My first Christmas as Priest of Christ saw great tragedy in the wonderful parish I had been appointed to. I can remember going to one house where the darkness of death had descended over a young man in a most tragic way. His mother reached for my hand and cried “Father pray.” Being anything we had been taught was useless, she was looking for “In persona Christi.”
The Priest is nothing if he acts apart from Christ.
He becomes an empty entertainment; a show like every other. To act in Jesus is to bring God to the deepest sadness or to the most joy-filled moments. To act in the person of Jesus in the Holy Mass means that the Blessed Eucharist becomes about Christ’s presence in the heart of a parish community. Everything from the vesture, to the posture, to how words are used in a sermon to how even the Sacred host is handled should always be as the Lord would. ‘‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself ’’ (John 12:32). The Priest hands elevate the Person of Jesus; they are given for this, given so that he can draw all into himself. “In persona Christi.” The voice of the Priest is used by the Word of God to say, “My Body” and “Blood” (cf. Mt 26:27-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-21). “In persona Christi.” Noting apart from the Lord; this is the call of the Priest. In the Sacrament of the Sick, the healing is that of the Lord. Remember the shadow of St Peter that goes by and heals is a reflection of the Lord he serves. (cf. Acts 5:15-16). Again, I can recall a young mother with her two teenage sons as she lay dying. No words of mine were of any use, it is only the power of His Word that can show real hope and strength at a time like that. The light of the Lord is the only light here that matters. “In persona Christi.” You are always entitled to enjoy fiends, rest, peruse hobbies, be with family but you are always an Icon of Christ; your voice, your hands, your way of being are in him who called you.
The temptation of some is to see those who try to identify clearly as Priests of Jesus Christ as somehow outdated. They represent an interpretation of the past that has utterly failed. To be as everyone else is not the call apart that is demanded of the Priest. However, to be the Lord’s Priest does not give you an entitlement to lord it over but to serve. It also calls for us to be visible, to reflect his majesty and beauty to a world that is crying out for witnesses to his hope. The Priest is not a profession of part time teacher, nice guy, social worker and minister with a small m! “Father pray.”
This is the call of the Sacred Ministry to be as Christ, to be “In persona Christi.”
Father Tony Gonoude is the Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Meath.
You can visit the Meath Diocese’s new website for vocations here: Diocese of Meath Vocations
