Bishop Fellay’s sermon given during the ceremony of the ordinations, in Winona (USA) on June 17, 2011 (part 1)

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

Dear and Reverend Fathers, dear candidates to the Priesthood and to the diaconate, dear seminarians, dear Sisters, my dear faithful:

While we are still contemplating the great mystery of Pentecost, this marvelous and extraordinary intervention of the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity in the world, in creation, in the birth of our dear Mother, the Catholic Church—yes, while we are still in this blessed Time, Divine Providence allows us to confer the Sacrament of Holy Orders on future deacons and priests.

When we speak of the Holy Ghost, we speak of a Person within the Most Holy Trinity Who has been sent to creation with a very special mission.  This mission is to sanctify, to bring holiness to His creatures, to elevate them to the supernatural world, the world of God and to transform this earth into a prelude of Heaven.  Of course, here on earth we know that life is a daily struggle, for it is a period of trial.  As we know, the name of the Church on earth is the Church Militant, and It must constantly fight to fulfill its mission, the mission of saving souls.  The Church will constantly be under attack from the devil and his allies.  Similarly the members of the Church will be under attack:  even more so those who are closer to Our Lord and have received a special mission in this battle.

It is always impressive to see priests and deacons:  Impressive because if we look at them solely with our human eyes, we do not see them as being much different from other men.  If we remain on this natural level, we may even see a cassock—something that distinguishes them from others—but that is still not a great difference.  However, the only way to see correctly the reality of a priest and of a deacon is by seeing only with the eyes of Faith. We need a supernatural vision to understand who they are, to understand the greatness of the ceremony that we are attending:  a ceremony that surpasses any human activity.  We are, dear brethren, present at something that is so breathtaking: God Himself will choose certain souls from all humanity, souls that He will touch and transform, imprinting on them something that only they can have—the Character of the priesthood.  The deacon will already participate in the priesthood, though, of course, the priest will participate to higher degree.  The Church tells us that this Character is nothing other than a participation in what we call the Hypostatic Union.

When we speak of the Hypostatic Union, we speak of the marvelous union between the human nature and the divine, a union that we find in Our Lord Jesus Christ.  The Hypostatic Union is, in fact, precisely what makes Jesus a Priest.  The priest is a mediator, one who stands in the middle, between God and man.  Moreover, as Jesus is a partaker of both the human and divine nature, He is the only one who stands and can truly stand between God and man. Ambassador of man to God, He is the Mediator Who was sent by the Father to save us.  The action of salvation consists of a terrible reality:  the Passion and Death of Our Lord.  Our Lord ,Who is both Victim and Sovereign Priest, offered the sacrifice of His own death to pay for sin, to save us, to win for us God’s grace, mercy and forgiveness and ultimately Heaven.  When God makes priests, He wants to give them such dignity that He makes them partakers of precisely what makes Jesus Priest.  This union between the priest and the High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, is beyond all understanding!  It makes the priest the most important man on earth, higher in rank than any political governor, prince, king, or president whatsoever.  They busy themselves with the happenings of the world; the priest is absorbed with eternity.  If there is anyone who is in charge of the destiny of mankind, it is the priest, who is chosen by God Himself.  The priest stands daily before the Infinite Majesty of God, renewing the sacrifice of Our Lord Himself and, one might say, “doing business” with God concerning the salvation of souls.  The priest offers to God the only sacrifice worthy of God, the only one that can pay for and repair the damage of man’s sin.  God has entrusted the priest with the task of giving souls the treasures of the bounty of God, the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus Himself in the Holy Eucharist.  However, once again, to grasp something of this mystery and to enter into it, we need Faith.

