Priestly power
Because Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist, he consequently decided to institute the sacrament of the priesthood. He could place the Eucharist in the hands of one man only – the man he himself had chosen.
God himself chooses the man he wishes to use in order to make contact with us. A priest is not a representative of people; a priest is a representative of God. It is not people who choose a priest to represent them before God, but God who chooses a priest so as to meet people through him.
The Highest and Only Priest is Jesus Christ. He is the one Good Shepherd, and those whom he calls and admits to a share in his priesthood he treats as his co-workers. A priest is chosen by God to work in his sheepfold. Through ordination every priest becomes a co-worker of God. Jesus Christ is always in his fold, he is in the Eucharist. He is in absolution, in the sacraments, in the Word, in the community, in the priest.
With what power does Christ equip the men he calls to his priesthood? Above all it is the power to cleanse from sins. Into priestly hands has been placed the greatest power that exists on earth. All the psychoanalysts put together have nothing like the power that a priest's hand has. They can listen to a man's faults, they can help him to open up, but they will not take away the burden that crushes his heart with the reproaches of conscience. A priest, touching the heart, frees it from the sense of guilt, from the greatest misfortune that can befall a human being. We commit sins because we are weak; if, then, there were no such divine power to free us from our faults, a power placed in the hands of a priest, we should be very unhappy indeed.
Why has the priest's hand been equipped with this power? Because in those hands Christ left his very self under the appearances of bread and wine. Since the priest gives out the Eucharist, since the Eucharist is born in priestly hands, in those same hands lies the power to forgive faults. If someone is unable to approach the Eucharist because of sin, the priest cleanses him, frees him from guilt and gives him the Eucharist.
The sanctifying power of the priest's hand is the greatest wonder there is on earth. Whatever a priest takes into his hands, whatever he touches, he can sanctify. He sanctifies things and he sanctifies people, even when he himself is a sinner. This is God's power. We see it most perfectly during Holy Mass, when in the hands of the priest bread and wine are changed into the Most Holy Body and the Most Holy Blood of the Saviour. This is the greatest treasure on earth.
A priest sanctifies and blesses. He need not preach the word of God, he need not deliver a single sermon, and he is fully a priest if only he celebrates Holy Mass and gives out the Eucharist. The most important priestly function is to sanctify bread and wine and to place God himself in the heart of another person. This is the essence of the priestly vocation.
May a fervent prayer for priests rise from our hearts every day; may our spiritual care strengthen them on their priestly way and spread itself beneath their feet, to guide them and to protect them.
