New priests called to be Jesus’ companions and imitators

The newest Archdiocese of Omaha priests are called not only to be Jesus’ friends but His companions, Archbishop Michael McGovern said.

Jesus referred to His apostles as companions several times in the Gospel, the archbishop said in his homily at the June 7 ordination of Fathers Brian Hula, Will Targy and Logan Hepp.

“When we use the term companion, we’re speaking about someone who’s more than an acquaintance, more than even a friend,” Archbishop McGovern said before a standing-room-only crowd for the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha.

The word companion has in its Latin roots the words “with bread,” he said, “someone close enough that we break bread with that person. Companions are people we share life with.”

The apostles were “truly companions of Jesus,” spending time in His company, eating meals together, witnessing firsthand His ministry of preaching, healing and introducing people to the Kingdom of God.

“In a particular way, today we celebrate that – Logan, Brian and Will – you have been called to be companions of Jesus,” Archbishop McGovern said as he was about to ordain the men. “Christ has called you into His company, into a closeness to Him in your spiritual lives and your lives of faith. And in a very real way today, as you make this commitment to be a priest of Jesus, that you continue to describe, to express to other people Who the Lord is, that they can come to know the Lord Jesus and the love that is in His Sacred Heart for them and for the world.”

“Thinking as Catholic people, we describe it as a Eucharistic culture, a culture of praise and thanksgiving, a culture of self-emptying love, that we move outward from our Holy Communion of the Lord in the Blood of Christ at Mass today to reach out to men and women in the world around us.”

Like Jesus, the priests must allow themselves to be broken for others, he said.

During the ordination rite, those being ordained were to lie prostrate on the floor as everyone prayed for the intercession of the saints.

It would be at that moment that “we realize … what it means to be the grain of wheat that falls to the ground to die,” Archbishop McGovern said, to produce fruit as they “bring Christ to others each and every day of your lives as priests.

“Christ wants to reach people,” he said, “through your witness and your preaching, to reach the poor, the sick, the persecuted, the people who often feel forgotten in our culture, and to go up to them in the Spirit of Love, the Love of Jesus, the Love in His Heart that He has.”

During the homily, Archbishop McGovern mentioned Father Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and writer, who, on March 18, 1958, experienced a profound moment on the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I love all these people,” the late monk wrote, “that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another, even though, as we were as told, strangers. … Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts … the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes.”

Father Merton could have aptly described the heart of a priest, Archbishop McGovern said, “to have that overwhelming realization that I love all these people, that they are mine and I theirs.”

That heart is modeled by the Good Shepherd, he said, who leads and protects His sheep and does not run away when a wolf threatens the flock.

The archbishop quoted St. Augustine, saying the most common way that clergy members run away is through silence.

“When we are good shepherds,” Archbishop McGovern said, “motivated by love, we love these people as our own in Jesus Christ, we find our voice to speak to them in love and in truth, to proclaim the Gospel of Life to each and every one.”

Father Targy will begin his priestly ministry as associate pastor of the Holy Spirit Catholic Parishes, which include St. Michael in Coleridge, Holy Trinity in Hartington, St. Peter in Newcastle, St. Mary of the Seven Dolors in Osmond, St. Paul the Apostle in Plainview, St. Joseph in Ponca, and St. Mary of the Seven Dolors in Randolph.

Father Hepp will be associate pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Omaha.

Father Hula will be associate pastor of the Heart of Jesus Catholic Parishes, which include St. Patrick in Battle Creek, St. Leonard in Madison, St. Mary and Sacred Heart in Norfolk, St. Joseph in Pierce and St. Peter in Stanton.

READ MORE FROM THE CATHOLIC VOICE: