On Maundy Thursday the Universal Church commemorates the institution of two great sacraments which the Lord gave to his Church in order to show us how much He has loved us till the end (Jn 13, 1). These are the Eucharist and Holy Orders.

The sacrament of the Eucharist is the sacrament of charity par excellence. It was instituted by Jesus’ words just hours before his Passion, Death and Resurrection. During the Jewish Passover meal which he celebrated with his disciples, Christ left to us his very presence in the bread and wine via the consecrated words which are the core of the mass: “This is my body given up for you” and “this is my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant that will be shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins”.

In the Eucharistic Liturgy both consecration formulae have the same ending: “Do this in memory of me”. This short phrase is crucial. Thanks to it Christ made it clearly known that concomitant with the sacrament of the Eucharist he was also instituting that of Holy Orders. Through the latter he keeps fulfilling his promise: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt 28, 20). He comes to our midst by the consecratory words which validly-ordained ministers say in his person. Consequently, the ministerial priesthood perpetuates in time Christ’s presence among us by consecrating the Eucharistic species of bread and wine.

Obviously, Christ’s presence is not limited to the Eucharist. In a special way, it is also seen and felt in the life and ministry of his priests. In itself, the ministerial priesthood is the sacrament of Christ’s loving presence among us. The priest is the man of the Eucharist, thus the man of charity. If he wants to be Christ for his flock he must let Christ’s charity take hold of his priestly existence. For this to happen both his ministry as well as his life must be intertwined with Christ. As the Vatican II’s Decree “On the Ministry and Life of Priests”, Presbyterorum Ordinis says, “Priests, then, can achieve this coordination and unity of life by joining themselves with Christ to acknowledge the will of the Father. For them this means a complete gift of themselves to the flock committed to them” (Presbyteroum Oridinis, 14).

This ‘joining [oneself] with Christ’ of Presbyterorum Ordinis, has been termed as “companionship with Christ,” by the Synod of Bishops’ document “On the Priestly Ministry” Ultimis temporibus. “Called like the rest of those who have been baptised to become a true image of Christ (cf. Rom 8:29), the priest, like the Apostles, shares besides in a special way companionship with Christ and his mission as the Supreme Pastor: “And he appointed twelve; they were to be his companions and to be sent out to preach” (Mk 3:14). Therefore in the priestly life there can be no dichotomy between love for Christ and zeal for souls” (Ultimis temporibus, 3).

What emerges as crystal clear from the above two documents is that the principle of unity between a priest’s ministry and life emanates from his profound relationship with the Lord Jesus. It is precisely this intimate relationship with Jesus that can finally teach the priest what it means to live by Christ’s standards, i.e. pastoral charity. On this point Pope John Paul II’s Post-Synodal Exhortation “On the formation of Priests in the circumstances of the present day” Pastores Dabo Vobis, explicates this reality very clearly: “The internal principle, the force which animates and guides the spiritual life of the priest inasmuch as he is configured to Christ the head and shepherd, is pastoral charity, as a participation in Jesus Christ’s own pastoral charity, a gift freely bestowed by the Holy Spirit and likewise a task and a call which demand a free and committed response on the part of the priest” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 23).

Christ is deeply encountered with in prayer. If this is true of every Christian believer how much more tenable it is for those who represent Christ on earth by their very consecrated existence. As Pope John XXIII says in his Encyclical Letter on Saint John Vianney: “a priest must be specially devoted to constant prayer” (Sacerdotii Nostri Primordia, 35). In the same paragraph the Pope explains that Saint John Vianney could bring the much needed spiritual revival in Ars simply because “he began to spend long and happy hours at night (when he might have been resting) in adoration of Jesus in the Sacrament of His love. The Sacred Tabernacle seemed to be the spring from which he constantly drew the power that nourished his own piety and gave new life to it and promoted the effectiveness of his apostolic labour…”

Likewise, a priest who is fully committed to his consecration to God can certainly recognise in faith that Christ is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of the pastoral activity he is carrying out. When a priest’s personal and ministerial life are integrated they become a powerful hymn of praise, as the one we find in Psalm 18 verse 2: “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold”. Before being the man for others, a priest must necessarily be, first and foremost, a man of and for God. His body and blood are given to Christ as a sign of his loving faithfulness to Him alone.

The sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of charity. By making himself available to Christ’s faithful the priest is imitating the Son of God who “came not to be served but to serve” (Mk 10, 45). Having said that, my pastoral experience teaches me that pastoral charity on its own has little effect. It needs to be constantly accompanied and consolidated with an intense communion with Jesus. To that end, if our pastoral initiatives as priests are deeply anointed by the Holy Spirit, Charity itself, then we can joyfully rediscover the beauty of being called by the Father to be Jesus to his flock. Only Jesus can teach us, his beloved priests, to empty ourselves, take the form of a servant, humble ourselves and become obedient unto death (see Phil 2, 7-8) so that “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2, 11).

Fr Mario Attard

OFM Cap

San Gwann