I am the sacrifice: 3rd week tuesday

For almost two years now I have been reflecting on the first readings of the day believing that the reading for that day is meant by God for a particular situation or a particular person with a particular circumstance on that very day.  And so I would like to continue my reflection on the first reading today.

Talking about the priesthood of Jesus for almost two weeks now a curious thing can be found in our first reading, the Letter to the Hebrews.  The author puts a quotation in the mouth of Jesus, but the author quotes it differently.  Instead of saying “an open ear you have given me” from Psalm 40, he had Jesus say instead “a body you have prepared for me.”  The rest of the quotation is verbatim except for this part.  Now the quotation may sound miles apart but the meaning is the same.  In fact the author reworded the quote to reiterate emphatically and specifically a very important point.  To obey, Jesus had to be given not just a hearing faculty, but flesh and blood, he had to be given a body, because what the Father is asking from him in obedience is suffering and death, a thing only a human being can offer.

This is where the difference lies.  The priesthood of Jesus is different from the priesthood of the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament the priest offers a sacrifice – a pair of turtle doves, or a lamb, or a bullock, whatever is prescribed by law.  In the priesthood of Jesus Christ, however, he is the sacrifice. 

In the Old Testament the sacrifices are the blood of bullocks and rams.  In Jesus, it is not the blood that made the sacrifice superior but the choice – Jesus choose to do God’s will even if it means suffering and death, even if it means sacrificing himself.  Behold, he said, I come to do your will.

Our priesthood is not Jewish, it is not levitical, it is Christological.  Our Priesthood is the priesthood of our High Priest Jesus Christ. The Jewish priesthood calls for the priest to make the sacrifice but unlike the Jewish priesthood the Christian priesthood is called to be the sacrifice.  You are not just offering a sacrifice.  No.  You are the sacrifice.  You are the turtle dove, you are the ram, the bullock, you are the lamb of sacrifice.  And what makes your sacrifice more pleasing to God is the fact that you choose it, you accept it, and you embraced it. 

And so we ask:  Is my life in the priesthood a sacrifice?  Is my priesthood a sacrifice?  In my desire to become a priest is there a growing consciousness in me that in choosing the priesthood I am expressing my willingness to be sacrificed?

Trivia 1:  Do you know that in the High Middle Ages when people go to confession they are not the only ones kneeling down for confession?  Yes they knelt down before the priest.  But do you know that the priest also knelt down with the penitent?  The priest, the sacrifice, takes upon himself continually the sins of his people. 

Trivia 2:  Do you know that John Marie Vianney revealed one time to a fellow priest the secret why he was so effective in the confessional.  He said, “I just give them a little penance and take most of this myself.  I do most of their penance myself.”

When I complain that I do not like my assignment, when I complain if my stipend is too small for my needs, when I even complain that the sautana is too hot to wear, when I complain that life in my parish is too hard, too demanding, has it dawned on me that I am the sacrifice?

When I could not get what I want, when I cannot obey much more agree with my superiors, when I complain living with a certain priest too difficult to live with, has it come upon me that I am the sacrifice?

When I crave for companionship, when loneliness settles in, when I feel bored and find it difficult to stay put, when I long for money and security and find my income or allowance almost always wanting, has it occurred to me that these complaints, these deprivations, these denials, these burden is part of my priesthood, that I am the sacrifice?

You are the sacrifice.  In our life, in our emotions, perhaps at times in our battered hearts and in our feeble bodies we continually take upon ourselves the sins of the world.  Do we take this as something at the core of our priesthood?

So of what use is our reading in today’s mass to our purpose in gathering today?  Well, frankly I do not know.  But this I know.  Philosophies change, attitudes change, priorities change, even formation programs change.   But there are things that do no change in time.  They remain constant.  Our life in the priesthood as a sacrifice is one.  If you change that, you are changing the gospel.