“Be a reflection of the patience and tenderness” of Christ, the Good Shepherd. «You belong to everyone and you are for everyone! May this be the fundamental profile of your mission: to keep the threshold clear and indicate it, without the need for too many words.” This is the assignment entrusted by Leo Here is the homily given by the Pontiff.
Dear brothers and sisters!
With this greeting I address in particular to those who have now been presented, who will receive presbyteral ordination, to your family members, to the priests of Rome, many of whom remember their Ordination on this fourth Sunday of Easter, to all of you present!
This is a Sunday full of life! Even if death surrounds us, Jesus’ promise is already coming true: “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance” (John 10, 10). In the availability of the young people that the Church today asks to be ordained priests we find a lot of generosity and enthusiasm. As we gather, so numerous and diverse, around the one Master we feel a strength that regenerates us. It is the Holy Spirit, who binds people and vocations in freedom, so that no one lives for himself anymore. Sunday – every Sunday – calls us out of the “sepulchre” of isolation, of closure, because we meet in the garden of communion, of which the Risen One is the guardian.
The service of the priest, on which the call of these brothers invites us to reflect, is a ministry of communion. “Life in abundance”, in fact, comes to us in the very personal encounter with the person of the Son, but it immediately opens our eyes to a people of brothers and sisters who already experience, or who still seek, the “power to become children of God” (John 1, 12). Here is a first secret in the life of the priest. Dear ordinands, the deeper your bond with Christ, the more radical your belonging to common humanity. There is no opposition, nor competition, between heaven and earth: in Jesus they are united forever. This living and dynamic mystery engages the heart in an indissoluble love: it engages and fills it. Of course, like the love of spouses, the love that inspires celibacy for the Kingdom of God must be preserved and always renewed, because every true affection matures and becomes fruitful over time. You are called to a specific, delicate, difficult way of loving and, even more, of letting yourself be loved, in freedom. A way that can make you, as well as good priests, also honest, available citizens, builders of peace and social friendship.
In this regard, it is striking in the Gospel just proclaimed (John 10, 1-10), Jesus’ reference to figures and gestures of aggression: between him and those he loves, in fact, strangers, thieves and brigands burst in who cross the limits, come, says Jesus, “except to steal, kill and destroy” (v. 10) and above all have a voice different from his, unrecognizable (see v. 5). There is great realism in the Lord’s words: he knows the cruelty of the world in which he walks with us. With his words he evokes forms of physical, but above all spiritual, aggression. However, this does not deter him from giving his life. The complaint does not become renunciation, the danger does not lead to flight. Here is a second secret for the life of the priest: reality should not scare us. The Lord of life is calling us. May the ministry entrusted to you, dearest ones, communicate the peace of those who, even among dangers, know why they are safe.
Today the need for security makes people aggressive, closes communities in on themselves, leads them to look for enemies and scapegoats. There is often fear around us and perhaps within us. Your security does not lie in the role you have, but in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in the history of salvation in which you participate with your people. It is a salvation that already works in so much good done silently, among people of good will, in the parishes and in the environments to which you will be close, as traveling companions. What you announce and celebrate will protect you even in difficult situations and times.
The communities to which you will be sent are places where the Risen One is already present, where many have already followed him in an exemplary way. You will recognize his wounds, you will distinguish his voice, you will find someone who will point him out to you. They are communities that will help you too become saints! And you help them to walk united behind Jesus the Good Shepherd, so that they may be places – gardens – of life that is resurrected and communicated. Often what people lack is a place where they can experience that together is better, that together is beautiful, that we can live together. Facilitating the meeting, helping those who would otherwise never meet to converge, bringing opposites together is all one with celebrating the Eucharist and Reconciliation. Gathering is always and anew planting the Church.
Significant in the Gospel is an image with which, at a certain point, Jesus begins to talk about himself. He was describing himself as the “shepherd,” but those listening to him don’t seem to understand. Then he changes the metaphor: “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep” (John 10, 7). In Jerusalem there was a gate called exactly that, “the gate of the sheep”, near the pool of Bethzatha. For it sheep and lambs entered the temple, first immersed in water and then destined for sacrifices. It is natural to think about Baptism.
“I am the door”, says Jesus. The Jubilee has shown us how this image still speaks to the hearts of millions of people. For centuries the door – often a real portal – has invited people to cross the threshold of the Church. In some cases, the baptismal font was built outside, like the ancient probatic pool, under whose porticos “a large number of sick, blind, lame and paralytics lay” (John 5, 3). Dear ordinands, feel part of this suffering humanity, which awaits life in abundance. In initiating others into the faith, you will revive your own. With the other baptized people you will cross the threshold of the Mystery every day, that threshold which has the face and name of Jesus. Never hide this holy door, do not block it, do not be an obstacle to those who want to enter. “You did not enter, and you prevented those who wanted to enter” (Luke 11, 52): it is Jesus’ bitter rebuke to those who hid the key to a passage that should have been open to all.
Today more than ever, especially where the numbers seem to outline a gap between people and the Church, keep the door open! Let in and be ready to exit. It’s another secret to your life: you are a channel, not a filter. Many believe they already know what lies beyond that threshold. They bring with them memories, perhaps of a distant past; often there is something alive that has not died out and that attracts; sometimes, however, there is something else, which still bleeds and repels. The Lord knows and waits. Be a reflection of his patience and tenderness. You belong to everyone and you are for everyone! Let this be the fundamental profile of your mission: to keep the threshold clear and indicate it, without the need for too many words.
On the other hand, Jesus insists and specifies: «I am the door: if anyone enters through me, he will be saved; it will go in and out and find pasture” (John 10, 9). He does not stifle our freedom. There are memberships that suffocate, companies that are easy to enter and almost impossible to leave. Not so the Church of the Lord, not so the company of his disciples. Whoever is saved, says Jesus, “enters and goes out and finds pasture”. We all seek shelter, rest and care: the door of the Church is open. Not to alienate us from life: life does not end in the parish, in the association, in the movement, in the group. He who is saved “goes out and finds pasture.”
Dear ones, go out and find the culture, the people, the life! Marvel at what God causes to grow without us having sown it. Those for whom you will be priests – lay faithful and families, young and old, children and the sick – inhabit pastures that you must know. Sometimes it will seem like you don’t have the maps. However, the Good Shepherd has them, whose voice is so familiar to listen to. How many people today feel lost! Many feel like they can no longer orient themselves. There is then no more precious testimony than the one that confides: «He makes me rest on grassy pastures, he leads me to calm waters. Refresh my soul. He guides me in the right path because of his name” (Sal 23, 2-3). His name is Jesus: “God saves”! You are witnesses of this. «Yes, goodness and faithfulness will be my companions all the days of my life» (Sal 23, 6). Brothers, sisters, dear young people: so be it!
