VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI ordains 15 new priests: “the priest is totally inserted in Christ so that starting from him and acting in view of Him and in communion with him he may carry out the service of the one Shepherd Jesus, in whom God made man, wishes to be our Shepherd”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday 7 May, the 4th Sunday of Easter and annual Day of Prayer for Vocations Pope Benedict XVI presided Mass and ordained 13 deacons of the diocese of Rome and 2 Religious of the Order of Discalced Carmelites OCD. Concelebrants with the Holy Father included Cardinal Camillo Ruini Vicar General for the diocese of Rome, the Vicegerent, Auxiliary Bishops, Superiors of the respective Seminaries and the parish priests of the priests to be ordained.
In his homily the Holy Father reflected on the image of the shepherd: “In ancient times in the East kings often referred to themselves as the shepherds of their people. Moses and David in the Old Testament before being called to be leaders and shepherds of the People of God were in fact shepherds of flocks. In the travail of the period of exile, faced with the failure of the leaders of Israel, the political and religious leaders, Ezekiel traced the image of God himself as the Shepherd of his people”. Jesus is the “Good Shepherd through whom God cares for his creature, man, gathering human beings and leading them towards the true pastureland”. St Peter said “we can only be shepherds of the flock of Jesus Christ through Him and in intimate communion with Him. Precisely this is expressed in the Sacrament of Ordination: the priest is totally inserted in Christ so that starting from him and acting in view of Him and in communion with him he may carry out the service of the one Shepherd Jesus, in whom God made man, wishes to be our Shepherd.”
The Pope pointed out that the Sunday Gospel passage proclaimed during the Mass was only part of Jesus’ long discourse on shepherds in which “before calling himself the Shepherd, Jesus says to our surprise: ‘I am the door (Jn 10, 7). It is through Him that we must enter the service of shepherd. Jesus brings this fundamental condition to light when he says: ‘Whoever … climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber (Jn 10, 1). The word "climbs" evokes the image of someone who climbs up and over a fence to reach a place where lawfully he should not be. In "climbing", here we can also see the image of careerism, trying to reach “the top” , using the Church to obtain a position: using instead of serving. This is the image of the man who wants by means of the priesthood to become important, to be someone prominent; the image of a person who aims for his own exhaltation and not the humble service of Jesus Christ. However the only legitimate ascent towards the ministry of the shepherd is the cross. This is the door… Entering through the door, that is Christ, means knowing and loving Him ever more deeply so that our will becomes his and our actions become one with his action”.
Then Pope Benedict XVI illustrated three aspects of the figure of the true shepherd: “he gives his life for the sheep; he knows them and they know him; he is at the service of unity”. “The mystery of the Cross is at the heart of the service of Jesus as Shepherd: it is the real great service he renders each one of us. He gives himself. Therefore, quite rightly, at the centre of priestly life there is the Holy Eucharist, through which Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is continually present among us. Knowing this we learn also what it means to celebrate the Eucharist worthily: it means encountering the Lord who for us sets aside his divine glory and lets himself be humiliated even to death on the cross and thus gives himself to us”. The Holy Father then emphasised “the importance for the priest of the daily Eucharist”, which should become “a school of life where we learn to give our life. Life is not given only at the moment of death or only through martyrdom. We must give it day after day.”
In the Gospel the Lord says: "I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; ” (Jn 10, 14-15). “These two relationships apparently quite different are here interwoven: the relationship between Jesus and the Father and the relationship between Jesus and those entrusted to his care - the Pope explained -. However these two relationships actually go together because the ‘sheep’ belong, in the end, to the Father and they are searching for the Creator, for God. When they realise that a person speaks only in his own name and draws only from himself they know he cannot be the one for whom they search. But when in a person the voice of the Father is heard, the door of the relationship which man seeks in opened. This must be so also in our case. First of all in our heart we must live the relationship with Christ and through him with the Father; only then can we truly understand people and they will realise they have found a true shepherd”.
By way of conclusion the Pope spoke about the service to unity entrusted to the shepherd: "The mission of Jesus concerns the whole of humanity and therefore the Church is responsible for all men and women that they may know God, the God who for us, through Jesus Christ, became man, suffered, died and rose from the dead. The Church cannot be content with the host of people she has already reached- said Pope Benedict XVI -. She cannot withdraw in comfort in her own environment. She is charged with universal concern, she must care for all men and women. This great task we must "render" in our respective missions. Of course a priest, a pastor of souls, must be concerned first of all for those who believe and live in the Church, and in her seek the path of life and who themselves, as living stones, constitute the Church and thus together build up and support the priest. Nevertheless as the Lord says, again and again we must go out "to the highways and hedgerows" (Lk 14, 23) to carry God’s invitation to His banquet to those who have not yet heard or been inwardly touched. The service to unity has many forms. It includes also commitment for interior unity of the Church that, over and above diversities and limits, she may be a sign of the presence in the world of God who alone can create this unity.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 8/5/2006 - righe 70, parole 1.091)