As Companions of Christ we are diocesan priests living in priestly fraternity. There are certain obvious reasons for such fraternity: the Christian call to live in love, the need for support, the advantages for pursuing a common mission. But the priestly fraternity we are pursuing goes deeper than this. It is rooted in the very nature of priesthood.

Priestly fraternity is founded on something more than human, in what Presbyterorum Ordinis (8) calls an "intimate sacramental fraternity" (intima fraternitate sacramentali) founded on participation in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ and participation in his apostolic mission. The great example for this is the apostolic band around Jesus. When Jesus called disciples, he called them into an ordered apostolic band. They were to leave their "nets," their families and former lives, not for independence or solitariness, but for another kind of life together, that of the company of apostles. Jesus was seldom alone, only by exception. The same was true of St. Paul.

Part of the call to the disciples to share the priesthood and apostolate of Christ was to be given a set of brothers who also were chosen by him. Peter did not choose James; Bartholomew was not consulted concerning Matthew. The call to follow Christ was also a call into brotherhood with others who had been called. It was to this apostolic band that Jesus said: "By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:35). This fraternal bond was not a sidelight, an optional addition to the apostolic call. It was an integral part of the witness the Apostles were to make to the love of Christ. This bond among priests is meant to be a model to the faithful and to the world of the love of Christ. It is the relationship of brotherly love par excellence. It is the white-hot center, the crucible from which the fire of brotherly love is caught by the whole People of God.

Just as a sacramental bond exists between all Christians making them into the Body of Christ, just as a further sacramental bond exists between a married couple providing grace for a particular kind of fruitful union, so a sacrament binds together priests and provides grace for another kind of union, one that witnesses to the brotherly love meant to characterize all Christian relationships. There is no one single way to live such a sacramental union, but it must have genuine and practical expression. The marriage union means little unless it is expressed in specific acts of union, sharing of life, of goods, of time, of the task of raising a family. So with priests, the inner form of priesthood leads priests into the sharing of time, of apostolic service, of goods, of life and of friendship with one another.