remember who you are

At every benediction we have decided to talk to you about the priesthood, and the great need of the world for priests like you in the future.
Today on the feast of the Corpus Christi we ask: Why do seminarians celebrate mass daily? Even in the parish why are they encouraged to go to daily mass? Why do we have benediction every Sunday? Why do we have visits to the Blessed Sacrament everyday at noontime? Why? Because the Eucharist and the priesthood are so interconnected with one another one cannot exists without the other. Remember Jesus Christ instituted the Eucharist and the Priesthood together - together, not apart from but together on the evening of Holy Thursday when Christ with his disciples gathered in a large room. Jesus took bread and wine and said, this is my body, this is my blood, do this in remembrance of me. From then on the Eucharist and the priesthood moved on to perpetuate the memory of Jesus, with the Eucharist so dependent of the priesthood and the priesthood so closely tied up with the celebration of the Eucharist from where it derives its purpose and meaning. This feast then is as much a feast of the priesthood as it is a feast of the Eucharist.


Permit me now to dwell on one purpose and meaning which the priesthood derives from the Eucharist it celebrates daily. When the priest says at the act of consecration this is my body which will be given up for you, this is the cup of my blood he is not just speaking in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. He is also speaking about himself and his priesthood. Remember our reflection last year in the solemn vespers of the candelaria where I told you that the model of our priesthood is not the old testament priesthood but the priesthood of Jesus Christ where Jesus is the priest, the altar and the sacrifice itself. So also the person of the priest. When the priest says this is my body he is referring to the body of Christ and also his body -the body that will also be many times broken and shared. Every day, every time we say mass we are reminded by those words, this is my body, that our bodies too is blessed, that our bodies too will be broken and that our bodies too will be shared for the life of the world.
The bottom line of any understanding of the priesthood is the reality that he will be called upon to sacrifice himself like Christ for the sake of the church, his people. Like Christ he is the priest, the altar and the sacrifice. Thus in the priesthood the less one thinks of himself, the less one thinks of his preferences and likes, the more he becomes true to his mission, for a priest is a man called to be broken and shared just as Jesus did in the Eucharist and on the cross.
This is what seminary formation makes you ready for in the priesthood. Every time you are made to do hard work, every time you are made to do the things you do not feel like doing, every time you are made to wear clothes you prefer not to wear, every time you are made to suffer the difficulties and the rigors of classes, dishwashing, and magnum silentium; every time you are denied permission to go out even with the most beautiful reason one can think of or concoct, that is the time your ego dies to make you ready to be broken and shared in the priesthood. Every time you are denied your want or even your need to go home, every time you feel bored or homesick but are made to stick it out, every time you eat what is served even if this is not up to your liking, every time the bell rings and calls you to start rising in the morning, or to stop playing in recreation, every time you want to make a call but could not use the phone because it is not allowed, every time you are made to laundry your underwear even if you prefer to throw it in the bag, every time you are called to sacrifice time and effort in your responsibilities as leaders, these are the times when you die to what you want so that you could learn to live the life of one who will one day become not just a priest but also the altar and the sacrifice. Learning to die to oneself, learning to become bread willing to be broken and shared - this is at the root of seminary formation. And so we look to the bread before us, we look to Jesus for inspiration and encouragement.
It is said that St. Augustine when he gave communion, he would sometimes change the words body of Christ. Sometimes he would say, Remember who you are. Me a priest, you future priests - remember who you are and who you will become one day. Like Jesus you will become the priest, the altar and the sacrifice. Like Jesus you will say this is my body, this is my blood. Like Jesus you will become bread to be blessed, broken and shared. Remember who you are.