvation of all. The pastoral dialogue that he strives for can make it possible to overcome conflicts and divisions, if it is truly Jesus Christ whom one seeks, if it is he whom one wishes to serve.

8. The ministerial priesthood is such an important and necessary task that we must all be concerned about vocations. The Diocese of Sion has dedicated 1978 to raising the awareness of all Christians on this subject. I hope that this will bear further fruit, both here in your country and in the other Swiss dioceses to which these new priests will return.

Of course, the entire baptized people are called to participate actively in the life of the Christian community and in witnessing to the Gospel in the world. The mission of priests is precisely at the service of this participation. But it is of a special nature and irreplaceable. There is neither dualism nor competition, but only a necessary complementarity in the attention given to each other's vocation, with the Bishops leading them to harmonious cooperation. The ecclesial community only responds fully to its mission and commitment if it allows vocations to the priesthood to sprout and mature within it, without which it cannot develop itself. Vocation and mission - to the ministry or apostolate - always come from God, from the Most Holy Trinity.

9. “Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our fathers, / praised and glorified forever” ( Dan 3:52).

The light of faith today allows us to ascend with mind and heart to the unfathomable mystery of God, to his incomprehensible Trinitarian unity. From the womb of this Most Holy Trinity the Son of God came to humanity: the eternal Word of the Father became man, Son of the Virgin Mary. Through his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, the Spirit of holiness descended upon the Apostles and now remains present in the Church of Christ.

From this mission of the Father and the Spirit springs the Church's saving mission. From the mission of the Son, the servant of God who has received the messianic anointing, the "royal priesthood" of all the baptized arises in the Holy Spirit.

From the priesthood of the Son, the Anointed One, come in the Holy Spirit the calling and office of priests, which are imprinted on them with an indelible seal in the sacrament of Holy Orders.

Through their ministry, the entire People of God participates in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. Today, new priests are being given to this People of God, whose mission is based on the mission of all believers, for they too have been strengthened in their faith by the Holy Spirit. They must all set out on their task of proclaiming the faith: this is what is meant by the word of mission that concludes every Holy Mass.

Yes, let us rejoice today, because in this solemn liturgy the mission of the People of God in the Church of Switzerland has been renewed. Therefore, let us sing the praises of the Most Holy Trinity without ceasing, as if with one voice!

10. “Blessed are you, O Lord, God of our fathers.”

How many "fathers", such as Nicholas of Flue, how many generations have gone before you on this earth and have "partaken of the divine nature" ( 2 Peter 1:4), in living union with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! Let us accept their inheritance! Let us continue their witness! Let us take up their mission as a response to the pressing questions of today, at the turn of the third millennium! May this land always be touched by God and permeated with his life, to reflect his light and help the world to believe!

May the God of your fathers be the father of your children forever! The father of all generations to come in this land!

You, the only true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! Amen.

© Copyright 1984 - Vatican Publishing House

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