The Priesthood of Christ – Sacrifice

(Sharing at the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help on 20 March 2010)

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

To continue to journey in the Year of the Priest and in conjunction with the season of Lent, this
week my sharing will be based on the topic “The Priesthood of Christ – Sacrifice” .

In the Old Testament, priests are by definition intermediaries ("those in the middle") between God and humanity, between the spiritual world and the earthly world. They are called to a special holiness and set apart for service which allows them to perform special rites and sacred duties in the temple, as intermediaries.

It is in this capacity that they offer sacrifices to the gods to appease for the sins of the people. These sacrifices had to be offered repeatedly since the human person remained a sinner and it was essentially humankind’s effort to make up with the gods.

The letters to the Hebrews is the specific book in the New Testament that sheds a new light to this old idea of priests. This letter tells us of how Jesus became the new high priest to play the role of the intermediary. Whereas in the past there were many priests who offered sacrifices to the gods, Jesus, in His capacity as God-Man, offered His very self to God for us. This was the greatest sacrifice that Jesus Himself offered to God willingly for our sake and on our behalf. There is no need for any High Priest to repeat this sacrifice to God any longer because Jesus, as fully human and fully divine, in offering Himself as the sacrifice makes it once and for all eternity.

This icon shows Jesus Christ as our Eternal Great High priest and this is seen in the fifteenth century Greek prototype. Here Christ is shown in Latin Rite vestment with a golden pelican over His heart. It is the ancient symbol of self-sacrifice.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, or better known as CCC, Christ’s self-sacrifice and His offering of Himself to the Father for our sins is further explained in 2 main aspects :

1) Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father
In article #606 it states :
The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do [his] own will, but the will of him who sent [him]",413 said on coming into the world, "Lord, I have come to do your will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."414 From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"416 expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord.

2) "The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
In article #608 it states :
After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world".422 By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover.423 Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Now, having heard of the Priesthood of Christ in terms of His Sacrifice offering, perhaps we can ask ourselves how does this relate to our priests today and how do we personally relate to this?

As Christ’s whole life expressed his mission to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, in the same way, our priests dedicate their whole life to God to as an expression of this same sacrifice of Jesus. They do this by imitating and living-out Christ’s love and sacrifice in their daily lives by their humble service of the people of God and humanity.
Jesus, as the High Priest, offered Himself as a loving sacrifice to the Father. In the similar way our priests continue to bring alive this loving sacrifice at mass. Our priests also show this by their selfless services offered to all especially to the poor, the marginalized, the migrant workers, the sick, dying and infirmed and many other acts of charity.

Each time the priest or any one of us does a loving sacrifice, we identify ourselves with the ever loving sacrifice of Jesus Himself. His priesthood continues to live in us because we allow ourselves to participate in Him. As lay people we too can collaborate in supporting and assisting our priests in these loving services.

Hence, dear brothers and sisters, in conclusion, the CCC states in Article #618

The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the “one mediator btw God and man”
But because of His incarnate divine person HE has in some way united Himself
to every man, ‘the possibility of being made partners ,in a way known to God in the
Paschal Mystery is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to take up his cross and follow him, for ‘Christ also suffered for us, living us an example so that we should follow in His footsteps’.
AMEN.