Dear Sisters, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel passage which we have just heard is the equivalent passage in St Mark’s Gospel of one from St Matthew’s Gospel which we heard at Mass a short time ago. In that passage we noted how Our Lord chose twelve of His disciples, (a Latin word which means students, those who learn from a master), and made them His Apostles, (a Greek word which means those who are sent). The number twelve is important, for it signifies those who are to sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel at the end of the world. This is why it was essential that, when Judas had betrayed our Lord and committed suicide, a new twelfth Apostle had to take his place. This was Matthias, chosen after the Ascension and before Pentecost. Matthias had been one of the many disciples during our Lord’s earthly ministry, and he was chosen as an Apostle because he was a witness to the events of our Lord’s life, death and resurrection.
Today we heard how our Lord commissioned the twelve Apostles to go out to the ‘lost sheep’ of the House of Israel, to preach the good news of the Gospel and to heal the sick and drive out the power of the devil. It is interesting to note that our Lord sends them out in pairs. It may be that this fact remains embedde in a way in tradition in that we still celebrate some of the Apostles in twos: Philip and James, Simon and Jude. And after Pentecost another pairing presents itself frequently in the earlier part of the Acts of the Apostles: Peter and John.
Yet this occasion we have heard about today was but one of several in which Our Lord especially empowered the Apostles, giving them a unique share in His own ministry. For at the Last Supper He would also command them to ‘do this in memory of me’, meaning to consecrate bread and wine into His Body and Blood, to offer them in sacrifice to God the Father on behalf of all of us, and to administer that Body and Blood to the whole Church in Holy Communion. Then on the very day of the Resurrection, in the evening in the Upper Room where they were all assembled, He appeared to them in order to breathe upon them the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins. In all these ways our Lord gave the Apostles the authority to teach, to rule and to sanctify the people of God through the sacred rites of the Sacraments.
But of course this work, this commission to teach, govern and sanctify the Church was not to end with the original Twelve. Of course, when they died, their unique, unrepeatable experience of the events of our Lord’s ministry, His death and resurrection, died with them. For this reason the Apostles are unique. After them no one can be an eye witness to the events they saw with their own eyes. However, they passed on to other men the sacred commission which they had themselves received from Christ. This they did by prayer and the laying on of hands. For instance, we read how St Paul appointed St Timothy and St Titus to be rulers over local churches in Ephesus and Crete. This he did by laying hands upon them to commission them and empower them to do all those sacred duties which he himself, as an Apostle chosen by Christ, had done from the time of his conversion. Thus Timothy and Titus were numbered amont the first generation of those whom we call not Apostles, but ‘bishops’, a word meaning ‘overseers’, those who have authority from the Apostles to rule the Church in a particular place. To this day thy bishops are those who have what we call the ‘fullness of the priesthood’, because they share all the authority that the Apostles had been given by Christ. They are ordained in a sacred rite by the laying on of hands by other bishops, because it is only bishops who have the power to pass on the power of Holy Orders.
It is fitting to recall all this today because, as the sisters know, and anyone who was here yesterday morning, there was no Mass for the reason that I was taking part in an ordination ceremony in Liverpool, where one of my students from Oscott college was being ordained priest by the Archbishop of Liverpool. Ordination is the ceremony by which the sacrament of Holy Orders is shared by a bishop with a chosen man or men, and is celebrated in three distinct stages: the episcopate, (that is to be made a bishop), the presbyterate (that is to be made a priest) and the diaconate (that is to be made a deacon).
A bishop is, as I said, a successor of the Apostles in terms of the authority that is given him to teach, to govern and to sanctify by the power of the sacraments. He has the authority of the Apostles in the particular location where his see is, the local Church. For instance, our local bishop is Archbishop Longley of Birmingham, and we are in the diocese over which he has oversight. A priest, or presbyter to use the New Testament name meaning an ‘elder’, is one who is ordained to assist the local bishop in the celebration of the sacraments for the people of the diocese. A priest has the authority to teach and to sanctify with the sacraments, above all, of course, to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass. But he does so always in union with the local bishop, who usually will have ordained him. This is why priests are always ‘incardinated’, that is, made part of the structure of the diocese and make a promise of obedience to him at their ordination. Priests therefore celebrate Mass, forgive sins in the sacrament of reconciliation or confession, and heal the sick by anointing them as our Lord had empowered the Apostles to do, and as the bishops pass on to priests to do in union with them at their ordination.
As well as the ordination I attended yesterday, I will also attend another at St Chad’s Cathedral on Tuesday next, which is also the solemnity of our Lady of Mount Carmel, when two priests of our diocese, Fr Timothy Menezes and Fr Richard Walker, will be ordained bishops for service as auxiliaries or assistants to the Archbishop of Birmingham. In addition to the powers of the priesthood which they already possess, they will also have the power to ordain and to confirm.
We also need to remember deacons who are ordained to service of God’s people above all through direct assistance to the bishop and the priests above all in the celebration of the liturgy. That is why they have the first place beside the bishop or priest who is the celebrant at Mass. They assist in administering Holy Communion and especially in the proclamation of the Gospel at Mass. That is why they proclaim the Gospel even when there are bishops and priests present.
Finally, I will be attending yet another ordination next Saturday at St Chad’s Cathedral when the deacon David Bench, whom some of you may remember when he lived at Ss Peter’s and Paul’s presbytery with Fr Mark a few years ago, will be ordained priest by the Archbishop for this diocese. This leads me to my final reflection. For although a priestly ordination is a subject for rejoicing, it is also sobering to remind ourselves that this is the only priestly ordination for this diocese this year. As our Lord said on another occasion in the Gospel, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few’, and then He continued, ‘therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into His harvest’. This surely must give us pause for thought. Our Lord will not simply call and provide priests for His Church, that is for our needs, unless we commit ourselves to praying and working intensely for this to be granted to us.
Tuesday next is the solemnity of our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patronal feast of the Carmelite Order. The sisters are offering Mass and the sacrifice of their prayers on that day for the intention of an increase in priestly vocations. After Mass there will be Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all day until Vespers in the afternoon at 4.30 p.m. Do please resolve to spend some time on Tuesday not only at Mass but also in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for this most important and urgent intention. The future of vocations to the priesthood in this diocese depends on such sacrifice of prayer as we are prepared to give to God.
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