We look at the world today;  we try to find this Faith…  Where is it?  Even when you look to the Church, there is something appalling in the loss of understanding of all these mysteries that we have just described.  If there is anyone who is unknown today, it is the priest.  Even the official documents of the Church after the Council mention a crisis of the identity of the priest, which means that the priest no longer knows who he is…. How can that be?  Where is the root of the problem?  My dear brethren, I think we can say that it comes from a lack of awareness of God.  Modern man no longer knows who God is.  Man turns to his imagination, he invents his gods, he makes up something in his little head.  He no longer accepts this objective God , this God Who is our Creator, Who is outside our little world, Who is infinite, almighty, eternal, Divine Providence…a God Who at every moment and for all time is the Sovereign, Who is in control of everything, Who dictates everything, Who is infallible in His Providence.  He is the God Who, nevertheless, gave His creatures the freedom to merit with their actions;  this means, my dear brethren, that whatever a man chooses to do will be either good or evil.  A good action will be rewarded;  an evil one will be punished.  If we put God in His place, we must also put man in his place, and this correlation between man and God will be either a marvelous story or a tragedy.  Or both.  Because every time creatures perform good actions, they please God.  If they do something evil, not only do they do something evil, but they also “violate” God’s commandment, and offend God Himself, His majesty.  This understanding of the terrible consequences of human actions—especially the behavior we call sin—is forgotten today.  Modern man does not know what sin is;  he is ignorant of the consequences, particularly of the most terrible consequences both here on earth and after this life.  The consequence here on earth is death.  The reason why death came into being—death awaits every one of us!—is because of the very first sin—only one sin, my dear brethren!—of our parents, Adam and Eve, and as a result every human being will die.  And still we can tolerate sin so easily?  We can disregard it?  What about the consequences that are no longer mentioned—Hell, the worst consequence of sin!  They do not speak of it nowadays, and when they do, they say no one is there!  This tragedy of an eternity of unhappiness, of suffering, is terrible!  Separation from God for all eternity:  this is called Hell.  This can easily be the end of man, if he does not behave, if he does not follow God’s commandments.  It is the mission of the Church to do what she can to take this destiny away from humankind, to bring souls to Heaven and not to Hell.  It is not difficult: avoid sin, avoid offending God and do not presume, “Well, that’s not too serious!” or “It is so easy to get God’s forgiveness,” and so on.  No, sin is serious!  And when we understand that, we understand better the role of the priest who, every day, is exposed to this drama, yes, to the eternal destiny of man.  To the priest has been given the power to open Heaven, to free souls who are in the bonds of sin, in the claws of the devil.  This is why we have priests, so we can be saved and go to Heaven.  If we do not have priests, woe to us!  We cannot sufficiently appreciate the gift God gives us today by giving us more priests!  We must thank God—oh, yes!—let us really thank God for giving us more priests who will renew the sacrifice of Our Lord, who will stand like Jesus on the Cross, begging for forgiveness, for God’s mercy, paying for sin and giving souls God’s grace.

All this work is done with the Holy Ghost (we are in the Octave of the Holy Ghost), and when we speak of priests, we speak of a very special relationship between the Holy Ghost and the priest and the deacon.  If there is an ordination in which we can see this to the highest degree, it is, I think, in that of the deacon.  In the form of the sacrament itself, while the bishop imposes his hand on the head of the deacon, he says “Accipe Spiritum Sanctum” … “Receive the Holy Ghost.” “Ad robur” … “Be strengthened….”  “Ad resistendum diabolo”… “to resist the devil” and his temptations.  That is the perception of the Church.  When she makes deacons, she calls for the help of the Holy Ghost to resist the devil and to fight against his temptations. This is the belief of the Church, not what they say today.  And it continues in the form itself why and by which deacons are made deacons: “Emitte ignis”… send forth and place in them the gifts of the Holy Ghost, His sevenfold gifts.  It is impressive, my dear brethren, to see this action.  We must reflect that it is God Himself, in the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Who is coming into each one of them and is transforming and supernaturally strengthening them for the superhuman fight against the fallen angels, this fight to save souls.  For the priest, too, there is mention of the Holy Ghost, for this work of sanctification is the Holy Ghost’s work.  Let us ask the angels and the Blessed Virgin Mary to give us a better and deeper understanding of this work of God and of how close He is to us.

Read the second part of the sermon