Following are major segments of Bishop Weigand’s homily on June 29 for the ordination of seven new priests for Sacramento.

Dear ordinands, after many years of studies and spiritual formation, you have freely sought to be ordained as priests and I have called you to ordination. But it is God who has led you. Now, in persona Christi capitis, through ordination and sacramental configuration to Christ the Priest, you will be sent on mission to teach, to shepherd and to sanctify those whom God has chosen for his own.

You represent Christ and his Church, not yourself. Your opinions and interests are relevant only if they are also Christ’s and the Church’s. You are not ordained to do your own bidding....You are ordained to do what Christ asks, what the Church directs, what pastoral need and zeal for souls require — whether you are comfortable or not, whether you think you are adequate or not, whether you are nervous or not. You simply step out in faith, put your trust in Christ and do the best you can. You just “close your eyes,” in a sense, before a pastoral challenge and go forward. You pray for courage as you lend yourselves to Christ without stint.

When training the apostles, Christ was very explicit. To do his mission and be fishers of souls, we have to put out into deep water. “Duc in altum.” Brothers, in everything you do as priests, you will be over your heads, beyond your talents, out of your depth. You will get used to it if you remember that it is not about you, but about Christ and his mission. Striving to forget self and our human limitations, we simply do the work of the Gospel as best we can....

Being a priest requires a lot: selflessness, generosity, energy, initiative, creativity, courage, hard work and, of course, zeal for souls. This is not a life for weaklings! It is a call to be restless for doing Christ’s mission. You will want to resist any inclination to be passive, non-engaged, or concerned for personal comfort. The priesthood is not a job, nor even a profession. It is a vocation — and not of your choosing, primarily. Christ said: “I have chosen you; you have not chosen me.” (Jn 15: 16) “Go and bear much fruit,” “As the Father has sent me, so I send you...and he breathed on them” the Holy Spirit. (Jn 20:21-22) Even though much of what we do is beyond our talents and we are over our heads in deep water, we trust in this “power from on high.”

Being a priest is a full-time endeavor. Ordination makes you apostles for Christ, missionaries charged with communicating the Word of God, “in season and out,” commissioned to build up the Kingdom of God. Priestly consecration requires of you this zeal for souls. “Caritas Christi urget nos”, “The love of Christ impels us,” says St. Paul. (2 Cor 5:14) We are to be “on fire,” to “lose ourselves” for souls, — constantly trying new pastoral strategies; evangelizing and teaching in every way possible; offering salvation to one and all.

Priesthood is not about titles, honors, or status; not about an easy life, an expensive car, public acknowledgment and personal comfort. These things will not be of great importance to you. Instead, prayer and a deep personal relationship with Christ will be the foundation of your priestly life. If not, there will be little chance of keeping vibrant your vision, your motivation and your priestly life.

A priest is simply not his own. We belong to Christ and his people. That we are committed to chaste celibacy “for the sake of the Kingdom of God,” bears this out and constantly reminds us. That you renew today your promise of obedience to your Bishop and the Church also reinforces this fact....Being a priest requires continual growth in your love for Christ and his people, steady growth in holiness. This resolve is graced and made possible by “the help of God.”

But priestly vocation is a joyous matter, and your ordination today is a joyous occasion. Soon your hands will be anointed with holy chrism: the “oil of gladness.” Priesthood, for all its challenges, is a joyous pursuit and joy is a sign of God’s presence. So, as priests, you are called to the joy of Christ, and you will communicate that joy to others. Our priestly ministry releases the joy and goodness in others, the goodness in our world, the goodness that leads people back to God. There will be sufferings in your life, of course. The cross is very real. But through it all, yours will be an abiding joy that nothing and no one can take from you....

It is an awesome commitment we make, one impossible to fulfill without the grace of God — day in and day out. We are but limited and weak instruments. We can do little without God’s constant grace, but we go forward in hope and trust. The ordination rite has me conclude the questioning by praying for each of you: “May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment.” And he will.

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