New Britain herald., 1923-07-30

had an audience with the Pope on hi:
 return home and the supreme pon.
 tiff had given him his permission tc
 give the papal benediction.
 The sermon was preached by the
 Rev. J. Leo Sullivan who spoke in the
 highest terms of the young priest.
 Father Sullivan spoke as follows:
 To-day there Is joy and exultation
 through the parish for one of her
 sons has been elevated to the dignity
 of the Christian priesthood.
 To-day sees the happy consunlma-
 ton of years of study and prepara-
 ton in the training school of Chris
 ton leadership, the seminary. For
 like Abraham of old. God calls his
 priest, and bids him leave his family,
 his relations and friends and go into
 a far off country there to study and
 master the science of the saints and
 thus become a true ambassador of
 Christ, or like Samuel, who Anna his
 mother, gave over to Gods service,
 so does the Catholic mother willingly give her son to serve God all the days of his life, to finger in the sacred courts of her temple to listen to the divine voices speaking in the calm and silence of tho cloister, until he emerges the prophet of the Most High the Ambassador of God, the priest of Jesus Christ.
 And our young priest stands be- fore us today above his fellows, gladness like a king who for the first time ascends the royal throne.
 Let us pause for a meoment to examine his credentials, let us try to penetrate with the minds eye those prestly prerogatives, which lift him above the reality of earthly things into the very presence and life of God Himself. He is the ann bassador of Christ or as the Great Apostle of the Gentiles puts it, For Christ we are ambassadors, God as it were exhorting by use.' II Cor. V, 20. Yes, the, priest is the am- bassador not of an earthly king but of the Almighty himself. He is the representative not of an earthly court but of the Court of Heaven. He champions the cause, not of the inferior, temporary kingdoms of earth but the superior eternal king dom of God.
 If then we look with awe and admiration upon those men who rep resent at Washington and courts of Europe, because we visualize in them the soveriegnity and authority of the great powers who sent them, what will we say of those chosen few, the elect who are clothed with the spiritual powers of ambassadors of the kingdom of Christ? AS am- bassador he is too the minister of reconciliation All things says the great St. Paul, are of God who hath reconciled us to Himself if by Christ, and hath given us the ministry of reconciliation II. Cor. " IS.
 By ordination the priest has jur- isdiction not only over the natural body but over the mystical Body of Christ, which is comprised of mem bers of His church. The tremendous prerogative of pardoning sin in the tribunal of penance was conferred upon the apostles and their success sors, the bishops and priests of the | Catholic church when our Lord said, |
 'Stig say lo yOut "ndtsOENtT E6 l shall bind upon earth shall be bound | also in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth, shall be | loosed also in Heaven. Matt XVIII, | IS. As the Father hath sent me. I | also send you. When he said this He | breathed on them: and He said to | them; Receive ye the Holy Ghost. | Whose sins you shall forgive, they, | are forgiven them; and whose sins | ye shall retain. they are retained. ! John. xx. 21-23. And so while the sem tence of an earthly judge is restricted | to the temporel life of man: that of | the Lords anointed extends into the region of eternity.
 'The priest is styled the physician of the soul. Is there any man sick among you says St. James, Let him call in the priest of the church, and let them pray over him, amounting him with oil, in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be him. James V.14-15. Yes, the priest exercises the function of a soul physician, not only by his sac ramental powers. but also by admin stering the medicine of consolation to the sorrowing, and by prescribing remedies 10 the victim of moral diseases Tn his daily visitation the compassionate minister of God brings sunshine into the house of He staunches the bleed ng wounds Of the broken-hearted, cheers the disconsolste, heals domes- tic dissensions and assuages the fever of anger, cupidity and voluptuousness. And yet there is a power a preroga- i've superior to all these gifts. one hat even outranks the designation of of Christ minister of physician Of !1e soul, md that Is the title of p7ieek The