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My children, we
have come to the Sacrament of Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to
relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This
Sacrament raises man up to God. What is a priest! A man who holds the
place of God -- a man who is invested with all the powers of God. "Go,
" said Our Lord to the priest; "as My Father sent Me, I send you. All
power has been given Me in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all
nations. . . . He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises
you despises Me. " When the priest remits sins, he does not say, "God
pardons you"; he says, "I absolve you. " At the Consecration, he does
not say, "This is the Body of Our Lord;" he says, "This is My Body. "
Saint Bernard tells us that everything has come to us through Mary; and
we may also say that everything has come to us through the priest; yes,
all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts. If we had not the
Sacrament of Orders, we should not have Our Lord. Who placed Him there,
in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your
soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give
it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to
appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the
blood of Jesus Christ? The priest -- always the priest. And if that
soul comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will
restore it to calmness and peace? Again the priest. You cannot recall
one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this
recollection, the image of the priest.
Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they
absolve you? No. Will they give you the Body and Blood of Our Lord? No.
The Holy Virgin cannot make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You
might have two hundred angels there, but they could not absolve you. A
priest, however simple he may be, can do it; he can say to you, "Go in
peace; I pardon you. " Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not
understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he
understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love. The
other benefits of God would be of no avail to us without the priest.
What would be the use of a house full of gold, if you had nobody to
open you the door! The priest has the key of the heavenly treasures; it
is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the
distributor of His wealth. Without the priest, the Death and Passion of
Our Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it
availed them that Our Lord has died? Alas! they can have no share in
the blessings of Redemption, while they have no priests to apply His
Blood to their souls!
The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself
absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not
for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave
a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the
missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do
in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there: we may
as well pray at home. " When people wish to destroy religion, they
begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any
priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any
sacrifice there is no religion.
When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you
going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul. " If someone
were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden
door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is
kept. " "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready
the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest. " "And what is the
Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord. " O God! O God! how
Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of
bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the
world. . . . Someone said, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Cure of
Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him.
If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest
before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the
priest holds His place. St. Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had
passed. When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me
a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who
purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul. " At
the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that
place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest
has been there, and has said holy Mass. "
What joy did the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at
seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the
same joy, at seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is
attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the
Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers of
the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that
have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the
pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The
priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest,
think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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