At the very center of the Church’s life, that point from which everything of lasting value flows from and tends, is the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose sacrifice and outpouring is made present in the Eucharist. The ministerial priesthood exists at the center of the priesthood of all believers, allowing the sacrifice of Calvary, His suffering, death and resurrection to be mystically made available for our worship to be joined to His. This is for the nourishment and unity of His flock and the re-foundation of all creation in Christ, in line with the Father’s plan. (cf. Eph 1:10) The Mass is a manifestation of Jesus’ high priestly offering, which is oriented towards the completion of the Father’s work and bears fruit into every generation.
On June 22, 2024, at St. Joseph the Workman Cathedral, I had the blessing of ordaining Father David Nowicki. Through the laying on of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, Father Nowicki was transformed by grace to share in the priesthood of the bishops. Just as the simple bread, wine and water become what they were not, the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, Rev. Mr. Nowicki, docile as bread, wine and water, becomes what he was not, a man who consecrates, shrives of sins, baptizes and marries. He makes ordinary people into living tabernacles, and they, too, can bear the Risen One into the world.
The priest exists for the Eucharist. He is its steward, and he is consecrated that he might consecrate not just with the unction of his life but also with the stuff of his humanity. He is deputed by God to call down the Holy Spirit for the sake of his flock so the pattern of living, laid down by Jesus Christ, might be made manifest in all of us.
In this role, the priest helps us die to ourselves and rise in Christ. He heals and blesses, nourishes and unites, strengthens and steadies every one of us for mission so that the light of the resurrection might shine through us into the world.
Once we understand this, we realize that the priesthood is a gift for all. Once we taste Jesus Christ’s self-giving love, as Archbishop Allen Vigneron wrote in his pastoral letter, “Unleash the Gospel,” we are stamped with His self-donative love so that we might bear the Risen One in our hearts. We bear Him in our hearts to take Him to the highways and byways where we announce the love of Christ. With our very lips, we proclaim this invitation to come and see, to come and follow and to come and become.
Priesthood is a gift. The Eucharist is a gift. The Lord desires to use us as a gift.
You and I are to become a gift that the Lord desires to use to feed the multitudes. We become a gift that is not just human, bound by death and time, but a supernatural gift whose breadth is eternal and whose length is divine. Jesus came to bring life, that we might have it abundantly. (Jn 10:10)
We are blessed with a new priest so that a priestly people might receive and become more like their Master. As a result, the One who gives His Sacred Heart to us in the Eucharist might transform us into a Eucharistic people, sharing in His mission.
Story by Most Reverend Gerard W. Battersby
Published in the September/October 2024 issue of Catholic Life Magazine