” “”Being a priest means being a friend of Jesus Christ’s, and more and more with all of our being”. As he celebrated Chrismal Mass this morning in the Vatican Basilica, the Pope summed up in these words the essence of priesthood on the day the Church traditionally celebrates such establishment, along with that of the Eucharist. “The world needs God”, went on the Pope as he celebrated the first rite of Maundy Thursday: “not just any god, but the God of Jesus Christ, of the God made flesh and blood, who loved us to death, who resurrected and made space for man in Himself. This God must live in us and we in Him. This is our priestly call: only thus can our priestly acting bear fruits”. Benedict XVI ended his sermon by quoting “a word from Andrea Santoro, that priest of the Diocese of Rome who was murdered in Trabzon while he was praying”, who was relayed to the Holy Father and to the cardinals by card. Marco Cé, emeritus patriarch of Venice, during the spiritual exercises of Lent this year: “I am here to live amidst these people and let Jesus do it by lending Him my flesh”, is father Andrea’s sentence quoted by the Pope, who went on: “One becomes capable of salvation only by offering one’s flesh. The evil of the world must be borne and pain must be shared by taking it up into one’s flesh all the way through, just like Jesus did”. “Jesus took our flesh. Let’s give Him ours; in this way He can come into the world and change it”, was Benedict XVI’s final comment.
