"Christ wore our clothes: the pain and the joy of being a man, the hunger, the thirst, the tiredness, the hopes and disappointments, the fear of death, all our apprehensions, through to his death. And He gave us his ‘clothes’". It was said by the Pope who at Chrismal Mass, that he officiated today in the Vatican Basilica, highlighted that "the theology of Baptism returns in a new way and with new insistence in the priestly Ordination". "As in Baptism an ‘exchange of clothes’, an exchange of fate, a new existential communion with Christ, are donated explained Benedict XVI , likewise an exchange takes places in priesthood: when delivering the Sacraments, the priest now acts and speaks ‘in persona Christi’. In the holy Mysteries, he does not act or speak on his own behalf, but he speaks on behalf of the Other of Christ". In this way, he added, "what being a priest generally means becomes dramatically visible. Putting ourselves at Christ’s disposal means we let ourselves be attracted into his "for everyone": by being with Him, we can really be there ‘for everyone’".
