Meeting with Priests (15 August 1983)

On Monday, 15 August 1983, the Holy Father met with priests in Our Lady of the Rosary Basilica, Lourdes, where he gave a meditation on the power to forgive sins.

Dear Brothers in the priesthood

1. Together, in personal and ever-living memory of the Bishop who gave us the power to forgive sins, we reached the Lord Jesus himself on Easter afternoon. According to St. John's account, the disciples were still inside the Cenacle out of fear of the Jews. And behold, the Master appears to them, shows them his crucified wounds, wishes them peace twice. They are overwhelmed with emotion and joy. Jesus then transmits to them a message that is both simple and solemn: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And, adding a symbolic gesture that recalls the creative breath of Genesis, he infuses them with the regenerating breath and takes care to give them the meaning: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Those whose sins you forgive will be forgiven; to whom you retain them, they will be retained" ( John 20, 23).

2. O Christ, revive in us, revive in all priests, this truly paschal gift! This gift destined to make humanity, always inclined to sin, pass from death to life! On this Easter afternoon, you can already see, Lord, the use we will make of this gift born from your heart, like the other sacraments. You know the hours of fatigue and joy that we will have to dedicate to this sublime and human ministry. Currently there are currents of thought that relativize the notion of sin and therefore devalue the power, conferred by ordination, to forgive it. Here, Mary had Bernadette convey the invitation to do penance; and she did not cease to continue a wonderful movement of conversion. How many men and women, in the chapel of confessions, or in other places in these sanctuaries, have found, thanks to our ministry, the peace of a purified heart and the courage of fidelity to the Gospel!

O Jesus, You, the "High Priest whom we befit: Holy, Innocent, Immaculate... exalted above the Heavens" ( Heb . 7, 26), have mercy on those who allow themselves to be carried away by thoughtless concessions, to seductive ideas, stripped of realism and dangers that minimize sin and forgiveness! You came to this world to "heal and save all men." We thank You for having chosen us and configured us with You, in a sacramental way, in order to continue your mission of reconciling men with God and with each other.

3. This mission is absolutely necessary, today as yesterday! It derives from the first mission, referred to in St. Matthew: "Go therefore and teach all the nations... ( Mt. 28, 19). Now, to be your disciple, Lord, means to "put on yourself": the Your apostle Paul often recalled it. On the contrary, allowing oneself to give in to sin is to deprive oneself of You, according to your teaching, and with the entire tradition of your Church, we believe that sin is personal, in this sense. that it compromises your growth in us. In the same way we believe that it is social, in the sense that, by infiltrating the various responsibilities that you have entrusted to your people, sin prevents the expansion of your life among our human brothers and hurts your mystical Body, the Church.

4. O Jesus, whose divinity was confessed by the first apostles until the shedding of their own blood, we want to admire the way in which they perfectly fulfilled your mission as Liberator from the sin that ruins the spirit and hearts of men, even after the grace of Baptism. We want to admire their concern in exercising the ministry of penance and reconciliation, conferred on them by You without any mistake. The testimonies of the early Church are numerous, O Redeemer of every man and of all men, persuade us in a profound way that you called us and consecrated us to this ministry of reconciliation! You, who in a simple and divine way explained that penance and reconciliation are essentially a conversion, a return to the heavenly Father, from Whom we have distanced ourselves, and a return to our brothers, from whom we have separated, renew in a special way in prayer, the our dispositions and our zeal for this ecclesiastical service, which generates peace and happiness that are impossible to measure.

At the end of this meditation under your gaze, we feel very strongly when you need our voice, our heart, our gesture, in short, our entire priestly being, to welcome each of our brothers and sisters in the name of the Church. desirous and even thirsty for reconciliation, and communicate to them the response of your merciful and regenerating Love; to each one, to each one, with their unique history, their particular problems and also their original place in the community of men always being reestablished, in the unity always being built according to your plan of Salvation!

5. What if, — what a shame! —, despite our efforts to be available and welcoming, the faithful are so slow to understand those who listen to them, through the merciful gestures of the Church, we can also understand the meaning of this ordeal. We are undoubtedly perplexed by the abandonment of the sacrament by the majority of the faithful, although a small number resort to it or return to it in a fruitful way. We will do everything to instruct and persuade the faithful about the need to receive forgiveness personally, fervently and frequently. And we will strive to exercise this ministry, as the Church asks, so that no one turns away from it, under the pretext of considering the celebration of the sacrament formal and superficial. But, in fact, the negligence of asking for forgiveness, and even the refusal to convert, is characteristic of the sinner, today as yesterday. Isn't it God's action that reconciles and forgiveness that transforms the sinner's heart? The priest, who sadly feels the separation of his brothers from the sources of forgiveness, participates in the passion of Christ, in his suffering in the face of the hardening of hearts, in his anguish for the salvation of the world. He himself enters the spiritual combat and knows that it will be necessary for him, like the Curé D'Ars, to prepare or prolong his ministry of forgiveness through his own sacrifice. There are demons that are banished only through prayer and fasting (cf. Mc 9, 29). We knew this on the day of our ordination, when the Bishop told us: "Be aware of what you do, live what you accomplish, conform yourselves to the mystery of the Cross of the Lord".

6. O Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, silently and actively in this sanctuary of Lourdes, as in the entire Church, we turn to You. Grant to all the priests of Jesus Christ the grace to give greater importance, a generous time, clean theological and spiritual competence, and daily fidelity to the Holy Spirit for the sacrament of reconciliation that Christians need so much; because this is the sacrament in which brothers are reconciled with God, the sacrament that prepares to celebrate the Eucharist, to truly live the communion of the Church, Body of Christ!

Dear Brothers in the priesthood, I bless in the name of the Lord the ministry that you are going to exercise right here in Lourdes, and the one that you will exercise until the end of your priestly existence.

Copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana