Homily for the Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood of Brs Louis Mary Bethea, Gregory Marie Santy, Bertrand Marie Herbert, Basil Mary Burroughs, Titus Mary Sanchez, Nicodemus Maria Thomas and Linus Mary Martz of the Order of Preachers at the basilica of the national shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington DC on the feast of St Boniface, 5 June, 2025.
Unparalleled in wisdom about our origins, lives and destinies, about the perennial battle between good and evil, and about the possibility of redemption… I am speaking, of course, not of the Bible or the Summa but the Marvel comics and films.
Connecting those stories is the theme is transformation, as ordinary human beings become extraordinary superheroes—or villains. Consider Tony Stark’s metamorphosis, from self-centered weapons manufacturer to Iron Man protector of the weak; or the physically weak and socially withdrawn physicist Robert Banner made Incredible Hulk by gamma radiation; or mild-mannered teenager Peter Parker turned crime-fighting Spider-Man after a radioactive spider bite; or the frail Steve Rogers become Captain America due to “Super-Soldier Serum.”
Yet these examples of profound transformations from the Marvel Universe pale when compared to what is about to take place in the very being of our seven ordinands. It is our Catholic faith—taught by the magisterium and St Thomas Aquinas—that this sacrament leaves an indelible seal or character upon the souls of the ordained, one that cannot be erased. It’s a change so profound it’s been tagged “ontological,” more complete than any dreamt up at Marvel.
Some balk at such metaphysical talk because they distrust philosophical categories, especially from the same stable as Transubstantiation. Some fear it encourages an unhealthy clericalism that lords it over others and allows clergy to exempt them from ongoing formation, co-responsibility, accountability, even ordinary morality and courtesy. Some even attribute the clergy sexual abuse crisis to Catholic mythologising about ontology and sacred power.
Others accept church teaching that the Sacrament of Orders effects a permanent character in the recipient but minimise its implications to unrepeatability: you can’t be re-ordained a priest, just as you cannot be re-baptised a Christian; otherwise, you are the same thing after ordination as you were before.
Yet from today things will change for these seven men. People much older than them will treat them with unaccustomed reverence, calling them “Father” even though they are younger and celibate. Though they already boast the Church’s coolest habit, they will vest anew for Mass. They will sit in a special place, celebrate the rites, and serve themselves Communion. There will be new pulpits, new sacraments, new charges. When gravely sick, they will be anointed on the back of their hands, not the front. And when dead—hopefully, many decades from now—they will be placed with head rather than feet towards the altar…
Is all this just spiritual elitism and pious myth? Or is there a richer reality to this talk of ontological change and indelible character? Let me suggest seven respects in which these men, our sons and brothers, will be different from today, so different that we will call them Father.
Today’s will not be the first ontological change effected sacramentally in these men: it will in fact be their fourth. Baptism, Confirmation and Diaconate already made them Children of God, Temples of the Holy Spirit, Servants of the Altar, Word, and Charity. Today’s change builds on those three transformations by God’s grace.
Secondly, our epistle speaks of priests as “selected from among the people,” set apart from their fellows. As baptism calls the faithful out of the rest of humanity to be “reborn” as “a new creation,” so this sacrament calls some of them to further renewal. The recent popes have warned against secularising priests and clericalising the laity: they have different parts to play. “Behold, I am doing a new thing” with you, God says to these seven today.
Thirdly, as our readings make clear, these men are set apart from their fellows for the sake of their fellows, shepherds for the sheep, mediators representing them before God. So, it is a change of relationship, told in the new title of “father.” It is about service, not status. As Our Lord repeatedly taught, we come to serve, not to be served.
