You Are a Priest For Ever

January 21, 2009

Memorial of Saint Agnes, Virgin and martyr

By Melanie Rigney

(After Melchizedek blessed Abraham as he returned from his defeat of the kings,) Abraham apportioned to him a tenth of everything. His name first means righteous king, and he was also “king of Salem,” that is, king of peace. Without father, mother, or ancestry, without beginning of days or end of life, thus made to resemble the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. (Hebrews 7:2-3)

You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek. (Psalms 110:4)

Jesus entered the synagogue. There was a man there who had a withered hand. They watched Jesus closely to see if he would cure him on the sabbath so that they might accuse him. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up here before us.” Then he said to the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” But they remained silent. Looking around at them with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart, Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was restored. (Mark 3-1:5)

Piety

Lord, You have given me my commission. Let me not be influenced by those who would take me from the work You have given me. Help me to bear my cross with grace and joy in the way You have instructed me to bear it, whether others understand what I do and why I do it or not.

Study

The Pharisees weren’t bad men—in their eyes. In fact, they regarded themselves as such superior people that they were taught to stay separate from their heathen, idolatrous neighbors, not even eating from the same board or having any social interaction with them. They were such strict followers of the law that they once refused to defend themselves from a Syrian attack that came on the Sabbath.

So it’s easy to see why they didn’t understand this Jesus, and offered conundrums in hopes of catching him in a violation of the Law. Jesus, of course, being the Son of God, always came up with a solution that served his Father. “Form follows function,” as the sculptor Horatio Greenough said and the architect Louis Sullivan made famous. You might say Jesus is a shining example of that principle at its best. In today’s Gospel, his function was to serve as a priest and cure the man’s withered hand. The Pharisees, however, were more concerned with form—and such a cure according to form could not occur on the Sabbath.

We can be overly focused on form in our lives as well. Shake your head at those who pray during Mass with hands open (or closed)? Roll your eyes at those who receive the Eucharist in their mouths (or their hands)? Does it really matter? Have they broken some law of the Church in the view of Christ?

Even if we are not designated through ordination to carry out the divine service of the Eucharistic sacrifice, we all function in some priestly ways. We offer up gifts and sacrifices of ourselves. While we are not formally appointed by the Church to do so, we offer homage to God not only on behalf of ourselves, but also on behalf of our families and communities. If we are to put Christ first, even ahead of our fathers and mothers and families, on our spiritual journey to everlasting life, are we not called on some level to “remain a priest for ever?”

Jesus was sent to redeem the human race and show us how to live. Why were you sent? To ease suffering; to spread the Good News by proclamation, song, or writing; to lead by the example of sacrifice and love? Let us focus on the “priestly” function we are called to ... and less on the form in which others are fulfilling their own call.

Action

Just for today, do not criticize mentally or verbally the way in which others in your life serve the Lord.