Father Huckaby celebrates his first Mass Saturday afternoon in Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Lake Charles while Father Starkovich will celebrate his first Mass Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. in Christ the King Church in Lake Charles.
Before the conclusion of the Mass, Deacon George Stearns, Diocesan Chancellor, read off the assignments for the new priests – Father Starkovich as Parochial Vicar at Our Lady Help of Christians Catholic Church in Jennings and Father Huckaby as Parochial Vicar at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Lake Charles. Deacon Stearns also announced other pastoral changes for the local church, which are found elsewhere on this page as well as on the website of the Diocese – lcdiocese.org.
Bishop Provost, in his homily, spoke to the new priests and to the crowd relating the story of the first journeys of St. Barnabas, whose feast day was Saturday, and St. Paul.
“When he and Paul went to Lystra and the crowds saw Paul work a miracle, making a lame man jump and walk about, the people then acclaimed the two apostles ‘gods,’” the Bishop said. “That they called Paul “Hermes” and Barnabas “Zeus” perhaps tells us something about their personalities. Paul evidently did the talking as ‘the chief speaker.’ It is implied that Barnabas remained mostly silent, at least in the account of Acts. Thus, the crowd probably presumed that Barnabas was the greater “god.” “The priest of the Temple of Zeus “brought oxen and garlands to the gates, for he together with the people intended to offer sacrifice,” Bishop Provost continued. “Only Barnabas and Paul tearing their garments and shouting a loud protest stopped the folly. However, it got everyone’s attention, so that Paul could proclaim the “good news” and the one and truly living God.”
The Bishop pointed out that Paul and Barnabas had their successes and well as their failures in their ministry, and even with the division, different factions, and jealousy they met, they “came to realize that the work belonged to God, not to them, so they were not discouraged and persevered.”
Continuing he said, “even though I have never heard a priest chronicle his trials in any way similar to Paul’s, I have heard many reach the same conclusion as Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, ‘Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.’”
The Bishop told the new priests than a “good man is a Pentecost man. He knows and loves the Church. He is a believer. He is a churchman. The Spirit has descended upon him and made him speak languages he never thought he knew. He leaves the upper room, where he has devoted himself to prayer and intimacy with God, and faces a world filled with antipathy towards the message that he will preach. Yet, he preaches it because he knows the message does not belong to him. It belongs to a higher truth than himself. As a matter of fact, he is not the truth. He is the servant of the truth, the mouthpiece for the proclamation. The truth is what he speaks.”
Bishop Provost concluded his homily speaking of his own ordination, 36 years ago, saying, “On June 6, 1975, I visited my spiritual director for the last time before ordination to the priesthood. He offered me advice that I wrote down but I know took on added significance only with the passage of years. He counseled me to commit myself to mental prayer every day, to make my prayer intensely personal, to prepare myself for ordination in such a way that that day would be an event “to look back on,” to talk to Jesus about everything, and to look upon ordination as opportunity for permanent commitment and repeat the words of the Gospel, ‘Lord, save me lest I perish’ (Matthew 8:25) (8)—and then repeat the Holy Name over and over again.”
The complete text of Bishop Provost's homily is found at http://live.lcdiocese.org/bishop-provost/homilies/875-priesthood-ordination-2011-.html .