What is the particular service of their fellows for which the character conferred at Ordination will fit or “order” our new priests? The Church draws upon the biblical imagery of priest, head, shepherd, and bridegroom to elaborate on this service. Today’s readings tell our priestlings to “deal gently with the ignorant and stray,” to offer prayers, sacrifices and tears for their redemption, and to guide and guard them from the “savage wolves” that would disturb their faith and communion. They will share in a particular way in Christ’s munera of teaching, sanctifying and governing. In an age of unremitting secularization, moral relativism, cultural polarization, and more, the world needs your dual vocation of preaching friar and sanctifying priest more than ever—and the Thomist ontology you bring to this task.
Fifthly, the character conferred at ordination conforms the ordained to Christ in a new way, so he might act in persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ the head: effecting the Eucharistic consecration, absolving sins, and anointing the sick. St Thomas characterises this as becoming instruments, mediators, or conduits of Christ’s graces, deputed to act in his place and according to his will, not our own. Ordinary instruments are themselves unchanged over time, except that they gradually wear out; but the more these men fulfill their calling, the more they will become like their Manufacturer and inextricably bound to him.
Again, unlike a job or title, priesthood is 24/7 and for life, even into eternity. A priest never stops being a priest. I’ve heard a few priests say they can’t wait to escape their priesthood and get on with their “real life.” That strikes me as confused, even tragic. Priesthood is the priest’s life, his God-given way of being human and Christian. Retired, holidaying, or sleeping priests are still priests; even so-called “laicised” priests can still give sacraments in emergencies.
Seventh and finally, as the sacraments of initiation incorporate a person into the Christ’s body the church, so ordination incorporates them into the body of priests, the Presbyterate. Now seven of Dominic’s sons will become the Fantastic Seven, each with new superpowers but all part of a team of the 400,000 priest-presbyters sanctifying our world.
Well, that’s seven dimensions of the ontological change about to take place: these bright young theologians could probably list some more! Yet strangely, like the bread and wine after the consecration at Mass, they will look much the same as they did before. Perhaps that’s a mercy: we’d rather they didn’t go big and green like the Hulk. And their metamorphosis will be just as mysterious. Many times in the years ahead, they and their people will experience things that can only be explained by the grace of today’s sacrament working itself out through them
Dear brothers, just as no two Marvel superheroes have the same origin story and experiences, so each of you comes with a particular geography, education and religious background. Each of you found your calling to Dominican priesthood in your own way.
Brother Louis, worldly success in the tire industry in Luxembourg left you empty, until you experienced a flood of God’s mercy, calling you to a Dominican life of contemplation and sharing its fruits with others for the salvation of their souls.
Brother Gregory, from that first stirring as a fourth-grade server, through to physics, philosophy and discerning in various places, you found your vocational home in the joyful common life of the friars, spring-board for your priestly service.
Louisianan Bertrand, your Catholic upbringing, transformative retreats and philosophical education led you to a diocesan seminary, where you discerned a call to the evangelical counsels and religious consecration alongside the call to priesthood.
While some lose their faith at college, our Canadian Brother Basil discovered it there! You found the intellectual depth and heroic charity of the Catholic Church far more compelling than the relativism and hedonism of the culture. Now you will help convert that culture to Christ.
Texan Titus, by God’s strange providence you met the Dominicans in Alaska! Word and sacrament whispered conversion and vocation in your ear and soon you embraced the mission of a son of Dominic to preach and be close to Mother Mary.
The rosary, altar service, and apologetics, prepared you, Brother Nicodemus, to encounter the brethren in prayer and study at Providence College, and to join the Order’s heroes, including our soon-to-be-sainted Pier Giorgio.
And finally, Brother Linus, you and a friend decided almost on impulse to check out the Dominicans! You stayed because of the sense of fraternity and the preaching of grace and hope that you will now embody as a living homily yourself.
Building upon your diverse gifts and backgrounds, the Holy Spirit will today pour out upon the seven of you graces for spiritual superheroes. He will change you ontologically into priests of Jesus Christ forever. Embrace this mysterious transformation with humility and gratitude, allowing Christ so profoundly to reshape your being that those you serve will encounter Him in you. May Paul’s constant refrain be yours also: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:2)