Pluscarden Abbey, Monday 12 June 2023
Dear Br Joseph, Christ is real, his power to ordain is real and the priesthood is real. Something real is happening to you today. Something real; something good, good for you and good for the community and the Church; something radiant too and beautiful.
“You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (Heb 5:5). We heard those words in the 1st reading, from the New Testament Letter to the Hebrews. They are words from the Old Testament, from Psalm 109. The Psalmist imagines God speaking to an Israelite king as he is enthroned: the king, who was becoming a father of his people, is first of all a son. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews applies this saying to Jesus becoming the true high priest. Through the paschal mystery of his Son’s death and resurrection, God the Father begot his Son to his role of priestly self-offering and heavenly intercession on behalf of all humanity.
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Dear Br Joseph, as you are ordained to the priesthood, as you become a father, these words hold for you too.
We are having this ordination today precisely so that your parents can be part of it: so that they can see their son, the son they begot, the son they took to be baptised and to become a child of God all those years ago - see him today begotten to priesthood, becoming a priestly father. Isn’t this a fulfilment of their parenthood? Perhaps your mother feels as St Monica felt about her son, Augustine, whom, in answer to her prayers, she saw with joy not only become a Christian but God’s dedicated servant too.
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” St Benedict, as we know, wrote a rather chilly chapter about monks becoming priests (RB, Ch. 62). He saw the need but feared the possible pride. And yet he also opened a path for the priest: “let him make more and more progress towards God” (64:4). Perhaps St Benedict was saying: as you become a father, always remember that you are first a son. Never forget your parents; remember them in every Mass you will celebrate. Never forget you are a son of Mother Church. Never forget you are a son of a community, living under a rule and an abbot and dedicated to the service of your brethren. Never forget that the gift of the Holy Spirit is given from above – “no one takes this honour on himself” (Heb 5:4) – and then you will indeed “make more and more progress towards God” - God the Father - and will share in his power of begetting and be secure and fruitful in your priestly fatherhood.
“Listen, my son” begins the Rule. I think monastic life is deeply tied to fatherhood and sonship, and that that is why it does allow for priesthood.
It is deeply tied to brotherhood as well. When a member of the community, a brother, becomes a priest, he doesn’t cease to be a brother. He becomes more of one. Through the rite of ordination, things, words, functions, possibilities, powers even, are put into the hands of one chosen by the abbot and the brethren. One of their brothers is now qualified to take bread and wine, pray the Great Prayer over them, and hand them on to his brethren and all to whom he ministers. He gives his fellow-servants their portion of food at the proper time, in due season (cf. Lk 12:42). He can absolve and anoint. He can, officially as it were, offer a word of grace. And he does all this as a brother, showing the “care” - St Benedict’s word (RB 2:8 etc) - each monk is to have for his brother, and for the brothers and sisters around him. Helping Br Cyprian for a good while in the care of Fr Matthew, you evidenced that brotherly heart; today, gratuitously, it is enlarged. It is enlarged to those who come to the monastery and ask your priestly help. You “can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since [you yourself] are beset with weakness” (Heb 5:2), having experienced that too. To “exercise the priesthood”, St Benedict’s phrase (RB 62:1), doesn’t take you out of the community, but deeper into it. You now have the priestly medicine of mercy from which to draw, with which to minister the “consolation of another” (RB 1:5), in and around the community. And the heart of the community is enlarged too as it humbly and warmly welcomes the gift which is given you for them (cf. RB 41:1).
A monastic priest is a blessed animal. He can focus on the essential of word and sacrament. His pastoral care is usually of individuals. He is not responsible for a monastic community. He is spared administration. He need not be concerned with finance or the fabric of the church and its other property. He doesn’t have to badger people to boost the collections or ensure that electrical appliances are safety checked. He has an abbot, a cellarer, a bursar to care for these things. He can simply fungi sacerdotio and serve the altar, offering spiritual food at the proper time and, as a father does, bless.
Blessed you are too to stand at the altar in the church, with the brethren before you and lay faithful aside, with eyes raised to Br Gilbert’s stained glass: the glorified Christ coming from the east, bearing paten and chalice, blue and gold above the flaming red of the earth and the world. It is beautiful to be ordained the day after Corpus Christi.
“You are my Son; today I have begotten you”. Br Joseph, be a son and you’ll become a father. Be a servant, and you will be a brother. Be a disciple, and you will be a teacher. The Psalm-verse is applied in the New Testament to the glorifying of the risen Christ. May the priesthood fill your life as a resurrection. May Mary, mother of priests, help you image her risen Son. May St Joseph keep your priestly stewardship “faithful and wise” (Lk 12:42).
May the Lord be ever more real to you!
Bishop Hugh OSB