When a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies

Ordination to the Priesthood – John-Joseph Martin LEB

Dear Br John-Joseph, you are being ordained on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

This feast takes us the heart of the Christian mystery – the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, chose the path of suffering and death in order to redeem the human race from the scourge of its sin.

We Christians lift high the cross of Christ as the proclamation of the wonder of the love of God for humanity. We exalt in the cross as the great declaration of the mercy of God towards the wayward human race. 

This feast, though, speaks to us of the mystery that each of us are invited to embrace. We heard tonight the Lord say to his disciples, Andrew and Phillip, and he says it to me and you and all of us who take the name of
Christian: “Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”.

These are stirring words, challenging words, truthful words. They are the key to being a true Christian and especially in being a priest. Indeed, they are the key to being a human being.

There is a dying to self, necessary for every one of us, that life may be born in us, and through us, in others. This is the great mystery of the nature of love.

Jesus adds, “if a man serves me, he must follow me”. This ‘following’ is Christian discipleship – modelling ourselves on the person and fully embracing the teaching of Jesus the Master, our Lord.

It includes a further essential element: this following involves a participation in the paschal mystery which lies at the heart of the life and mission of Jesus.

The paschal mystery concerns both dying and rising. It is not just dying, not just sacrifice. It is the path to fulness of life, in this world and in the next.

In the beautiful and moving hymn from the letter of St Paul to the Philippians the paschal mystery is enunciated in striking terms.

Jesus, Son of God, reigning in glory abandoned his exalted state and took on the human condition. And, as the hymn says, was humbler yet and allowed himself to be taken as a lamb to the slaughter.

The hymn continues and declares that God raised him on high and now all of creation is to bend the knee at his very name and the Church with joy and exaltation proclaims, “Jesus Christ is Lord”.

In the Gospel reading this evening Jesus uses the image of a wheat grain. The Lord speaks of the necessity of the wheat grain falling on the ground and dying.

Unless it does so, the Lord insists, it remains only a single grain. But, the Lord teaches, “if it dies it produces a rich harvest”.

The Church’s discipline in relation to the priesthood is that priests voluntarily embrace celibacy. A man called to be a priest is prepared to make the sacrifice of not entering into marriage and having a family.

It is a sacrifice. It goes against the natural orientation of men and women towards the married state.

The Lord understands that a man will accept this, as he says, “for the sake of the Kingdom”. A person will embrace the celibate state in order to devote themselves single-mindedly to the affairs of God, advancing a the Kingdom of God on earth.

A priest will value and respect marriage and family, but will choose to die to himself and offer his life as a sacrifice that God’s saving work can be advanced in the world.

A priest then lives his life wholly preoccupied with God and the things of God. He is able to give particular attention to prayer and the silence that is needed to ensure that prayer is deep and fruitful.

As a Little Eucharistic Brother, you commit yourself to silent contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament daily. This will be the foundation to your priestly life to ensure that your ministry is spiritually oriented and fruitful.

You are free to pursue a deeper life of prayer because of your celibate state.

Those elements described in the first reading, nourished by a life of deep prayer, will be realised in your ministry.

You will be able to bind up hearts that are broken; you will proclaim liberty to those who are captive to addictions or vices; your will bring comfort to those who mourn.

In announcing the joy of the Gospel you will bring the good news of the love and mercy of God to those burdened and lost.

Br John-Joseph, tonight you are raised to the dignity of the priesthood. It is first of all and always will be a life of service.

You will offer service to Almighty God by a life devoted to the “things of God”. It will entail the celebration of the sacred Liturgy, the Mass and Divine Office.

It will entail, as I mentioned before, time given to the Lord in silence and prayer. It will involve the ongoing study of and reflection upon the Sacred Scriptures and the Magisterial teaching of the Church.

It will require a steady and faithful attention to the gentle yet powerful movements of the Holy Spirit.

In a word, you are to be a ‘man of God’.

This service is at the same time to be a service to the People of God. In the first place you are called to minister within the household of the Church.

You will attend to the spiritual and pastoral needs of the people. You will serve them by being a conduit of saving grace through the administration of the sacraments.

You will assist them in growing in the Christian life by your preaching and teaching. You are to be an agent of God mercy by absolving them of their sins. You will offer consolation to them in times of grief or confusion.

In a word, you are to be a ‘spiritual father’.

You are called upon by the Lord to bring the message of the Gospel and mediate the very person of Christ to those who are far away.

The Lord gave the great commission to his apostles at the Ascension. They were to go out to ‘all the world’. Be always ready to offer witness to Christ that those who meet you may also meet Christ.

Our priestly lives are to enable people to encounter Jesus Christ and enter upon a path of conversion and faith.

In a word, you are to be a ‘missionary disciple’.

Tonight is a night of great joy – for your community, for your family, for your friends, for the Archdiocese of Hobart.

On this Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I offer the teaching of the Lord that when a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it yields a rich harvest.

Archbishop Julian Porteous

Thursday, 14 September 2023