Cardinal You Heung-sik thanks world’s priests, calling them ‘friends of the Lord’

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

“Thank you for your daily fidelity, often silent and hidden. Thank you for your “yes,” renewed each day, even amid hardships, loneliness and misunderstandings. Thank you because, through your ministry, Christ continues to draw near to His people, to heal, to forgive and to nourish them.”

Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy, along with Dicastery Secretary, Archbishop Carlo Roberto Maria Redaelli, expressed this in the letter they sent to priests, deacons and seminarians for Holy Thursday.

On this day when the Church commemorates the institution of the Eucharist and of the ministerial priesthood, Cardinal You said they wished “to reach all of you, in every part of the world, with a thought of profound gratitude, fraternal affection and sincere encouragement.”

Priests are friends of the Lord

As the Church contemplates the Lord Jesus who, washed out of love the feet of the disciples and gives Himself in the breaking of bread, he reminded that “From this love, our vocation is born, and to this love we are continually called to conform our entire life.”

Cardinal You thanked priests for their immense love and friendship with the Lord.

“The Holy Father Leo XIV, during the Holy Year of Hope,” he recalled, “reminded us that ‘The priest is a friend of the Lord, called to a personal and trusting relationship with him, nourished by the Word, the celebration of the Sacraments, and daily prayer,” and that friendship with Christ is the spiritual foundation of the ordained ministry…'”

With this in mind, the Cardinal reminded priests that being a priest is not merely a role to be performed, but a gift to be safeguarded with a grateful heart and filled with wonder, as he added that priests are not defined simply by what they do, as much as by “the infinite love with which Christ loves us.”

Eucharist is the source and summit of our existence

In the letter, the Cardinal reflected on priestly sacrifice and service.

Sacrifice, in its deepest truth, he clarified, is not first of all renunciation, but gift. “It is,” he said, “offering one’s life so that it may be wholly oriented to the love of God and of our brothers and sisters.”

“We are called to live as men given over, consecrated, who find in the Eucharist the source and summit of our existence,” he continued, stressing, “It is at the altar that we allow ourselves to be conformed to Christ, receiving the strength to accompany, to forgive and to console.”

Service, then, he explained, is the concrete form of this love.

The last recommendation Cardinal You offered priests is to not be discouraged by the difficulties of our time. “Even when the soil seems barren and the seed struggles to grow, the Lord continues to act,” he reassured, noting, “He has chosen us, He has consecrated us and He never abandons us.”

“Therefore,” he said, “be priests with open hearts, capable of closeness, listening and compassion; men of communion, credible signs of a synodal and missionary Church; joyful witnesses of the Gospel, even when this entails sacrifice.”

Safeguard the joy of your calling

Cardinal You next thanked all brother deacons, who, “through their generous and discreet service, make visible the charity of Christ the Servant.”

The Dicastery Prefect insisted that their “ministry is precious and necessary for the life of the Church, today more than ever.”

And finally, he turned to all seminarians preparing with dedication for the priesthood.

“Do not be afraid,” the Cardinal encouraged, “to give your entire life to the Lord.”

He urged all seminarians to safeguard the joy of their calling and allow themselves to be formed each day by His love, for the Church needs their authenticity, enthusiasm and faith.

Finally, the Dicastery Prefect and Secretary conclude the text by entrusting all priests, deacons and seminarians to the Blessed Mother, and wishing them a fruitful Holy Triduum, in deep union with the Lord Jesus.