My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ; Pope Leo XIV was quoting St. Augustine when, at the start of his pontificate, he said: “With you a Christian, for you a bishop.” Today, I would like to slightly alter those words saying, “With you a Christian, for you a priest.”
In the acclamation to the Gospel a few minutes ago we heard:
You are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation;
announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful
light.
These words profoundly mark one aspect of what a priest is. Taken from the already holy assembly of God, a people who are charged with making the world holy, with announcing the Good News to those who still live in darkness, the priest is one who acts to strengthen this task of the Christian people.
Like Moses in the Old Testament, he acts on behalf of this holy assembly in their interaction with God. The priest is, like the bishop, a pontiff, a bridge builder. He is charged with building bridges between people, but above all, with securing the bridge between the people and God, so that the grace of God may flow down, through the sacraments, renewing this already holy people of God, empowering them in their attempt to be just to one another, and to others. One thing we must remember, the priest deals with grace, because without grace, we can do nothing.
Grace is possible primarily through the sacraments. Without the sacraments we can do little. Since the past 200 years, ever since the French revolution, or perhaps for the past 500 years, since the Protestant reformation, we in Europe, and then subsequently across the world, have been under the impression that we can change the world without grace. We have taken pride in our industry, in our wealth, in our political and social institutions. But, we have failed to realise that all of this was possible only due to the grace that flowed, through the sacraments, and the structures and institutions of our Holy Mother the Church.
Today, as we see our institutions collapsing around us, as Europe seems to fade ever more into irrelevance, it is time for us to recognize that we have been arrogant and misled. The answer to the civilizational crisis that we are facing is not in state programs – though these might help – but in a return to the Church, and the grace she offers through the sacraments. As Saint Paul teaches us in his letter to the Romans:
We were indeed buried with him
through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
Newness in life, is possible only through baptism, which is the gateway to the sacraments that the Church offers us, and with it the assurance of eternal life. This is the only utopia that we should be aiming for, the only utopia that is worth realizing.
To enter this utopia, we need priests because without the priests we cannot access the sacraments. For this reason, my dear brothers and sisters, I ask you to pray for your priests, and more specially, to pray for me.
In this context I would like to quote St. John Maria Vianney here:
When the priest is a saint, his people will be holy.
When the priest is merely good, his people will be bad.
When the priest is bad, his people will be beasts!
Pray, therefore, that I other priests, and myself, will be saintly priests, so that we may all be the holy people of God. And in return for your prayers, I will make my own the words of the psalm we sang today:
The promises of the LORD I will
sing forever,
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
Louvado seja o Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, e para sempre seja louvada a sua Mãe Maria Santíssima!
(A version of this homily was first preached in Portuguese to the faithful gathered at the parish church of São Nicolau, Lisbon for the anticipated Sunday Mass which was offered in thanksgiving for the gift of the sacred priesthood in the presence of friends who have supposed me through my life in Lisbon, on 27 June 2026.)
(Image reference: Ordination and First Mass of St. Juan de Mata, Vicente Carducho, 1634 – 1635, Museo del Prado, Madrid.)
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