Sitting back and thinking today, I realized it has been nearly 10 months since my ordination to the priesthood. Many of my “firsts” were out of the way within a few days: first Mass, first Confession, first Anointing. Slowly but surely my first funeral and first Christmas came and went, which included my first times using incense at Mass (always an unnecessarily scary thing in the beginning). Now I am approaching my first Easter and, included in that, the conclusion, or more like a culmination, of my first RCIA cohort. The Saturday after Easter will be my first time presiding at a wedding. And then, after that, most of my major “firsts” will be done.
These past ten months have been a whirlwind, as would be expected. And yet, through it all, I still have a smile on my face. While my own ministry firsts may be ending, I still get to be present and be a minister of God’s grace to many other people’s firsts. While they may become routine and memorized rituals in some ways, the Sacraments that Jesus gave us and that our Catholic tradition holds so dear still contain power, still give grace, still have effect. God is still working in our world in powerful ways, even when our eyes cannot see and our emotions cannot sense. The Holy Spirit is still lighting a fire in the hearts of God’s people.
Father Craig Irwin, OSFS, offers one of his first blessings as a priest to Father Geoff Rose, OSFS.
As we approach the Easter Triduum and participate in some of the most ancient and dearly held liturgical traditions that the Church has to offer, I hope we never forget that God is still working. While being ancient does not mean something is better, it also does not mean something is dead and lifeless. Just because a priest has performed a baptism a hundred times does not mean that pouring the water over a young adult’s head at the Easter Vigil for the hundred and first time holds any less power.
This Easter, let us pray that we may dive deeper into the springs of living water that are the Church’s liturgical traditions. As the priest washes the feet of people on Holy Thursday and the words of Christ at His Last Supper reach our ears, may we enter in as if for the first time. As the cross is carried in on Good Friday and we pray the Solemn Intercessions, some of which are nearly as old as the Church itself, may we know Christ’s presence with us in both His living and in His dying. As we see the Paschal Candle carried into a dark church during the Easter Vigil and watch the Church’s newest members die and rise again in Baptism, may we be reminded that each of us has been born anew in the same way.
And may we remember that God, and God’s goodness, is constantly at work, coming to us in both the old and in the new, the firsts and in the hundred and firsts.
Father Craig Irwin, OSFS
Associate Pastor
Gesu Catholic Church, Toledo, OH
