A Messenger of God
15. September 2013
H.E. Bishop William Shomali, homily at the ordination to the priesthood of Father Nikodemus Schnabel (September 15, 2013)
Cross of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Dear brother Nikodemus,
On the day of your priestly ordination, you are surrounded by many friends who came to attend, not only for social reasons, but mainly to pray for you with all the saints of heaven so that you become a holy priest and a holy monk like the great number of holy Monks who for centuries populated this Holy Land. You are now surrounded by your Abbot and your Benedictine community of Mount Sion where you learned the monastic life and matured the call of the Lord. Present here is your mother from whom you learned to love the Lord and the basics of your faith. Here are many friends from the Holy Land who came to participate to this new Pentecost and new effusion of the Holy Spirit. I greet with you His Excellency Msgr Giuseppe Lazzarotto, Papal Nunzio, all the priests, here present, and the representatives of other Christian churches. Their prayers will be a great support.
The Lord called you to become a priest. No one deserves this dignity. Pope emeritus Benedict said:
Becoming priest, you become a bridge between God and his people. Because of this, people expect to see in us, in you more than a man … they expect to see and hear and touch the Lord. We cannot let them down. That is our call. That is our consecration. That is why we are here today…. Are we worthy, no. Do we deserve this moment, have we earned it and all that comes with it, no. God is far more aware of our human weakness and frailty than we are and, yet, he allows us – more than that, he calls and consecrates us --- in all our imperfection to stand for him and to act in his name for the people.
(Pope Benedict XVI, “The Priest: A Bridge to God,” pp. 29-30).
So never preach yourselves; preach only Jesus Christ as Lord.It is, as St. Paul told us, only through his mercy that we have been given this ministry.
Dear brother Nikodemus, you deliberately chose to be ordained while we hear the readings of the feast of the cross. It is probably because you were born and grew up under the sign of the Cross. It is also because the Gospal of today mentions the beautiful figure of Nikodemus, your patron saint.
Among all Pharisees, he is one of those that inspire respect and friendship. When Jesus came, he saw in him "a messenger of God." (John 3. 1-15) His faith was so great that he had the courage , a few months later, to publicly defend the Lord before the Sanhedrin: "Can we condemn a man without hearing?" Thanks to him and his friend Joseph of Arimatea, the body of the Lord will not be thrown into a common grave for criminals.
In order to embalme Jesus, he buys myrrh and aloes with a high amount. Nikodemus was someone honest, looking for the truth and ready to embrace it and defend it. He understood that Jesus was the truth and followed him despite the opposition of the Sanhedrin. He was generous and magnanimous. Our church of Jerusalem celebrates his memory along with Joseph of Arimathea on the 31st of August.
To Nikodemus Jesus disclosed an important revelation about the love of God.
To him he said:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
Yes you experienced in your life many signs of the love of God. You discovered God’s plan on you. Through suffering and with great courage you discovered this plan of love and made it your own plan. Now you are invited to preach this love of God to every person entrusted to your care. Even if you live in a monastic community, you are an evangelizer and a missionary. We will never forget that in time of crisis, the monks saved the church. Saint Jerome and Saba, Saint Augustine and Anselm, saint Colomban and Bonfatius, Saint Bede the venerable without forgetting saint Benedict and saint Gregory the great, they were all monks. They all appeared during critical times and received the mission of rebuilding Christ’s church.
Let us come back to the Gospel of today and to the first reading. They speak about the snakes in the desert who used to bite people to death. Yes today, in our postmodern world, there are more snakes which bite and kill than in the time of Moses. There is even perversion in the way of thinking and in refusing God‘s commandments. We are all invited by our ministry of reconciliation and through our and your prayer and example to fight these snakes. Only through the power of the cross that we can be strong enough to do that.
Dear brother,
In order to heal and sanctify the people of God entrusted to your care, you need to receive yourselves the spirit of holiness. You will receive it through the imposition of the hands performed by the bishops and the priests. This holiness will increase every day through the celebration of Christ’s sacrifice in the daily mass. Pay attention. You don’t celebrate for yourself but for the people of God “Your ministry will perfect the spiritual sacrifice of the faithful by uniting it with Christ's sacrifice, the sacrifice which is offered sacramentally through your hands. Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate. In the memorial of the Lord's death and resurrection, make every effort to die to sin and to walk in the new life of Christ.” (from the introduction o the rite of ordination)
Within minutes from now the bishop will ask you: “Are you resolved to consecrate your life to God for the salvation of his people, and to unite yourself more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered himself for us to the Father as a perfect sacrifice?”
You will answer positively and the bishop will add: May God who has begun the good work in you brings it to fulfillment.
During the rite of ordination, the bishop anoints your palms with the oil of chrism, praying:
The Father anointed our Lord Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. May Jesus preserve you to sanctify the Christian people and to offer sacrifice to God.
As you will receive the chalice and paten, the bishop says:
Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to Him. Know why you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord's cross.
Dear brother,
The Church of Jerusalem is happy today because you will serve this church through priesthood, through your prayers and good example and through whatever the Lord calls you to do.
In order to be readier to receive the spirit of holiness, let us join all the saints of heaven, asking their intercession for you and for your community. We will not forget also to pray for the needs of the Holy Land and of the Middle East which all go through a difficult moment of their history.
Dear brother,
You became monk to sanctify yourself. You will become priest to sanctify the people of God. – May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment.