Homily for Ordinations to the Priesthood
Diocese of Makurdi, Nigeria; August 22, 2026
Introduction
If knew you were going to die tomorrow, and you could make one last request to your best friends, or better yet, leave them an instruction that reflects what your whole life was about, what would you say? It is a question worth pondering; but we know what the answer to that question was for our Lord Jesus Christ. He was quite clear about this to his apostles at the Last Supper.
Friend
St. John recounts that for us in his Gospel, in the very long discourse our Lord gave to them on that most consequential of all nights. It is his farewell discourse, his last speech, in which he leaves for his apostles their instructions as to how to continue the work that was the mission of his whole life. St. John records for us there that our Lord tells them:
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father…. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another [Jn 15:12-17].
Notice how he repeats this instruction, giving it to them before and after naming them his friends: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12), and, “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (v. 17). He places great emphasis on this commandment of love, signifying that the love the disciples are to have for each other should be continuous and lifelong. It is within this context that he speaks of them as friends, making the connection to how profound the love of friendship is to be. This is the true meaning of friendship; not a superficial enjoyment of each other’s company and pursuing common interests. In Greek the word for “love” that our Lord uses here “agape,” that is, sacrificial love, the love which moves one to act for the good of the other purely for the other’s good, without regard for what one receives back. It is giving without counting the cost.
There is also a word in Greek for “love” in the sense of friendship: “philios.” The point is, then, that the authentic love of friendship finds its fulfillment and culmination in the love that is agape. In this sense the call of the priest is to be a friend to his people: the priest is, yes, a man set apart, but apart for and not from, or all the more so, not above. The people of God must know that the priest is with them, is for them, and acts only with their best interest in mind: even when they don’t like it!
Jesus moves this call of the priest to friendship, then, to a higher level, which is the rationale for what sounds like a condition when he gives them this commandment: “you are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jesus takes the initiative in loving his disciples first; obedience to his command naturally flows from being loved by him. That is to say, it is not that we make ourselves his friends by our own doing, but rather we show that we are, in fact, his friends by loving one another as he has loved us.
Our Lord says something else here that is very important to understand correctly, because if not, it will mislead us. He asserts that he calls his apostles “friends” and no longer servants. It would be a mistake, though, to take this to mean that, once we becomes friends with our Lord, we are relieved of the responsibility of serving him. After all, Christians have always thought of themselves as servants, and the very fact that we address Jesus as “Lord” implies that we are his servants; also, Jesus himself said that he came not to be served but to serve, and we are called by our baptism to imitate him and follow his example with our lives.
What this really means, then, is, once again, the higher calling of friendship. Think about the person who is your best friend: don’t you want to make your friend happy? Doesn’t it give you joy to serve your friend, to go out of your way to show kindness, to make sacrifices that will make your friend happy? When your friend is happy, you are happy! Perhaps, then, it would be better to understand our Lord saying here that he no longer calls his disciples “slaves” (the word which some translations of the Bible do use in this passage). The love of friendship is not one of slavish service, carried out reluctantly under the burden of oppression. Rather, it is a liberating service, one that brings joy to both.
Father
This is the high calling our Lord gives to the priest: to be his friend in the highest meaning of the word, and to share that friendship with the people entrusted to his pastoral care. And yes, that will, again, sometimes mean that the priest will have to act towards them in ways they make not like, and may even cause them to resist. Let us remember that, along with counselling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant and comforting the sorrowful, admonishing sinners is also one of the seven spiritual works of mercy.
This points to another dimension of the priest’s identity, and a fundamental one at that. Indeed, it is the very title by which he is most commonly called: “father.” Isn’t sacrificing one’s whole life for the sake of those whom he loves what it means to be a father? And a spouse. St. Paul teaches us in his Letter to the Ephesians that the mystery foretold in the Book of Genesis at the creation, that the man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall be one flesh, refers to Christ and the Church. Christ is the bridegroom and the Church is his bride: the blood and water that poured forth from his glorious pierced heart as he slept in death on the Cross gave birth to the Church, his bride – just as God created Eve, Adam’s bride, from his side as he lay asleep in natural sleep. The Church receives this seed of life from her spouse and, as a loving mother, generates and nourishes new life for God’s Kingdom: rebirth in the waters of baptism, and nourishing that life with her Spouse’s body and blood in the Holy Eucharist – and the whole sacramental life of the Church, along with the nourishment of teaching her children the truth that her Lord and Bridegroom has revealed to her, for the happiness and eternal life of their children.
This is what it means when we call the priest “another Christ,” alter Christus. He acts in the person of Christ – in persona Christi – to be another Christ for his people, espousing his bride to himself and personifying him with fatherly love in all the he is and does. And there is yet one more dimension to the priest’s identity that our Lord teaches and models for him in giving the instruction that “there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Shepherd
When our Lord speaks of “laying down one’s life” it makes us think first of all of what he says about himself as the Good Shepherd: “I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (Jn 10:14-15). The priest’s call to be a shepherd is what gives definition to his call to be a father. The father is the head of the family, but headship in the Christian sense is the love of agape. We need only think of the story of the anointing of David to be King of Israel after Saul.
