BEYOND ALL DESERVING

Fr. Joel Tabora, S.J.
Thanksgiving Mass ofFather Norlan Julia, S.J.with Frs. Ritche Elot, Florge Sy, and Gaby Lamug-Nanawa, S.J.University Church of Christ the KingAteneo de Naga University
23 April 2005

This afternoon we come together in special thanksgiving. We thank the Lord for having given the gift of his ministerial priesthood to these four young Jesuits – including Frs. Ritche Elot, Florge Sy and Gaby Lamug-Nanawa. With so many of us here from Magarao, from Calabanga, Naga Parochial School , and the Ateneo de Naga High School, we are specially grateful for the gift of Father Norlan Julia. The Lord calls his priests from among his people, and this is what gives us today extraordinary joy. Father Norlan's father, from Magarao, and mother, from Calabanga, raised him and the rest of their family in Naga despite many trials and bouts with major illness. Who would have thought that Norlan would develop into the accomplished young Jesuit he now is? Norlan learned the fundamentals of reading, writing and public speaking in Naga Parochial School ; he served as a Knight of the Altar in the Cathedral of Naga and in the Parish Church of Calabanga; he grew further in leadership and academic excellence at the Ateneo de Naga High School where he graduated in 1992 as class valedictorian. Many years of higher education and formation have since intervened. But Norlan has never forgotten that he was called for the life he now leads from among us; this has been and is a source of deep inspiration and strength to him. For us, it has been our source of quiet pride that he has been called from among us. We are grateful that through the power and mystery of God's grace, Norlan comes today as an ordained Jesuit priest to take bread, bless it, and give it to us as the Bread of Life; he comes to take the cup of wine, bless it, and give it to us as the Cup of our Salvation, the Cup of Eternal Reconciliation and Unending Rejoicing.
Product of Grace
Our gratitude runs deep when we realize how much this is a work of God's grace. We Jesuits work hard at vocations promotions. But there is nothing in vocations promotions that can be forced. We know no genial combination of propaganda, seminars, workshops, counseling, novitiate formation and long years of study that “produces” the priest. There are so many competing conventions and conferences, so many competing values in every song on the radio, in every movie in HBO, in every access of the Internet, so many competing interests in the global market, so many competing challenges. Why be a priest, when one can sell soap? Why preach the Gospel, when one can make so much money advertising the good life? Why worry about the human individual, his spirit, his moral integrity, his freedom, his happiness, when one can be a doctor, or what is even more fashionable today, a nurse? Why preach the social doctrine of the Church when one can be a politician and do so much for the poor (or so they say)? Why pursue a life of sanctity marked by the sign of the Cross, when one is so weak, or so passionate, and it's so much easier to discreetly capitulate to sin? Or, even if one by extraordinary guts and even more extraordinary grace were spared from major sin, why be a priest when one can be a holy layman?
Primum Regnum Dei
I don't think there's any answer to this other than this is the way God called Norlan, and this is the way Norlan responded through grace in our midst. Norlan attests that when he was at the Ateneo de Naga high school, he was impressed by the school's motto: Primum Regnum Dei - First the Kingdom of God . That's a remarkable fact, isn't it. Why, we might ask, was Norlan so moved by this phrase when so many graduate from the high school practically unmoved by it? But Norlan was. It was a real challenge to him. First the Kingdom of God . It may have been because of the bottom-line struggle in his family guided by faith and love to do what is right despite adversity under a God who is King. It may have been the many Masses he served that placed the Altar and God above other possibilities in his consciousness. It may have been the quiet witness of such as the late Father Lorenzo de los Santos in Calabanga, whose Masses he served over years, or perhaps the moving goodness of Fr. Jack Phelan, an enduring example of one who in his kindness served first the Kingdom of God . It may have been the way the teachers at Ateneo taught and interacted with students, teaching obviously not just for their salaries. It may have even been the memorable Masses of Fr. Johnny Sanz and Fr.Ayong Belardo for streetchildren in the old Lingap Center , or the way our beloved Ms. Cedo taught catechism to these children after Mass. Fr. Bonoan's passion for the school and for Bikol, challenging Ateneans to serve God's Kingdom first in serving God's Bikolanos may have also been at play. However it came about, Primum regnum Dei was not just a decorative slogan for Norlan. It was an imperative of life. And when the King invited him to work at his side, it was the imperative for his yes . And for this, today, we are profoundly grateful.
Priesthood of all the Faithful
Your professors at Loyola School of Theology have explained to you the theological meaning of the priesthood much better than I ever could. It is clear, taken from among us, your ordination does not make you now a mediator between God and man. You do not hover above us and below God. Even angels don't exercise this function, and you are clearly not an angel. There is only one such mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ, who became one of us in order as High Priest to offer the ultimate sacrifice, the free offering of himself on the Cross restoring us to the Father ultimately as the expression of the Father's Love for us. Through our baptism, through our confirmation, through the Eucharist, we are all Priest, we all participate in his freely-offered death and resurrection, his Priesthood; we all are participators in the offering that justifies us and sanctifies us and gives us the hope of eternal life.
One With Your Lord and Community
However, through your priestly ordination, Norlan, you are called from among us to the ministerial priesthood. As there are many functions in the Church, you are called to the priestly function, the priestly office, the priestly ministry, that the enduring presence and vigor of Christ the High Priest in our world might be manifested. You are called from among us on behalf of humanity and in the name of Jesus Chris t to offer the Sacrifice, to forgive sins, and to celebrate sacraments of God's love and grace. Through the power now in your consecrated hands, Christ in and with the Christian Community takes Bread, blesses it, breaks it, saying, “This is my Body now given up for you”; Christ in and with the Christian community takes wine, blesses it, and shares it saying, “This is my Blood poured out for you.” Through the strength now in your voice, Christ in and with the Christian community announces his Good News to the world, confronts evil and corruption in the world, challenges women and men to create a more humane world. Through the compassion now in your heart, Christ in and with the Christian community, forgives sin, feeds the hungry, consoles the suffering, shelters the homeless, and cares for the elderly. Through the fire now in your belly, Christ in and with the Christian community moves against all those conditions in which man or woman is an alienated, enslaved, degraded, isolated, and despicable being. Without Christ, your priesthood has no head; without your community, your priesthood has no body. Stay one then with your Lord; for this, you have vowed poverty, chastity and obedience as a Jesuit, you have resolved to live a life of sanctity. Stay one with your people, for from among these people, with these people, and for these people you have been ordained. You have no priesthood apart from Jesus; you have no priesthood apart from your people. You have not tired of saying, Norlan, that your priesthood is pure gift. You do not deserve it; you never will. You have worked hard and grown much, but still do not deserve it; you will work even harder, and shall grow even more, but shall still never deserve it. You shall succeed and fail, triumph and fall, weep and rejoice in love unimaginable, but still never deserve it. It is for this reason that we have come to join you in your Thanksgiving, to be one with you in your Eucharist, in your thanksgiving for treasure undeserved. As your gift is undeserved, neither is it a gift we deserve. Who would have thought we could have produced this day? We didn't. This is the day the Lord has made, and so we rejoice and are glad! For such a pure gift, doubly undeserved, one can only humbly give thanks. In the gift of your priesthood, Norlan, again we know the Father's Love for us in his Son, in his Priesthood made present to us in you, beyond all deserving.