“Fueron elegidos por Dios para servir, siempre abiertos y dispuestos”, los 33 nuevos Presbíteros que recibieron el sacramento del Orden Sacerdotal. pic.twitter.com/HwS1mqPE07
— Cardenal Robles Ortega (@cardenalrobles) June 4, 2022
Robles warned that “when the priest forgets his origin” he creates “distance between himself and between the community he is assigned to serve.”
If he acts in this way, the cardinal continued, “he usually sends a message: I’m superior, I’m more important, I’m the one who must be recognized and the one who must be served.”
“And when the priest takes on this attitude of superiority, of being above his fellow man, the priest becomes involved in this evil that sadly affects the Church and affects many: clericalism,” the cardinal said.
The archbishop of Guadalajara then pointed out that priests are “to serve men in the things of God, and that is what the people expect from a priest: a man of God, a man who speaks to them of God, a man to be the presence of God among them, to experience his love, to experience his mercy, to experience his salvation.”
The cardinal warned that “the world can enter our hearts, our minds, our person, our priesthood, and the world can make us its own and we forget that we belong to God, for the service of the brothers in the things that are of God.”
‘Making Jesus Christ present’
In his homily the following day, the Solemnity of Pentecost, Robles told the 37 men to be ordained that “the election, the consecration and the sending forth of these brother priests who are going to be ordained is patent proof of the action of the Holy Spirit.”
“The charism, the service of making present Christ the head, Christ the shepherd, Christ the spouse of his Church, this charism is received by each and every one of these brothers who is going to be ordained: the charism of making Jesus Christ present in the midst of his people.”
After recalling that the Holy Spirit raises up a “a variety and a richness of charisms” in the Catholic Church “for the good of all,” Robles stressed that “this great charism, this beautiful gift of representing Christ, does not obscure, does not nullify, any of the other charisms.”
“Never forget this: Your charism is not superior, it’s not greater, it’s not the only one. Your charism is for service, for the service of the other charisms that the Holy Spirit raises up in his Church,” he told the new priests.
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Robles encouraged them that “the Spirit of the Lord will always animate you, renew you and always drive you forward. The Spirit of the Lord will strengthen and console you always.”
“The Spirit of the Risen Lord has descended as a gift, and it’s a gift that remains,” he said, adding that “it’s a gift that has remained with our poor humanity until the end of time.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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