Ordination to the Priesthood
Rev Deacon Sheldon Burke CRS

Homily

Most Rev Timothy Costelloe SDB
Archbishop of Perth

Saturday 17 June 2023
St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth

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This morning here in the Cathedral we find ourselves caught up in a celebration which takes us to the very heart of our identity as Catholics.  Our Catholic tradition has always recognised that Jesus, the living presence of God among us as one of us, is absolutely at the centre of our faith.  To be a Christian is to live as a disciple, in a relationship of fidelity, commitment and love with Christ.  And it is this living relationship which becomes the source of our ability to live according to the teachings, the spirit and the power of the gospel.  It is not just what we do, but what inspires us and enables us to do what we do, that makes us Christians.

This living relationship with Jesus is strengthened and deepened through the gift of the Eucharist.  We have only to reflect on the words of Jesus in St John’s Gospel, where he assures us that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will have life in him, to realise that the Eucharist is the very heart of our faith.  Every time we gather to celebrate Mass we are drawn into the mystery of the Lord’s gift of himself to us.  We eat his flesh, we drink his blood, we become one with him, and he sends us out to be his body and his blood, his life-giving presence, to everyone we meet. “Do this in memory of me” does not simply mean “celebrate the Eucharist in memory of me”; it means “be the Eucharist in memory of me”.

As an ordained priest Sheldon Burke will be numbered among those who through their ministry, and especially through their celebration of the Eucharist, enable this profound communion with the Lord to happen.  Our tradition tells us that priests are ordained to act in the person of Christ, the head of his body.  When in the praying of the Eucharistic prayer they repeat the words Jesus spoke over the bread and wine at the Last Supper, they do so in the name of, and even more in the person of, Christ himself.  It is he, through the power of his Spirit and the ministry of his priests, who consecrates the bread and the wine.  It is he who says, “Take and eat, take and drink – this is my body and my blood”: it is he who hands himself over to us in this extraordinary gesture of love.  Those ordained as priests are called to do the same thing: to hand themselves over to God’s people in an extraordinary gesture of love.

To be called to such a ministry is an overpowering and even frightening thing.  Who is worthy of such a task?  Who would dare to presume to take this upon himself?  Indeed, who would be so presumptuous as to believe he was in any way equipped for this?  It is vitally important then for Sheldon to continue to reflect, as he has done for so many years now as a member of the Somascan Congregation, on some other words of Jesus which speak to him both of his religious vocation and now of his priestlyvocation: “You did not choose me – no I chose you”.  And in remembering those words I hope Sheldon will also remember the words of St Paul: “God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chooses the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).  Sheldon will grow into the good and faithful priest we need him to be if he does remember these things: that it is all God’s doing, all God’s grace. Only God can make sense of our weakness and our foolishness and through them bring strength and wisdom to people’s lives. Our part is to be willing to allow God to work this miracle in us.  If we are convinced that we are strong and wise, and have been chosen because of our extraordinary talents, insights or capabilities, then there is little that God can do for us or in us.  Our pride will make us obstacles to God’s healing and saving presence in the lives of his people, rather than the signs and bearers of his love that we are called to be.

Sheldon, as a man who from today will in a new and special way act in the person of Christ, not only in your sacramental ministry but in every encounter you have with God’s people, it is important to know, and not just know about, the Christ you are called to bring to others.  And at this particular moment in the Church’s history, as we prepare for the Synod of Bishops which is calling us to become a more deeply synodal Church, I want to invite you to reflect deeply on some words of Pope Francis which have become the heart of his petrine ministry and lie at the centre of the Synodal Church the Pope is calling us to: “Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy”. They are words which will make sense, in a very particular way, to you as a Somascan, called to walk in the footsteps of St Jerome Emiliani, imitating his great love and practical care for the poor and the young. St Jerome, in imitation of Christ, became the face of the Father’s mercy to so many people – as his son you are called to do the same.

Because you are being ordained as a priest at this precise moment in our history in the Church’s long history, your ministry as a priest will unfold within the context of this fundamental truth which Pope Francis proclaims so often. The Lord is calling you to commit yourself to ensuring that the living out of your priesthood is deeply marked by this quality of divine mercy.  He is calling you, as a living icon of the Good Shepherd, to be, in Jesus, “the face of the Father’s mercy”.  Pope Francis says of Jesus that “everything in him speaks of mercy. Nothing in him is devoid of compassion”.  If the people with whom and for whom you will work in your priestly ministry can say this of you – that everything in Father Sheldon speaks of mercy for nothing in him is devoid of mercy - then you will know that you are becoming the priest the Lord has called you to be and God’s people need you to be.

It now falls to us, your family, your friends, your brother priests, and in a special way, of course, your Somascan brothers, with whom you will live and work in your service to God’s people, to help, encourage and support you as you seek to unveil for God’s people the merciful face of God.  You will come to know if you are succeeding when, in your moments of prayer, you can recognize in yourself the features of the face of Christ.  You will know if you are succeeding, too, if you can see in the faces of those you encounter that spark of joy or hope, that sense of peace, which comes from an encounter with Christ.  Learn to read in the faces of your people whether you are leading them to the God of mercy or leading them astray.  Be an unveiler, not an obscurer, of the merciful face of the Father.

For this reason, and with this hope in our hearts, our prayer for you today is the prayer we pray at every ordination: May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment.