The Priest as Alter Christus Last week I wrote about how both Marriage and the Priesthood are calls to service, but what kind of service? What does the priesthood of Jesus Christ look like? The priest is ordained to be alter Christus, “another Christ,” both in celebrating the sacraments and in the way He lives His life. He is called to serve as Christ served, by laying down His life for the flock. In his book on the priesthood, Fr. Jean Galot, S.J., writes, “If the priest is ‘another Christ’ in a special way, this is due not to a merely juridical delegation but to the figure of Christ Priest and Shepherd impressed in His soul.” In His ordination the priest is conformed to Christ as priest and shepherd, and this is why He is able to offer the Mass, to forgive sins, to bless, and to make Christ present for the people. The job of the priest is to be a middle man, or go between, to bring the people to God and to bring God to the people. It is not the priest who forgives sins, it is God who forgives sins through the priest. There was an ancient heresy that only a holy Priest is able to offer the sacraments. Can you imagine if that was true? You would constantly be wondering, “Is this priest really holy? Am I really baptized? Are my sins really forgiven? Was that Mass valid?” No, it’s not the holiness of the priest that allows him to offer the sacraments, it is his ordination and the fact that God works through the priest. But the priest isn’t only called to offer the sacraments; he is also called to live them. In the rite of ordination, after the gifts are brought up for the Mass, the bishop hands them to the new priests and says, “Receive the oblation of the holy people, to be offered to God. Understand what you do, imitate what you celebrate, and conform your life to the mystery of the Lord’s cross.” The priesthood is not about power, authority, and privilege. It’s about conforming our lives to Christ, and offering our lives, as He did, to bring people closer to God. None of us are perfect, and all of us fail to live up to our calling in one way or another, but, by the grace of God, may we come closer and closer to it every day.
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Chapter 6 of the book, Equipped, tackles a difficult and complicated subject, but one that affects everyone: “Understanding Sexual Shame.” Shame is a fact of life that affects everyone, either when we sin, or when we think we’ve failed at something, or when something makes us feel inadequate. It’s helpful to understand how shame works and that it can be both healthy and unhealthy depending on how we deal with it.
Shame can be healthy and even a great grace when it points out a real problem is our relationship with God or with other people. When we’ve sinned and knowingly damaged these relationships we naturally feel ashamed of it. The shame is pointing out this damage and calling us to do something to begin repairing that relationship by apologizing and making up for it, or, in our relationship with God, by going to confession and doing penance. It is calling us back to love. However, we’ve all experienced a different kind of shame; the kind that tells us that we are unloved and unlovable, that we are bad or damaged, and that’s there’s no hope for us. This type of shame draws us away from God and other people. It feeds on our fears and anxieties and often leads to self-destructive behaviors. It’s not from God, it’s a lie from the evil one. We must reject the lie that God doesn’t love us and draw closer to Him. Parents, teach your children about the love of God. God loves us unconditionally and there’s nothing we can do to lose that love. We didn’t do anything to win God’s love, so there’s nothing we can do that would make Him stop loving us. Our good behavior shouldn’t be an attempt to try to win God’s love (He already loves us), but a response to His love (by loving Him in return). The best way you can teach your children this is by living it. Make sure they know that you love them unconditionally, that nothing they do will make you stop loving them, and that they can come to you with any problem and not be condemned.
Fr. Bryan Howard
Easter Sunday – 1 April 2018 Alleluia, Christ is risen, Alleluia! Thanks be to God. This evening we celebrate the Easter Vigil. We blessed the fire and brought the Paschal Candle into the Church, symbolizing the light of the risen Christ entering the world after three days of darkness. We listened to readings going through the history of salvation, and then we sang the Easter Alleluia. This is a holy night, a joyful night, a glorious night. Have you ever wondered why Jesus rose from the dead on the third day? Why not the second day or the fourth day? Why the third day? If you came to the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, you heard me explain how the Last Supper corresponds to the passover feast, or seder meal, of the ancient Jews. Jesus was crucified on the next day, Good Friday, which would have been the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days. On the third day of the feast of unleavened bread, they celebrated the Feast of First Fruits, which was a feast of great joy in ancient Jerusalem. It was a feast of the harvest. The very first cuttings of the first harvest of barley would be brought up to the temple as an offering to God. People would come from all of Israel bringing offerings of figs and grapes and dried figs and raisins. Everyone would be dressed in their finest clothes. Early in the morning, a special group of priests would go out to a certain field wearing their finest vestments. They would bring an ox with them draped with gold clothes and with a garland of olive leaves around its head. They would cut the very first barley from the field, tie it into a bundle, and place it on the ox’s back. Then they would all process back into Jerusalem, up to the city, to the playing of flutes and the singing of the levites. As Jesus was rising from the dead, there was joy and singing in the Temple in Jerusalem, a festival of life and gratitude to God for the new harvest. When the procession arrived at the Temple, the High Priest would take the sheath of barley, bring it up to the altar and raise it high and wave it from side to side, presenting it to God. This was called the waved offering, and it looked something like this, like the sign of the Cross. As the priest lifted up the barley, they would sing a certain psalm, Psalm 30, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from the dead, restored me to life from among those gone down to the pit… You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.” The first fruits was an act of faith in God. You couldn’t be sure that you would get any more harvest, so, if you give God the very first cut of the very first harvest, you’re thanking God for giving you any harvest at all and you’re saying that you trust God to provide for the rest of the harvest, to take care of you and your family. The first fruits is the promise that more will come. Just so you know that I’m not making all this up, listen to what St. Paul says in His letter to the Corinthians, “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.” Jesus Christ is the firstfruits, the promise of the resurrection of the dead, but we are the rest of the harvest, all those who belong to God. Before He died, Moses gave one last talk, one last sermon to the people, saying, “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him.” God greatly desires to give us life, the new life of the Resurrection, and He has already promised it to us through His own Resurrection. Will you accept what God is offering you? Will you choose to live in His love? |
AuthorFr. Bryan was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes from July 3, 2017 to June 2022. Categories
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