Ordination of Maxwell Vetch to the Priesthood

Bishop Scott Bullock
Priestly Ordination of Maxwell Vetch
Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rapid City 
June 27, 2025

A brief, autobiographical detail — It was in the Spring of 1990, long before Deacon Max was born, that I received the happy news of the date, the next year, of my ordination to the priesthood. My Archbishop felt that knowing the date, of course assuming that the seminary faculty agreed, it would be a good part of my spiritual preparation for the last year of seminary. One of my closest friends determined that it was perhaps the most perfect date imaginable: The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart! For the priest, conformed to the very person of Jesus through ordination, was meant to act with the heart of Jesus and show the merciful heart of the Lord to the people he would serve! It was a glorious possibility! But before long, it was clear that one detail would thwart this magnificent vision — the moveable feast. For while June 22, 1990, was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart; the date set for my ordination, June 22, 1991, was not! And yet, is not every ordination day, in a certain sense, a “feast” of the Sacred Heart, when the love of Christ is on display. A love that above all molds the heart of the new priest to be like that of Christ, the Good Shepherd, who seeks to find the lost, and gather them into his own heart, where finally, fully, and forever, we can enjoy the deepest longing of hearts created for God for us.

Among all the rituals of the Church, the Rite of Ordination (whether it is that of a bishop, a priest, or a deacon) has a unique quality not shared by our other rites: it proposes a standard text for the homily. The ritual clarifies, “The bishop preaches the homily. He takes as his starting point the text of the readings proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Word, and he speaks to the people and the elect about the priestly office. He may speak about this office in these or similar words,” after which, in the ritual, comes the prescribed text. To be honest, over my 34 years as a priest, I never once heard the bishop take up this “offer.” To give my brother bishops credit, perhaps this is because they took seriously the directive to take “as his starting point the text of the readings proclaimed in the Liturgy of the Word,” like all good homilists do. 

As suggested in the anecdote above, ordinations move to different dates for different reasons, with different prescribed readings as a result, but good news. Today’s readings for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart seem tailor-made for the homily text contained in the ritual.

There is much said about the ordination promises that comprise the heart of the ordination rite, and rightfully so. For these promises will be the tools by which the priest will be able to gather the people, too often distracted and lost by the things of this world, into God’s eternal kingdom.  But, let us be clear. While these are acts of the will by the men ordained, five resolutions in a row — do you resolve, do you resolve, do you resolve, etc. — followed by the promise of respect and obedience, I’d like you to notice how these all end. Then the bishop concludes, “May God who has begun the good work in you (the promises) bring it to completion.” The point? God will equip priests with the tools they need to live the ordination promises fruitfully for the kingdom.  

Let’s look at these promises briefly, these tools, all meant to equip the priest for his sacred work of gathering people to the Sacred Heart of the Good Shepherd. And I’ll throw in some of those words from the prepared text, just for fun:

The first promise, “Do you resolve to discharge unfailingly, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the office of Priesthood in the presbyteral rank, as trustworthy co-workers of the Order of Bishops, in feeding the Lord’s flock?” No need to answer yet.

The ritual exhorts, “Priests are established as co-workers of the Order of Bishops with whom they are joined in the priestly office and with whom they are called to the service of the People of God.” Co-workers: this is the call to unity that our new Holy Father issued with his first words as our Pope, when he cited the first words of the risen Christ: “Peace be with you.” As I have mentioned many times before, the Biblical word for peace, eirene, literally means joining the pieces of our lives together. Working with your bishop as a trustworthy co-worker contributes to that unity and peace for which our Lord himself prayed, that we might all be one.

Second, “Do you resolve to carry out the ministry of the word worthily and wisely, in preaching of the Gospel and the teaching the Catholic faith?”

The prescribed homily from the Ordination rite continues, “You will exercise in Christ the Teacher the sacred office of teaching. Impart to everyone the word of God that you yourself have received with joy. Meditating on the law of the Lord, see to it that you believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” 

Thus, your ministry of the word is three-fold: study, belief and practice. All three acts are of preaching, and all of these are acts of love of the Good Shepherd. Acts that you choose to emulate in your own pastoral life. I invite you to study, preach and to live the Gospel as acts of love of God and neighbor!

Third, “Do you resolve to celebrate the mysteries of Christ reverently and faithfully according to the tradition of the Church, especially in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, for the praise of God and the sanctification of his Christian people?”

Regarding the Eucharist, the homily cautions, “Understand what you do, and imitate what you celebrate; as a celebrant of the mystery of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection, may you strive to put to death whatever is sinful within you and walk in newness of life.”  

