I consider myself privileged to be ordained a priest during the Jubilee Year of Hope. I guess you could say I will be a “jubilee priest.” This has been part of my prayer for the past few weeks as I prepare for my ordination May 17.
What does it mean to be a jubilee priest? To help discern this answer, I turned to Pope Francis (requiescat in pace) and his bull declaring the jubilee year, “Spes Non Confundit.” The late Holy Father writes, “Through our witness, may hope spread to all those who anxiously seek it.” We live in a world where people are losing hope, a world darkened by war, political division and loss of morals. As a jubilee priest, however, I am called to witness through my priestly ministry that there is a reason to hope, which is the love of God.
Pope Francis wrote that people are anxiously searching for a reason to hope. The hope that they are looking for can only be found in Jesus Christ. As a priest, I will be privileged to act in His person when I greet parishioners after Mass, visit a school, the homebound and the dying, and preach the Gospel during my homilies. In addition to these precious opportunities, the celebration of the sacraments serves as the most privileged moment of acting in the person of Christ, acting in persona Christi, as a priest. In the celebration of baptism, the priest fulfills the Lord’s command to baptize, which gives the promise of eternal life. The priest assures the sinner that his sins are forgiven in the sacrament of reconciliation when he says, “I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In the celebration of the Eucharist, the priest provides the faithful with the Bread of Life, the Holy Eucharist, and shows that Christ truly is Emmanuel, God with us. In all the sacraments, the hope promised to those who believe in Christ shines and comforts those who seek it.
As a jubilee priest, my goal is to assure those I minister to that there is a reason to hope. Despite our weaknesses and the turmoil we hear and see every day, the Lord constantly makes His love available to us. He makes His love available to us through the ministry of His priests, and this is how I see myself as a jubilee priest. I pray that I may be a witness to Christian hope, because as Pope Francis said, “It is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.”
Rev. Mr. Thomas Piro, who attends Saint Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y., is set to be ordained to the priesthood on May 17 at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Mary, Mother of Mercy Parish, Glassboro.
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