Vatican City, Apr 12, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Celebrating today the chrism Mass in the Basílica of Saint Peters, Pope Benedict said that “the nucleous of the priesthood is to be a friend of Jesus." He invited the priests present to "offer their hands to Christ and be guided by Him.”
In his homily during the chrism Mass, in which the priests renew their vows and bless the Oils, the Holy Father affirmed that “to be a friend of Jesus, to be a priest, means being a man of prayer. We can only be friends of Jesus in the communion with Christ.”
He refered to the priesthood as a moment in which Jesus Himself becomes a friend and us to himself. He, truly gave himself to our hands. He makes us participants in the conscience of the misery of sin, and of all darkness of this world, and gives us to key to open the doors of the Fathers house.”
He rejected activism, as something that doesn’t bear fruit, declaring that: “Simple activism can be heroic," he told the priests. "But in the end, external actions remain fruitless and ineffective if they are not borne of a deep, intimate communion with Christ."