#drops priestfic in the middle of the night and runs away

[catie-does-things]

Fan Fic: si autem mortuum fuerit multum fructum adfert

Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, other Batfam members Summary: Jason Todd’s ordination to the sacramental priesthood. Words: 953

Father Todd AU, part 4

AO3

They spent a week in silence, preparing.

They didn’t say a word to each other. They passed the time in adoration, in prayer and contemplation, in spiritual reading, without a sound.

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

It was a silence like the tomb, Father Mark told them in his homily on the first day. Like the tomb of the Great High Priest whose ministry they would enter into soon. A servant is not greater than his master.

Jason knew a thing or two about that.

He used his voice only to sing the liturgy of the hours, and, on the last day, to confess his sins.

-----

There were five of them ordained that year.

Jordan, a convert, whose family refused to attend.

Luis, who was raised by his grandmother, a tiny woman who sat in the first pew.

Michael, whose nine siblings were all present - his oldest brother already a priest.

Dominic, whose family filled out the pew with Luis’s grandmother - his older sister and her husband and their six-year-old son, his twin brother and his wife, and his parents.

And Jason.

Jason’s family was there as well - Bruce and Selina and Dick and Barbara, Alfred, Tim and Stephanie, Damian, Cassandra, Duke, and even Kate. They filled the pew behind Dominic’s family. They stood and kneeled at all the appropriate times. Barbara said most of the responses, the ones she knew. Only Bruce said them all, and softly. Jason couldn’t hear him, but he could see his lips forming the words.

For I have come to set a man against his father...and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

After the homily, the five of them stood before Cardinal Tolan, their backs to the congregation. They made their vows together, with one voice, promising themselves to the service of Christ and the Church. They knelt before the cardinal’s throne and promised him their obedience.

Then they prostrated themselves before the altar, and the congregation prayed the litany over them. Jason could no longer distinguish any individual voice from the crowd. Face down on the cold stone floor of the cathedral, he didn’t know if any of his siblings joined the prayer. He didn’t know what Bruce was doing. He saw nothing.

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

When the litany concluded, they rose, still facing the altar. The went before the cardinal, each in his turn and knelt again. He laid his hands on their heads in silence. The other priests did the same.

When the cardinal sang the prayer of ordination, Jason kept his eyes closed.

It was Michael’s brother who vested them, now a brother priest to them all. One by one, they received the new stole, and for the first time, the chasuble. One by one, they were bound and yoked with Christ forever.

Jason was the last in line. He kissed the cross at the center of the stole and placed it on his neck. His fellow priest lifted the chasuble over his head and smoothed the folds of the seamless white garment over his shoulders.

Whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

When he knelt before the cardinal again, Jason presented him with his hands. They were hands that had fought, and spilled blood. Hands that had grasped desperately for a way out of a coffin, and hands that had struck out in wrath, seeking vengeance. Hands that had been clasped in prayer, seeking forgiveness for all they had done.

The cardinal anointed his hands with holy oil, and wrapped them in white linen.

Those who find their life will lose it, and who lose their life for my sake with find it.

As the mass continued, the newly ordained priests took up their place beside the cardinal, facing the congregation once more. Jason spared a brief glance at the second pew.

Alfred was smiling. Bruce looked solemn. He thought he saw Damian furtively wiping his eyes. Cassandra had put an arm around her younger brother’s shoulders, and he hadn’t pushed her away.

When the time came to distribute the Eucharist, Luis’s grandmother proudly came forward first to receive from her grandson’s hands. Michael’s family and Dominic’s followed, their newly ordained brothers and sons presenting them with each sacred species.

Jordan hung back until it was time for the rest of the congregation to receive. So did Jason. No one in the second pew came forward.

After the mass, there was a frenzy of activity outside the cathedral, as everyone came forward to congratulate the newly ordained priests and seek their blessing. Old women and young children, the Sisters of Life in their blue and white habits, strangers and friends, the younger seminarians and the deacons, newly ordained themselves.

The families of the new priests, who had been first inside the church, were now the last to come out. Jason’s siblings were cheerful, but distant in a new way. He had been set apart from them now, and they all felt it, regardless of what they believed or didn’t.

Bruce was the very last to come forward. He said nothing, but took both Jason’s hands in his own, palms facing up. For a moment their eyes met. Then the man he called father bowed, and kissed his fingertips.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!