In the Eucharist Christ gives himself to us completely... And he wished to entrust this act of giving, this ability to give God, to priests, his friends. Do for the church, for the community, what I have done. I give myself to you in so that you can be this living and continual gesture of my giving. You act in my place, you act in such a way that I myself can act in you...
The priest can only be a true priest if he lives in intimate relation with Christ, completely united to his life and his love; and also if, through his union with Christ, he becomes empty of himself, the least, the poor one, the chaste one.
When the priest says “I” he must identify with the “I” of Christ, because Christ himself wants to say “I” in him.
Klaus Hemmerle
Il sacerdote oggi
Gen’s 12 (1982/6) p. 11