We read in the First Book of Samuel that God had rejected Saul as king, and he sent Samuel to Jesse so that he might anoint as king the son of Jesse whom God had chosen. After presenting all seven sons with all seven being rejected, Jesse admitted that there was one more son, who was out tending the sheep. That was David, the chosen one, and Samuel anointed him king right then and there.
So there you have it: David was the shepherd-king, foretelling the Messiah, the future anointed one whom God would send into the world. This identity of headship and shepherd is revealed in the Hebrew language, the very language in which these scriptural texts were written (Old Testament). Being a language with a limited vocabulary, in Hebrew there is one word used to express the idea of ruling or governing – that is, headship – and shepherding. In the biblical mind the king, the one in charge, is a shepherd. And the priest is to model this in the way that our Lord does.
Victim
Our Lord laying down his life for us: we cannot but look to the Cross. The meaning of “priest” is the one who is intercessor between God and man: the priest offers sacrifice to God to atone for the sins of the people and reconcile them to God, restoring friendship with God. This is what Christ did for us in offering his sacrifice on the Cross. But there is something altogether unique in Christ’s sacrifice. In every other instance the priest offers a victim in the sacrifice: the priest and victim are different. But with Christ they are the same: the priest is the victim, the victim is the priest. Christ offers himself!
In the Catholic Church we call the ordained ministers in the presbyteral order “priests” precisely because they offer sacrifice: the sacrifice on the altar is the one, perfect sacrifice of Christ on Calvary 2,000 years ago made present to us here and now, the “unbloody sacrifice,” as we call it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes this clear: “The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are one single sacrifice: ‘The victim is one and the same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of offering is different’” (CCC 1367).
The priest is another Christ, that alter Christus, yes, because he offers Christ’s one sacrifice for his people on the altar. But to be an alter Christus in the full and true sense the priest must also imitate Christ in his victimhood. The priest is called to repeat the pattern of Christ’s sacrifice by sacrificing himself for his people. That is to say, what the priest celebrates in ritual action at Mass he must live out in the day-to-day reality of his very life. What he celebrates at the altar, the Eucharistic sacrifice he confects with his hands, must have the sacramental meaning of making present the mystery of his whole life. And for this, the priest must cultivate the interior life; he must sacrifice all that holds him back from perfect imitation of our Lord.
The priest’s call to repeat in his life the victimhood as well as the Priesthood of Jesus Christ was taught extensively by the great American orator Archbishop Fulton Sheen. He was widely followed and inspired millions in the United States – non-Catholics as well as Catholics – by his writings and the animated and insightful speeches he gave in his wildly popular television show in the 1950’s, “Life Is Worth Living.” (We will have the great joy next month to witness his beatification in the city of St. Louis.) He speaks about this especially in his book “The Priest is Not His Own.” He says there: “Each priest must first win the spiritual victory alone and within himself before he can repeat that victory in the lives of others.” And repeat that victory in the lives of others he must, in sometimes big and always myriad little ways in his priestly life and ministry day in and day out. And does this for his people by way of encounter, another way in which he imitates the pattern set by our Lord.
Encounter
The call of Christ always begins with an encounter: he identified his apostles before he called them, and then he called each one by name. As a wise bishop I once worked with was fond of saying, “Jesus never asked for volunteers.” The priest, then, must encounter his people: the shepherd must know his flock, he must know his people’s talents and interests, know whom to call when and for what.
This means that he must be engaged with his people and know how to connect with them. And this places demands on him. He must not treat his vocation as a job, as if he had defined office hours when he serves his people and the rest of his time is for himself. Yes, he must take time to cultivate the interior life, to care for his spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being. But this is not an excuse to be selfish with his time. Love rejoices in nothing more than presence, and this is how the priest, as shepherd, is to be with the sheep, his people.
