ALTER CHRISTUS
by
Father Roberto Atocha Dorantes Sáenz
It is six o’ clock in the morning. One hears the the bells ringing. Benedicamus Domino, the bell ringer says. The seminarists answer: Deo gratias – as they do everyday in the Seminary of the Holiest Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Hermosillo, Mexico.
This is a day many people have been waiting for. We are in the city of Guadalajara. It is the 7 October of the year 2004. There are many thoughts going through the mind of a deacon who is just going to be ordained priest, he is reminded of the day when he arrived at the seminary, when he had the conviction that he had made a holy and definite decision for his life, the conviction to follow Jesus Christ, to be his servant, to be ALTER CHRISTUS.
As he is aware of what he is going to receive, his thoughts fly towards the room of the Holy Supper, and he thinks: It is the same as it was then. It is the evening before the suffering; the Apostles’ argument about the first place is still fresh in the room of the Holy Supper, and the form of Jesus Christ who has knelt down and is washing their feet is fresh in their souls.
Afterwards our Lord Jesus Christ takes the bread and then the wine in his hands ... and says the holy words: THIS IS MY BODY ... THIS IS MY BLOOD which is poured out for you... do this in memory of me.
The bread and the wine remain the same from the outward appearance, but from this moment on they have stopped being bread, being wine to be changed into the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.
And those disciples were changed into other beings by the words of Jesus Christ. From the outward appearance they stayed the same persons who some moments ago argued about the first place, but a divine power was placed into their souls: the power of changing bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ which is unique in Heaven and on earth. This is the divine effect of the words of Jesus Christ on the bread and the wine and on some people.
This event of the room where the Holy Supper took place will be repeated on this very day. In Mgr. Martín Dávila Gándara’s hands the bread and the wine will be changed into the body and the blood of Jesus Christ, and the change of four deacons into priests will occur in the same way.
The place: the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a church situated on a hill; it holds about 200 people, but it is not sufficient, as about 500 people are expected. That is why the ceremony of ordination will take place outside the church. For this purpose two large, elegant tents where put up where the altar and 500 seats for the faithful where built up. However, these seats where not sufficient, for about 600 people arrived from the different parts of the country. They were all moved and thanked God for this good which he decided to do.
During the ceremony the deacons go up one by one and kneel down in front of the bishop, silence comes, the representative of Christ places his hands on each of them. In this moment this area becomes a room of the Holy Supper. Each of them feels the pressure of Christ’s hands on his head. In their souls they hear the echo of those words said in the room of the Holy Supper: “This is my body... This is my blood...”, and it is as if Jesus Christ said: “Do this in memory of me.”
All servants of God who were selected from the world, sometimes with the same faults as other people, still remain the same from the outward appearance – like those Apostles. But their nature has been changed in a way similar to the change of bread and wine during consecration. A divine power has been placed into their souls. The world still remains the same, but there are four new and true priests in it.
Among the most impressing moments during the ceremony were the singing of the litany which takes place after the announcement of the many functions and strong duties of a priest. The church which is aware of the fact that no one could stand without grace then calls for the help of God, the blessed Virgin and the saints together with the faithful, while the candidates of ordination are prostrated on the floor so that the help of the grace of heaven can easily descend on them who are humbled down to the dust. Another moving moment was the holy unction, the moving sound of the Veni Creator goes up to heaven as a humble and fervent prayer. The chosen person is kneeling there so that the holy unction may fill him with graces which he is supposed to transmit to the souls. And the holy oil drips on those hands in order to consecrate and to sanctify them: “Consecrare et sanctificare digneris, Domine, manus istas per istam unctionem et nostram benedictionem.”
And as Father Sauvé (Jesús íntime, vol. II) writes:
“Who could recognize and appreciate the relations and connections of Jesus with the soul of the new priest at the time of his ordination? Just as the word incarnate gave itself entirely to the holy humanity of Jesus with all its graces and gifts in order to sanctify all its actions, Jesus, with his grace, gives himself to the priest’s soul in order to sanctify it: “The priest has to be one with Jesus. He is Alter Christus by the characteristic, he is supposed to be it by virtue and holiness. Jesus wants to continue living in him with his priesthood, with his self-denial, with his patience, goodness and mercifulness, with his self-abandon and his sacrifice. This essentially is what ordination is: something like a new incarnation of Jesus in the priest’s soul.”
13 years have already passed since the death of Mgr. Moisés Carmona Rivera. His work has born fruit and continues bearing fruit. For the priests’ congregation Trento currently consists already of twenty priests under the direction of Bishop Martín Dávila Gándara who had been ordained priest by Mgr. Moisés Carmona.
The salvation of the Catholic Church from the wars of the heresy of modernism and its enemies is a divine work rather than an human one. We are aware of this, but this does not include that the priests, the seminarists, the nuns and the faithful of the priests’ congregation Trento do not do their bit against heresy and error.
We are aware of what time we are living in. The Church has lived in crises, but it has never experienced a crisis of the kind we are facing, starting from the vacancy of the Holy See and going up to the general apostasy which society is living in, having forgotten the fear and love of God.
The urgency of apostolic works, an urgency being felt even more intensely today, cannot justify any precipitate formation of priests. What would be the use of having a larger number of persons take part in the fight if, owing to a lack of formation, they were unable to stand the confrontation with the enemy powers? Today we, the true Catholics, are partly experiencing the effects of this, for the catholic world is divided: priests living as loners with their small parishes, personal differences of opinion leading to theological aberrations on the one side and the other. Enthusiasm and good will are not enough, strong convictions and good will are required and not self-opinionatedness and bad will; willingness to make sacrifices and uniting with God are required. Otherwise you will also put the priest’s destiny into danger – besides the fact that this is of no use for the good of the Church.
The urgent apostolate must above all be taken care of by intensifying the formation of the souls of those wanting to work in it. For only people who by an intense inward life and an intellectual and theological formation are steadfast in God will be able to stand the attack of the devil, the world and the flesh – which sometimes is extremely vehement. That is why the formation in a well-formed seminary is important.
“A person who is perfect will do more”, St. Theresa of Jesus says, “than many who are not.” It is therefore of utmost importance that those dedicated to priestly ministry are seriously brought on the way to perfection, to holiness. This is the only way they can give God to the souls and lead the souls to God. The entire Church history is a practical demonstration of this principle: “St. Paul was one, and didn’t he win many! If all Christians were like St. Paul, how many worlds could be converted!” (St. John Chrysostomus). The holy parish priest of Ars had little human aid. And nevertheless he converted a countless number of souls by his very holiness, his love of and his unification with God.
God grant that the priests and the laypeople reading this small paper will worry about their own sanctification and salvation, that they will turn to the means granted by God, no matter where they are, and that, in places where they cannot count on the sacraments, they will try to lead a life of virtue, sacrifice and prayer, and that they will also pray to the owner of the harvest to send workers into his vineyard. For the harvest is large and there are few workers to gather it in.
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