40 Years a Priest
Last Sunday, 4th August, the Eighteenth Sunday of the Year, was also the feast of St. Jean Mary Vianney. It was on his feast day in 1984 that I was ordained a priest. Here is the homily I preached at the 12 noon Mass in the Cathedral.
Today 4th August is the feast of St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, the patron saint of parish priests. It was on this day in 1984 in my parish church, St. Vincent’s Altrincham, that I was ordained a priest. I well remember the happiness of that day, the church full of family, friends, parishioners and priests from all over. Afterwards, the Lord sent me to St. Anthony’s Wythenshawe, then to Cambridge University as assistant chaplain, then to Birkenhead as a hospital chaplain. Next, I spent twelve years at St. Mary’s College Oscott as the Director of Studies and the Lecturer in Fundamental Theology, and two years as a fellow of Boston College, Ma. In 2008, I became parish priest of St. Christopher’s, Romiley and in autumn 2012 the Lord brought me here as the Bishop of Portsmouth. I have so much to thank God for, many experiences, many memories, many people I have loved and served. The priesthood is not mine, of course, but Christ’s: I am only a vehicle. It is His priesthood we celebrate. But please do pray for me today, that I will be faithful, and thank God for His blessings on this 40th anniversary of my ordination as His priest.
During these five weeks of high summer, the Liturgy presents us with Jesus’s teaching in St. John’s Gospel Chapter 6. I am the Bread of Life: anyone who comes to me will never be hungry; anyone who believes in me will never thirst. Jesus is Food for body and soul. He is the Word through Whom all things were made. He came to save us. He came to raise us up. He came to give us Himself so that we might live forever. As St. Leo puts it: He became human so that we might become divine. Interestingly, in the earlier verses of Chapter 6, Jesus says He is the Bread of Life in the sense that His doctrine, His teaching, His message satisfies the deepest hunger of the human heart for love, meaning and purpose. He is truly the answer to all our needs. But in the later verses, Jesus goes further. He is the Bread of Life in the literal sense. He wants to feed us. He wants to give Himself to us as Bread. He wants to feed us with His Body and Blood, so that He can live in us and we can live in Him. This is mind-blowing. No wonder at the end of the Chapter we’re told many people laughed. They couldn’t accept it. They walked away.
I don’t know if you’ve been following the Olympics? Sport is really big in today’s world. From a Catholic perspective, sport is a real school of human personal, social, moral and spiritual development. It celebrates the body, the world as good. It provides play, leisure and recreation. It can build up virtue and human fraternity. But sport also manifests the astounding mystery of the human person. We are a unity of body and soul. We are created physical and spiritual, and it’s important for our health and well-being that we take care of both dimensions. Indeed, God has made the whole of creation interconnected. Our bodies are living crossroads not only between the farthest galaxies and the sub-atomic, but between the material realm and the nonvisible spiritual realm. This is why Jesus, the Bread of Life, wants to nourish the whole person in both dimensions. He does this above all in the Mass. For the Mass conjoins the seen with the unseen. Here in a holy exchange God comes to Man so that Man might come to God. It is in the Mass that Jesus feeds us with Himself; He feeds us His Word and He feeds us His Body and Blood. In the Mass, Jesus becomes truly the Bread of Life.
There is nothing so great as the Eucharist St. John Vianney once said. If God had something more precious, He would have given it to us. Today as we continue to hear Jesus’s Eucharistic Discourse in John Chapter 6, let us thank God for sending us His Son and for giving Himself to us as the Bread of Life. Let’s renew our love for the Mass and make sure it is always central to our lives. If your life is hectic, don’t forget Sunday Mass. If you’re on holiday, find the nearest church. If you have children, don’t let Sunday sport stop them getting to Mass. Sport is a key mission field for the Church, so let us pray for those taking part in the Olympic Games, those following it all on TV and for peace across the world. Lastly please say a prayer for me on this anniversary, asking the intercession of St. John Vianney, that I may be a better priest and that the Lord will grant health and blessings in the times ahead. [Image: St. Jean Mary Vianney (Vatican News)]
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