VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Priests are called to be embraced and shaped by God’s boundless love, and to realize that there is no place for division and hatred of any kind, Pope Leo XIV said.
“Reconciled with one another, united and transformed by the love that flows abundantly from the Heart of Christ, let us walk together humbly and resolutely in his footsteps, firm in faith and open to all in charity,” he told priests from all over the world.
“Let us bring the peace of the risen Lord to our world, with the freedom born of the knowledge that we have been loved, chosen and sent by the Father,” he said in his homily during Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica June 27, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests.
The Mass marked the conclusion of a week of Jubilee celebrations for seminarians, bishops and priests, where Pope Leo reiterated the need to ground one’s vocation in God’s love, Jesus’ friendship and the Holy Spirit’s transformative power, as well as the need to be united and missionary in a world thirsting for meaning and hope.
During the Mass, the pope also ordained 32 priests from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and Oceania.
In his homily, he told the ordinands, “What I have to say is simple, but I consider it important for your future and for the future of the souls entrusted to your care.”
“Love God and your brothers and sisters, and give yourselves to them generously. Be fervent in your celebration of the sacraments, in prayer, especially in adoration before the Eucharist, and in your ministry,” he told them. “Keep close to your flock, give freely of your time and energy to everyone, without reserve and without partiality, as the pierced side of the crucified Jesus and the example of the saints teach us to do.”
He encouraged them to look among the many examples of holy priests in the Church’s history. “Learn their stories, study their lives and work, imitate their virtues, be inspired by their zeal and invoke their intercession often and insistently!” he exhorted.
“All too often, today’s world offers models of success and prestige that are dubious and short-lived. Do not let yourselves be taken in by them!” he said.
Instead, look to those who, “frequently hidden and unassuming,” have spent their lives in service of the Lord and their brothers and sisters, he said. “Keep their memory alive by your own example of fidelity.”
Pope Leo told priests that the Sacred Heart of Jesus “is entrusted in a special way to us, so that we can make it present in our world.”
They contribute to the work of salvation in several ways, he said, first, by imitating the Good Shepherd who watches over his flock, seeks the lost, helps the wounded and strengthens the weak and sick.
“In this age of vast and devastating conflicts,” he said, “the love of God has no limits. We are called to let ourselves be embraced and shaped by that love, and to realize that in God's eyes – and our own as well – there is no place for division and hatred of any kind.”
God also exhorts his priests to “entrust ourselves, along a daily path of conversion, to the transforming power of his Spirit who dwells in our hearts,” he said.
“We are called to exercise pastoral charity with a generous love, like that of the Father, and to foster in our hearts the desire that no one be lost but that everyone, also through our ministry, may come to know Christ and have eternal life in him,” the pope said.
“We are called to deepen our closeness to Jesus and to be a source of harmony in the midst of our brother priests,” he said. “We do so by bearing on our shoulders those who are lost, granting forgiveness to those who have erred, seeking out those who have gone astray or been left behind and caring for those who suffer in body or spirit.”
Every priest must seek to “remain united with their bishop and within the presbyterate,” Pope Leo said. “For the more we are united among ourselves, the more we will be able to lead others to the fold of the Good Shepherd and to live as brothers and sisters in the one house of the Father.”
