LISMORE Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett reminded the diocese’s newest priest of the grace he would experience in the ordinariness of life’s ups and downs.
He ordained Fr Stefan Matuszek, 27, at St Francis Xavier Church, Ballina, on September 14 – the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
Fr Matuszek’s vocation grew in Tasmania but flourished through World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney which led him to apply to Bishop Jarrett as a candidate for ordination.
At the time he was a second-year engineering student at the University of Tasmania.
He was accepted for Lismore diocese in 2009 and he undertook his preparation for priesthood at Vianney College, Wagga Wagga.
Before ordination he served placements in the Maclean, Kempsey and Coffs Harbour parishes.
In his homily, Bishop Jarrett said Fr Matuszek’s ordination was an occasion of the Lord establishing “another link in His great work which stretches through time to eternity, a bond as human as His own”.
“By words of power and sacred anointing Stefan will be embraced by the Lord into that one body which in its precise work here on earth is that of the alter Christus, the other Christ, not another Christ, as if there could be more than one, but rather a human image as on the other side of the same coin, a reflection in human flesh of the one eternal High Priest,” Bishop Jarrett said.
Fr Matuszek’s journey to ordination began in Tasmania, where his parents still live, and his priestly ministry in Lismore diocese will begin at the end of this year.
Bishop Jarrett said this ministry would take place “in the very human world of people and events, of imperfection and limitation, of outright sin tinged often as much by malice as by ignorance”.
“Outcomes will be unclear, simply to be left in the Lord’s hands,” he said.
“That is the reality of priestly ministry.
“After the years of your preparation, Stefan, you will be aware I am sure that as wonderful and beautiful a thing as it is to be a priest, it takes place in a world of repetitive actions, routine timetables and places, of tiredness, dull responses and let-downs, and the temptation to wonder if any progress is being made.
“But keep in mind that these are the ordinary circumstances that the Lord has chosen for your life from this moment onwards, as He has chosen for the rest of us, as indeed, when you think of it, for the countless mothers and fathers in the midst of their marriage and family life and the upbringing of their children.
“Our fatherhood shares so much with what it is to nurture and shape a family.”
Bishop Jarrett urged the new priest to also keep in mind “the inspiration and example of those priests who have influenced your life and have given you confidence by their example to follow in their footsteps”.
He said they were “the men who would say a resounding ‘Yes’ – I would live this priestly life over and over again, for I could never tell the half of the works of goodness and grace I have seen in people’s lives, which no one else perhaps might even be aware of, just because the Lord chose to use me as His instrument in their relations with Him, and as best I could I let myself be used by Him”.
