In two weeks San Francisco will be 250 years old, and I will be 35 years old [a priest]. Both of us (the city and the man) are as old as our first Masses. San Francisco began with a Mass on the banks of little Dolores Creek (at the corner of Dolores and 16th Street, now sadly bricked over), and Fr. Joseph Illo began with a Mass at Cristo Rey Monastery (at the corner of Stanyan and Fulton, now sadly closed most of the day). Fr. Junipero Serra came to San Francisco in 1777 to celebrate the first anniversary of its Mission, which was founded by his faithful lieutenant, Fr. Francisco Palóu. St. Junipero came to San Francisco as a relatively old man, towards the end of his life’s work of teaching, evangelizing, and founding churches. I came to San Francisco in 1983, as a relatively young man, just out of college, not knowing that God would ordain me a priest eight years later at the age of 29.
Father Serra was 63 years old when he came to San Francisco, and I am 64 years old today, trying my best to continue the work his friars began 250 years ago. God has given priests His own essential task of offering Word and Sacrament to the world. “Go out to every people,” Christ told his first eleven priests, “and tell them all that I have told you.” To be a priest is simply to “tell people what God has done for you.” Every priest is ordained with a burning desire to tell the world that Christ suffered and died for him, that He rose from the dead, and that His providence will always maintain the basic peace and order of our world in the midst of all our failures. We have nothing to fear, because there is an all-wise and beneficent God who reigns above the chaos. To be a priest is to assure the world that we can know where we have come from, and we can know where we are going.
To reach the deep and lasting happiness for which we long, Catholics must worthily receive the Holy Body and Blood of His Son. To be made worthy, we must confess our sins. The job of a priest is quite simple: to hear confessions and to offer Mass. I make bold to say that on these two sacraments the City of San Francisco was founded—in fact, so was the entire state of California, whose capital city of “Sacramento” is named for the Holy Eucharist. All of this started in San Francisco on June 29, 1776, and all of this started in my life on June 29, 1991. I thank God for this city, and I thank God for the priesthood, both at the service of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Father Serra was 63 years old when he came to San Francisco, and I am 64 years old today, trying my best to continue the work his friars began 250 years ago. God has given priests His own essential task of offering Word and Sacrament to the world. “Go out to every people,” Christ told his first eleven priests, “and tell them all that I have told you.” To be a priest is simply to “tell people what God has done for you.” Every priest is ordained with a burning desire to tell the world that Christ suffered and died for him, that He rose from the dead, and that His providence will always maintain the basic peace and order of our world in the midst of all our failures. We have nothing to fear, because there is an all-wise and beneficent God who reigns above the chaos. To be a priest is to assure the world that we can know where we have come from, and we can know where we are going.
To reach the deep and lasting happiness for which we long, Catholics must worthily receive the Holy Body and Blood of His Son. To be made worthy, we must confess our sins. The job of a priest is quite simple: to hear confessions and to offer Mass. I make bold to say that on these two sacraments the City of San Francisco was founded—in fact, so was the entire state of California, whose capital city of “Sacramento” is named for the Holy Eucharist. All of this started in San Francisco on June 29, 1776, and all of this started in my life on June 29, 1991. I thank God for this city, and I thank God for the priesthood, both at the service of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
A sunrise Holy Eucharist on Half Dome in Yosemite
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