I recall the audience a group of us American bishops had with Pope Francis six years ago on our ad limina visit (the pilgrimage all bishops make every few years to Rome to pray at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul, to meet with the Holy Father, and to visit the heads of the different departments of the Holy See). He spoke about how the shepherd must be in constant movement: he must be at the head of the flock in order to guide them properly; he must be at the back to make sure none go astray; and must be in the middle to know them, to “have the smell of the sheep.” There is no other way the shepherd can lead his people to the encounter with the true Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That encounter is always mediated by a human encounter. That encounter demands time and attention on the part of the priest, which is precisely why he needs to cultivate the interior life, that is, so he will acquire the virtue necessary to be the bridge to Christ that defines his Priesthood, pontifex in Latin, that is, a bridge builder. It calls to mind the teaching of Pope St. John Paul II, who affirmed that the priest in his very personality is to be a bridge and not an obstacle to his people’s encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Current Reality
These are the repeated little sacrifices required in the everyday life of the priest. But sometimes God calls his priests to a much higher level of sacrifice, even heroic sacrifice, and to inspire and lead his people to do the same. It brings us back to that last commandment our Lord left his apostles the night before he died. He gives them the ultimate commandment, a commandment which he himself fulfills first: to love each other to the point of giving up their lives. And that is what they did: they imitated their Lord with their lives and in their death, a pattern that has been repeated in every generation of Christians ever since. And while the priest must make Christ priest and victim present to his people, the entire people of God is a priestly people. Now in our own generation of Christians it is Nigeria whom Christ calls to sanctify the world (the duty of the priest) by identifying with him as victim in the most literal sense.
Such is the case especially here in Benue state. I must admit to feeling humbled, even out of place, that I, as a Westerner, preach these words to you here. Our roles should be reversed, for you are the ones who are laying down your lives for our Lord, too many of your brothers and sisters doing so literally with their blood, others by the complete upheaval and displacement of their lives.
The irony is, though, that we need this witness in the West. The West is overtaken not with a persecution of blood and with arms, but an interior persecution marked by isolation, depression, loneliness and anxiety. In the United States suicide is the second leading cause of death of young people. A spiritual malaise has come over us, born of a hedonistic culture that seeks only gain for oneself and will use any means necessary to obtain it, even to the point of destroying others to gain it if necessary. It is the exact opposite of love. It is love that makes communion possible, and that is what God designed us for, communion: communion with Him mediated through communion with one another. And that begins in the family, the life-giving communion of husband and wife, and is then taken up in the spiritual communion that is the Church, the Body of Christ. Selfishness leads one to live opposite to the way God created us. That explains why there is a pandemic of depression and anxiety in my country.
Yes, the West needs Africa. First all, we need the voice of Africa. We no longer understand these basic truths in the West, not even what it means to be a family born of the mutual self-giving love of husband and wife. As consequence, our Western society has become lifeless and colorless, with a decreasing capacity for relationship. Even friendship – philios, let alone agape – has become self-centered. This is serious enough for us, but even more serious are the powerful forces in the West that are forcing this on the rest of the world, especially here in Africa. Thank you for resisting! I know the pressure is great for national leaders on this continent, but we in the West who hold to the truth of Christ and the human person look to you in Africa to stand strong. We stand with you, we are with you and support you, and you support us. The West needs the voice of Africa, and Africa’s voice will not be silenced!
In addition to Africa’s voice, though, the West also needs Africa’s witness, in particular, the witness of Nigeria. We pray and we long for an end to the bloodshed and persecutions of our beloved brother and sister Catholics here in your country. There are too many in my own who prefer not to pay attention to it, but they do so to their own peril. Physical comforts and conveniences and that culture of selfishness has softened our spiritual stamina; too many have no understanding of what it means to suffer for the sake of our faith in Jesus Christ. But for those of us who do pay attention, the heroic suffering of your priests and people grieves us but also inspires us. You suffer to the point of bloodshed yet remain joyful in your Christian faith. This takes true courage, modeled by countless priests leading the charge along with the lay people and religious in their pastoral care.
I also wish to acknowledge particularly the witness of the one who has the pastoral care of this entire Diocese, Bishop Anagbe. He continues to be a voice for the persecuted, even to the point of great personal suffering, yet does not back down. Your Excellency, thank you for your prophetic voice and your heroic, selfless courage. You are an inspiration to those of us who follow the sufferings of the Church in Nigeria, as we seek to lend our own voice to the oppression you and your people are enduring.
May God send His holy angels to protect the people of Nigeria, may His Mother intercede for you to her Son with her tender, compassionate love, and may He soon grant peace and harmony to your homeland. May Nigeria emerge stronger and holier, to be a light of faith, truth and evangelization to the whole world.
Conclusion
Friend and father, shepherd and spouse, priest and victim: my dear sons who are about to be advanced to Priesthood in the presbyteral rank: this is who and what you are called to be as you take this awesome and fearful step. You are being ordained into a world in which this is also a dangerous step. It is always dangerous because of the temptation to sloth in cultivation of the interior life, which can lead to spiritual mediocrity and harm to souls – the priest himself and those he is called to serve.
In your case, however, it is dangerous in another, more literal and pressing sense, in that there is the real possibility that the Lord may call you to lay down your life for your friends – especially him who is your friend above all – with the shedding of your blood, as he did for you. But we take consolation in knowing that the Church will be renewed through the witness of Nigerian blood, as you lead your people in the work of that inner martyrdom which is death to all things that hinder you from a more perfect identity with him for his people, that you may be the bridge leading to communion with him who is perfect peace, happiness, light and love. Amen.
