Ordination of Damian Mc Groarty to the Priesthood

St. Eunan’s Cathedral 4th July 2010

by Most Rev Philip Boyce OCD

Bishop of Raphoe

“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house’” (Lk 10:5).

The Lord spoke these words to his disciples as He sent them out before him to prepare for his own coming. They were able to bring with them the gift of peace because they proclaimed that “the kingdom of God is very near you.” And St. Paul tells us that this kingdom “is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). True peace arises from God’s presence. It comes from within us. The priest’s words: “Peace be with you” are more than a simple greeting. They are a divine blessing bringing light, healing, inner strength and salvation. Those who accept this blessing into their lives are freed from what is sinful and evil; they live in peace with God, with others and with themselves.

Damian, you are being anointed as a priest of Christ today, and being sent out as an ambassador of peace to a world of strife and discord. You are given spiritual power over the Body and Blood of Christ so that you offer Mass each day, renewing on the altar the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary that takes away the sins of the world. You also will be able to take away the burden of sin and guilt from the conscience of repentant sinners, bringing them back to friendship and peace with God. This is essentially what you will bring to your people. It will not be your own message. It will be Christ’s. Only He has the words of eternal life. Only his word brings peace and hope amid the conflicting voices that struggle for our attention every day.

God places very great and precious gifts in your life today. He gives you a share in his own power. No human being can do of his own power what the priest does, for in Christ’s name he absolves sins and changes bread and wine into the very Body and Blood of Christ, really and truly present as the food of life and the medicine of immortality. He unites earth with heaven and mankind with its God.

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI marvelled at this trust which God puts in weak human instruments, for “in earthen vessels He places this treasure, to show that the transcendent power belongs to Him and not to us” (cf 2 Cor. 4:7). “This audacity of God who entrusts himself to human beings – who, conscious of our weakness, nonetheless considers men capable of acting and being present in his stead – this audacity of God (the Pope says) is the true grandeur concealed in the word ‘priesthood’”. This must surely be of immense encouragement to you Damian, as you begin your life as a priest of Christ, even though you start your ministry in a year when priests have suffered a lot. When the sins of some of them against the innocent and defenceless made us all ashamed, you still have the courage to say “ Present” – “here I am, and send me,” and you are ready to bring to the waiting world a renewed and purified priesthood, one that is ready to serve, in which you “unite yourself more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered himself for us to His Father as a perfect sacrifice.”

A model of priestly Service

We have celebrated a Year for Priests. Your ordination can be seen as a fruit of that Year. You have received special graces and valuable experience in your service as a Deacon during the past twelve months in the Cathedral parish. Renewed in the eagerness of your young years and more determined than ever to follow Christ and be with Him, you are now anointed to be a priest and to sanctify the people entrusted to your care.

The holy Curè of Ars, St. John Mary Vianney, was placed before you in this recent Year as a special model of priestly faithfulness, zeal and holiness. He began his ministry in social conditions that were in turmoil after the French Revolution, when society was infiltrated with a secular culture and both the Church and the priesthood were severely attacked. Yet by being a humble and zealous priest, for over forty years in the same parish, he became a Saint.

One of his pastoral duties became particularly fruitful. It was one that is a duty for every priest, namely, forgiving sins and restoring friendship with God in the confessional. You may be tempted to say that many people nowadays do not have a sense of sin any more. That may be so, but it cannot be denied that the weight of sinful actions, words and thoughts, still troubles the conscience of many people. They need to encounter Christ in the confessional, where the priest represents our Saviour, who takes away the sins of the world. They need to hear the words: “I absolve you from your sins.” In this way you will be a messenger of God’s peace.

Do not be afraid. Times are no more difficult now than they were for the Curé of Ars. As Pope Benedict XVI, in the Letter he wrote to proclaim the Year for Priests, says: “Priests ought never to be resigned to empty confessionals or the apparent indifference of the faithful to this Sacrament. In France, at the time of the Curé of Ars, confession was no more easy or frequent than in our own day, since the upheaval caused by the [French] Revolution had long inhibited the practice of religion. Yet he sought in every way, by his preaching and his powers of persuasion, to help his parishioners to rediscover the meaning and beauty of the Sacrament of Penance, presenting it as an inherent demand of the Eucharistic presence…..By spending long hours in church before the tabernacle, he inspired the faithful to imitate him by coming to visit Jesus with the knowledge that their parish priest would be there, ready to listen and to offer forgiveness.”

Like him, any priest in the confessional can reveal to those who are lukewarm and insincere the horror of their sins that offend God so much. To those who are sincere and repentant, he can open the treasures of divine mercy and love. He can be a man who brings true peace. For nothing like a good Confession brings true peace of soul.

I know, Damian, that you will go forth to be a good shepherd for your parishioners, to give your life in prayer and pastoral activity for the life of your people. The grace of Ordination will be with you at all times to provide you with all necessary strength and wisdom. Guard it jealously. Deepen your friendship with the Lord and He will share with you his compassion for souls, his longing to save them and lead them to heaven.

As Pope Benedict says: “God wants us, as priests, in one tiny moment of history, to share his concern about people. As priests we want to be persons who share his concern for men and women, who take care of them and provide them with a concrete experience of God’s concern.”

It is in giving you will receive, it is in giving Christ you will be fulfilled. I thank you for your generosity with the Lord, your Master. Pray that other young men will also hear the call and respond, taking the place you leave empty in the Seminary. “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into his harvest” (Lk 10:2). On a day like this, He will not refuse you.

Finally, ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Peace, to guard you. Place your priestly ministry under her protection. Remember how she, as a Mother, was given to the Apostle John, and to every priest, by Christ from the Cross: “Behold, your Mother” (Jn.19:27). Take her as your Mother, just as the Beloved Disciple did. She loves you in a special way because you are about to give yourself, as Christ her Divine Son did, to bring the Gospel to a world hungering for truth and for the God who saves them. Amen.