Iesu, Sacerdos in aeternum, miserere nobis!

"This invocation is taken from the Litany of our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim, which was recited in the Seminary at Krakow on the day before ordinations to the priesthood. I included them as an appendix in my book Gift and Mystery, published on the occasion of my priestly Jubilee. But I wish to highlight it in the present Letter, for I think it brings out in a particularly rich and profound way the priesthood of Christ and our link with that priesthood. The words of the Litany are based on texts of Sacred Scripture, particularly the Letter to the Hebrews, but not exclusively. When for example we pray: Iesu, Sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech, our thoughts go back to the Old Testament, to Psalm 110. We all know what it means that Christ is a priest like Melchisedech. His priesthood was expressed in the offering of his own body, "once for all" (Heb 10:10). He who offered himself as a bloody sacrifice on the Cross also instituted its unbloody "memorial" for all times, under the species of bread and wine. And under these species he entrusted his Sacrifice to the Church. In this way the Church — and in the Church every priest — celebrates the one Sacrifice of Christ.

I remember vividly the impression made by the words of consecration when I uttered them for the first time together with the Bishop who had just ordained me. I repeated them the following day in the Holy Mass celebrated in the Crypt of Saint Leonard. And so many times since then — it is hard to count them — I have repeated these sacramental words in order to make Christ present, under the species of bread and wine, in the saving act of his self-sacrifice on the Cross.

Let us once more contemplate together this sublime mystery. Jesus took the bread and gave it to his disciples saying: "Take this, all of you, and eat: this is my body". And then he took the cup filled with wine, blessed it, gave it to his disciples and said: "Take this, all of you, and drink: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all, for the forgiveness of sins". And he added: "Do this in memory of me".

How could these wondrous words not be at the very heart of every priestly life? Let us repeat them every time as if it were the first! Let us take care that they are never said out of habit. They express the fullest realization of our priesthood".

Paus Johannes Paulus II
Brief aan de priesters Witte Donderdag 1997