At the time of your reading this, I’ll have returned from
our biannual priest convocation. This is a meeting of all
the priests in the Diocese for a few days of seminars,
prayer, relaxation, and fraternity. Some people might
think priests are together often, but naturally, the
realities of parish life make that difficult. It’s ironic, but
ever since I became a priest, I rarely get to pray with
other priests at Mass—before ordination I would always
be with some priest, but now I’m the one offering Mass
on my own. Getting away for awhile and spending time
with our brother priests is a great way to renew
ourselves.

The fraternity of priests is pretty unique. The only
analogy I can think of is the military. There’s a real
sense that we are all doing the same thing, despite our
many differences (which is not to say there are never
conflicts between us!). I always find the older ones have
much to teach me. I have a lot of respect for them. It’s
not easy to be faithful for so many years, but they’ve
done it, and most of them are joyful about it, too. That’s
very encouraging and it gives me a picture of where I
want to be headed.

Theologically, we can say that all of us priests are
united in sharing the one priesthood of Christ. When
Jesus came, He offered the perfect sacrifice of His own
body on the Cross. As Hebrews tells us, “He has no
need, as did the high priests, to offer sacrifice day after
day, first for His own sins and then for those of the
people; He did that once for all when He offered
Himself” (Hebrews 7:27). Christ’s sacrifice was
sufficient. Therefore there is no need for new animal
sacrifices, and no need for new priests, either! No
Catholic priest is “new” in the sense of possessing his
own priesthood—rather, we are priests only by our
participation in the one priesthood of Jesus, only by
standing in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. And
we don’t offer new sacrifice either—the holy sacrifice
of the Mass that we celebrate is simply the one sacrifice
of Christ from 2000 years ago, made mystically present
today. So when am I most a priest? When I recede into
the background, when I become as transparent as
possible so that only Christ shines through. So that it is
His priesthood that people experience. Pray that I can
do that well!