Holiness is Always
Now
Dear Brothers in the Priesthood,
Upon the happy occurrence of the 150th
Anniversary of the birth into Heaven of Saint John Baptist Mary Vianney (4th
August 1859 – 2009), it is my pleasure to address you with renewed good wishes
for the Year for Priests.
The Curé of Ars stands before us as an
outstanding figure of priestly holiness, demonstrated not in the extraordinary
nature of his works but in his daily fidelity to the exercise of the Ministry;
he became a model and a beacon for the France of the early nineteenth century,
and for the whole Church, of every time and place; he is a source and
consolation for each one of us, even in the midst of various “exhaustions”
which can touch our priesthood.
His total dedication is a spur to our
joyful self-giving to Christ and to the brethren, so that the Ministry may
always be a luminous echo of that consecration from which comes the one
apostolic mandate and, in it, every pastoral fecundity.
May his love for Christ, which was the
bearer of his humanity and sincere affection, be for us an encouragement to
love every more deeply “our Jesus”: may His be the sight we seek in the
morning, the consolation which accompanies us in the evening, the memory and
the companionship of every breath we take by day. To live according to the
example of St. John Mary Vianney, as lovers of the Lord, means to always maintain
at a high level of missionary tension, becoming progressively but concretely
living images of the Good Shepherd and of him who proclaims to the world,
“behold the Lamb of God”.
May the real spiritual enrapture of the
Curé of Ars during the celebration of Holy Mass be for each one of us an
explicit invitation to always have a full consciousness of the great gift which
has been entrusted to us: a gift which leads us to sing with St. Ambrose: “And
we can all, raised to a dignity such as to consecrate the Body and Blood of Our
Lord Jesus Christ, hope in Your Mercy!”.
May his heroic dedication to the
confessional, nourishes by a real expiatory spirit and sustained by the
consciousness of being called to participate in a “vicarious substitution” of
the one High Priest, spur us on to rediscover the beauty and the necessity, even for us priests, of the Sacrament
of Reconciliation. That sacrament is, as well we know, a place of real
contemplation of the marvellous works of God in souls which He delicately
captivates, guides and converts. To deprive ourselves of such a “marvellous
manifestation” is an irreparable and unjustified privation for us, even more
than for the Faithful, and for our ministry which is fed by the wonder which is
born of every miracle of human liberty which says “yes!” to God!
Lastly, that filial love bears the moving
attention of the saintly Curé of Ars to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom he
never hesitated to consecrate himself and his entire parish; may it prompt us,
in this Year for Priests and always, to allow the “here I am” of Mary to resound
in our fatherly hearts with ceaseless fidelity: her “for all” and “for ever”
which constitutes the one real measure of our priestly existence.
I wish you a blessed feast of Saint John
Mary Vianney.
XMauro
Piacenza
Titular
Archbishop of Vittoriana
Secretary