How shall you imitate what you celebrate? It seems the homily calls us to pour out our lives like Jesus does, most supremely seen, in the Eucharist. I was reading in the seminary magazine of the North American College, which Deacon Max attended, a recent article authored by our future priest, where he reported being the seminary “King Pin” — the champion of bowling. Heights of excellence like this do not come easy. They take practice! So too, we priests are in training, daily, training our spirits to be like Christ, pouring out our lives by daily celebration of the Eucharist. I can certainly testify that, after 34 years of priesthood, that the daily celebration of the Eucharist, even sometimes without a congregation, has formed me to more naturally pour out my life, in imitation of what we celebrate. While this virtue forms us priests into the virtue of self-sacrifice, that same homily cautions us against habits that form sinful patterns and lead us away from the pattern of the life of Jesus. So, the priest is thus called to renounce anything that could be an obstacle to the spiritual sacrifice he is empowered to offer.

Fourth, “Do you resolve to implore the mercy of God for the people entrusted to you, with zeal for the commandment to pray without ceasing?”

The ritual’s homily continues, “Offer praise and thanksgiving through the hours of the day and pray not only for the people of God but for the whole world. Fulfill, therefore, the ministry of Christ the Priest with abiding joy and genuine love. Seek not your own concerns but those of Jesus Christ.” The priest’s mission, as he prays day in and day out, is to serve as the priest who intercedes without ceasing for the people of the whole world and doing it often unknowingly and unnoticed except to God.

Fifth, “Do you resolve to be united more closely each day to Christ the High Priest, who offered himself for us to the Father as a pure sacrifice, and with him to consecrate yourselves to God for the salvation of all?”

That homily adds, “Always remember that you have been taken from among the people and appointed on their behalf in those things that pertain to God.”  Always remember, that is, always call to mind that Jesus himself has called you and appointed you for this sacred work. He has consecrated you and He will give you what you need! Early on in my life as a priest, a seminary classmate came to me with the devastating news. He had decided to leave the ministry for which we had all prepared together, with much joy, sweat and, yes, even tears.  

When I asked him why, he said, “I don’t believe Jesus would want me to suffer in the way I am, and I can’t do it anymore.” The burdens and, in his experience, loneliness of the life had overwhelmed him. While Jesus’ saving cross is the path for all his followers, what he said was true was that, yes, he couldn’t do it anymore. But we’re not meant to do it by ourselves. We’re meant to unite ourselves to Christ who will make our offering fruitful for the salvation of all. It’s a glorious vision of living that is only possible by being united closely to Jesus.

And sixth and finally, “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?”

Finally, we get to the heart of the matter: obedience. The word at its origin comes from two Latin words, meaning to listen to. The first obedience is a prayerful listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. A listening confirmed through the Spirit working, as promised, through your bishop who speaks on behalf of the Church. 

I have mentioned before the telephone call I received about a year ago from the Apostolic Nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who said to me, “Pope Francis has appointed you to be bishop of Rapid City.”  When I paused to take in these words, he quickly added, “Do you know where that is?”  

While I did know about South Dakota, what I have discovered since about where it is, is the place that obedience has led me, that always leads to peace and joy. So, when I was able to say, “If the Lord and the Holy Father want this, how can I say no. The answer is yes,” I was saying yes to incomparable joy and incomparable peace.

Last evening, I was blessed to have dinner with Deacon Max and his parents, David and Sara. On behalf of the entire Church of Rapid City, thank you for your faithful love to Deacon Max in his life, forming him in the faith and, in particular, teaching him to go to serve where the Lord calls. In a large part, it has been your example of openness to the promptings of the Spirit that has moved his heart to serve “his people” here in western South Dakota, even while his family ties might be east of the Missouri. Thanks also to representatives of Deacon Max’s schools and seminaries that assisted in the formation of his faith and humanity: St. Thomas More High School of the Rapid City Catholic Schools; Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona; and the North American College in Rome. And also, thanks to his brother seminarians, all who had a role in forming him, preparing him for this sacrificial gift of love.

I mentioned at the beginning of this homily, which thankfully is coming to an end, that the prescribed text for the homily was tailor-made for the readings on this Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Listen to the end of the reflection that was given in the Rite: “Finally, dear son, united with your Bishop and subject to him fulfill the office of Christ, Head and Shepherd to the best of your ability. Strive to gather the faithful together into one family, so that you may lead them to God the Father, through Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. Keep before your eyes the example of the Good Shepherd, who did not come to be served but to serve and came to seek and save what was lost.” 

These final words of the exhortation in the rite, are those of the Gospel that we just heard. The parable of the Good Shepherd who seeks out the lost and gathers them back into the flock. While not all of us have the privilege of being ordained on this beautiful and wholly appropriate feast, all of God’s priests are to live each day as if it is the Feast of the Sacred Heart, patterning their lives after the sacrificial love of Jesus and bearing the outpouring of His Sacred Heart, his words and sacraments, especially the Eucharist, to a people hungry for that love. Come now, Deacon Max, and take on the yoke that is easy and the burden that is light — the office of Priesthood and enter into joy! Surgite Eamus. Rise! Let us be on our way.