The Priesthood Is Forever

Two years ago, during a conversation with my spiritual director, he asked me a question.

Tell me, why do you want to be a priest?

And honestly, that question caught me off guard a little bit.

I didn't have a ready answer, but I paused for a moment, I thought for a moment

and said, well, because as a priest, I'll be able to do more for people.

I'll be able to preach the gospel and help others to come closer to Christ.

He looked at me and said, no, no, no, this is not it.

You could do all of that as a layperson. Tell me really, why do you want to be a priest?

And today, on Holy Thursday, we celebrate a night of beginnings.

The beginning of the Eucharist, the beginning of the priesthood,

and the beginning of Jesus' new commandment, the commandment to love as he loved.

On this night, Jesus gave the priesthood to his apostles.

He empowered them to act in his name, to bring his presence into the world through the sacraments.

We might ask why, because Jesus wanted to remain close to us and pour out his grace into our hearts.

So tonight the church looks back to the upper room where it all started.

But it also looks forward to every altar in every church where the Eucharist is celebrated.

And just like that, question from my spiritual director once made me stop and think,

tonight I want to pause and reflect on the gift of the priesthood and share

with you some aspects that make this calling so powerful and special for us.

The first power of priesthood is the power of confession.

I remember my first pilgrimage in Poland to Częstochova back in 2016.

I saw priests walking in cassocks in the summer heat at the back of the group.

And they weren't just walking, they were hearing confessions all day long.

And I saw people coming back from those confessions.

Some were crying. Some were smiling. But overall, they were lighter.

They were different. You could see that they had been healed.

Because in that moment of absolution, the priest forgives sins in the name of Jesus.

He speaks in persona Christi. He is the Christ. and God himself pours his mercy into the soul.

It was so powerful to witness that. And thanks to priests, we have access to

that grace. We have a place to go when our hearts are broken by sin.

We don't have to be afraid anymore because we know God is waiting for us there

in the confessional where he can heal us through the hands of his priests.

The second power is the power of priestly words.

We all know that words have incredible power.

We've all experienced it. How one hateful sentence can hurt us and how one word

of love can lift us from the darkest place.

One powerful example is a priest, Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, from Poland.

Maybe you've heard of him. He's on the path to sainthood right now.

And so during communism in Poland, he organized mouthy masses for the homeland.

And from the pulpit, he spoke with boldness about human dignity,

about the truth, and about God.

His words were very simple, but they shook the system.

He became number one enemy of the communist regime.

And because he stood for the truth, he was brutally murdered at the age of 37.

But his words didn't die. They continued to bear fruit. His witness helped bring

about the fall of communism in Poland.

So priestly words, when spoken in truth of the gospel, carry spiritual weight.

They build, they heal, and they can destroy the evil of this world and bring

peace not only to individuals, but also to the nations.

The third power is the power of priestly sacrifice what moves me the most in priesthood,

is seeing faithful priests faithful to the gospel and willing to give up everything

to serve the people entrusted to them in 2016 going back again it seems like

a lot of graces because God was pouring into my heart in that time.

In 2016, I met Father David.

One of my friends had invited him to a meeting where we were having.

So Father David had just landed in Poland for his vacation and was supposed

to spend that evening with his mother.

But something in his heart told him, he shared that with me, go, you need to be there.

And so he left his family and came. He chose to serve a stranger,

me, instead of staying with the people he loved.

And at that time in my life, I was completely lost. I was broken, unhappy, hopeless.

But that night and that meeting changed everything.

His attentiveness and obedience to the Holy Spirit brought me back to God.

If he hadn't come, I wouldn't be here today speaking to you.

Thank you, Father David, for your priesthood.

That's how powerful is the priesthood. The priesthood is the greatest and greater

than any power in the world.

You can be a president, a king, or the richest person alive.

You can deliver packages to people's homes by drone before they even hit by now.

But none of those people can bring God down onto an altar.

None of their words can turn bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

You can even manage to send people to Mars, but you cannot send them to heaven.

Only a priest can do that.

The priest is the one who stands by the bed of a dying person,

offering the sacraments,

the anointing of the sick and viaticum, preparing their soul for the most important

journey of all, to meet God face to face.

The priest has the power to send people to heaven.

So today, we remember the beginning of the Eucharist, which could not exist

without the priesthood.

This is the day when the apostles were ordained and sent.

And today, just like Christ, priests are still called to kneel before the people,

wash their feet, forgive their sins, consecrate the bread and wine,

and give it to them as food for the journey, the real presence of body and blood,

soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So tonight I encourage you to think about a priest you know, maybe.

Call him, text him, or speak to him.

Say thank you. Thank you for the sacrifices he has made for bringing you the

Eucharist, for forgiving your sins, for walking with you in life and preparing you for eternity,

because no one else can do what he does.

And so return to that original question, why do you want to be a priest?

And everything I've shared with you tonight could be a part of an answer,

but over time I discovered something deeper that still stirs my heart.

I read the Psalm 110 that says, You are a priest forever.

The priesthood doesn't end at death.

Even in heaven, there will be still some form of priestly office,

priestly mission, some form of service.

And that mystery, that truth, is the most beautiful part of all.

So the answer to the question asked by my spiritual director,

why do you want to be a priest, is this.

Because I want to find out what it means to be a priest forever.

I want to find out what it's like to be a priest in heaven.