Homily originally presented October 28, 2018

Priesthood Sunday!

I stand before you as a Priest.

And you sit before me as married men and women and single men and women.

Together, we represent the three possible vocations there are!

Religious life ... Married Life ... Single life.

While there are many different professions in life ...

there are only three vocations in life.

Now ... one is not better than another ... they’re all good ...

and the very best one for you ... is the one God calls you to!

We use the word “vocation” to describe the process of God calling you ...

as it comes from the Latin word “vocare” which means “to call” or “the call”.

We hear about calling in our Gospel today.

First the blind man, Bartimaeus, calls out to Jesus.

Whereupon, Jesus stops ... and calls out to him.

The crowd says,  “Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.”

So Bartimaeus goes to Jesus in his need.          And what was the result?

Mark tells us: “Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.”

In a very real way, Bartimaeus represents all of us …

in that none of us can see clearly where we’re going …

and, all of us need to have Jesus show us the way.

So, it’s to our great advantage to call out to Jesus as Bartimaeus did ...

and then listen for Jesus to help us to see the way He has marked out for us.

Jesus calls each person to a specific vocation.

He calls many to the vocation of Marriage …

He calls some to remain single ... and

He calls some to the Religious life ... as Priest or Deacon ... Brother or Sister.

This is not something you hear about in Protestant denominations.

While they have ministers, they don’t have ordained priests & consecrated sisters.  

In fact many question the whole idea of needing ordained Priests in the Church ...

asserting that they don’t need Priests ... that they can go right to God for everything.

So what exactly is a Priest?

By definition,

a Priest is an authorized mediator who offers sacrifice to God on behalf of others.

The origins of the priestly office can be traced way back

to the role of the father in the family ... that included spiritual authority,

At the same time, fatherhood included the office of kingship that showed up in

the leadership of governing his family and others.  

But as the Old Testament reveals, the growth of sin had ...

a terrible impact on holy fatherhood being demonstrated in human families.

To reinstitute priesthood and kingship in the family, God told Moses to have each family procure for itself an unblemished male lamb and offer it in sacrifice ... so the lives of the firstborn sons of Israel were spared by the blood of the lamb.

This accomplished, God then commanded Israel ...

to be a holy nation with a royal priesthood ...

But very soon, Israel apostatized by worshipping the gold calf, and so God commanded that Moses’ older brother, Aaron, to be consecrated as High Priest so that he and his sons would offer various animals in sacrifice to God.

This was the beginning of the Levitical Priesthood ... that would continue for 1200 years as the firstborn sons of the tribe of Levi would serve as Priests for the people

... offering ritual sacrifice to God ...

with successive men serving as High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem.  

All this came to an end when the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD

thereby extinguishing the last vestiges of the Levitical priesthood.

But by this time, God had already replaced the Levitical priesthood with a new one ... with the coming of ... His Firstborn Son.

Yes, with the coming of Jesus, God’s people now had a new High Priest ...

a new and eternal High Priest!

Listen to how the priesthood of Jesus surpasses to the Levitical priesthood of Aaron:

Jesus is the sinless High Priest ... whereas the priests of Aaron were sinners ...

and had to offer sacrifices for themselves ... as well as for the people.

Jesus is the eternal High Priest ... whereas the priests of Aaron were mortal ...

and had to be replaced by an endless line of successors.

Jesus is the heavenly High Priest ... whereas the priests of Aaron ministered on earth

Jesus is the royal High Priest promised by oath in the Messianic Psalms ...

whereas the Levitical priests took office without any oath at all.

As the more perfect Priest, Jesus offers the Father a more perfect sacrifice ...

more perfect than the Levitical Priests ever did or could.

Jesus’ sacrifice ... as the unblemished Lamb of God was offered once for all ...

Replacing the continuous cycle of animal sacrifices offered by the Levitical Priests.

In all of this, Jesus restored and fulfilled in himself the family priesthood ...

to which Israel had first been called.

Jesus, became the new High Priest and

the division of kingly and priestly powers was brought to an end.

In establishing His Church, Jesus reunited the offices of priesthood and kingship and restored the royal priesthood of God’s people.

We the people of God now share in the dignity of Christ’s priesthood and kingship

by carrying out our Baptismal mission to be Priest, Prophet and King ...

according to our own vocations.

A special way of participating in the priesthood and kingship of Jesus Christ ..

is by entering into the ministerial Priesthood.

One enters the common priesthood through the grace of Baptism.

A man enters into the ministerial priesthood through the grace of Holy Orders.

Through Baptism, all of us are configured to Christ.

Through Holy Orders, a man is configured to Christ the Head!

Jesus called the 12 Apostles to serve as the heads of the new People of God ...

to be priestly brothers acting as spiritual fathers ...

to the communities under their charge.

As time went on, the Apostles appointed others to succeed them ...

as elders (Bishops) and presbyters (Priests) over the churches they had founded. 

This appointment continues to this day ... with thousands of Priests serving the people all around the world ... 40,000 in America ... 400,000 worldwide.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote this about the Priesthood:

“Christ is the source of all priesthood:

the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ,

and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ.”

St. John Paul II, whose feast day we celebrated last Monday the 22^nd, wrote this:

In the Church and on behalf of the Church

Priests are a sacramental representation of Jesus Christ,

the Head and Shepherd,

authoritatively proclaiming his word,

repeating his acts of forgiveness and his offer of salvation ,

particularly in Baptism, Confession and the Eucharist,

showing his loving concern to the point of a total gift of self for the flock ...
In  word, Priests exist and act in order to proclaim the Gospel to the world and to build up the Church in the name and person of Christ the Head and Shepherd.

So Priesthood continues to this day.

It is not the invention of the Catholic Church ... but the invention of God!

He’s used it throughout salvation history to bring people to God & God to the people.

Priesthood is not something a man chooses for himself ...

rather, God does the choosing as the author of Hebrews explained today, writing:

“No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

In the same way it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,

but rather the One who said to him: ...

You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

In 1997, I answered God’s call to the Priesthood and entered Seminary studies.

In 2002, I was ordained a Priest of Jesus Christ according to the order of Melchizedek

That’s how it works. God calls who He wills ... and by the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, men get to stand in Jesus’ place ... at the head of the people on earth ...

to offer to God the Father ... the Perfect Sacrifice, the Body and Blood of His Son,  just as Jesus Himself did ... as both Priest and Victim ... 2000 years ago.

This is the Sacrifice that the Father desires ...

the Eternal Sacrifice of His Son that atones for the sins of the whole world.

And so we’re assured that God will continue to call men to serve as Priests.

On this Priesthood Sunday, please pray for:

• the Priests who have served you in the earlier days of your life,
• the Priests who are serving you now ... and
• the Priests who will serve you in the future.

Yes, in a special way, pray that young men today would open their hearts

to the possibility of serving the people of God as a Catholic Priest.

Recall that it was after Bartimaeus called out to Jesus ...

that he heard Jesus call out to him!

 Jesus is calling each of us to a specific vocation ... one of just three ...

 Married Life ... Single life  or Religious life.

We don’t need to make up a vocation ... all we need to do is discover our vocation.

We do that by listening to the call of God in prayer and in the experiences of life.

Following His call will insure us the greatest happiness ... both here and hereafter.