“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”
(John 15:13).
The arrival of this year’s Holy Week presents an opportune moment for us to reflect more deeply on the nature of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and the way we share in the priesthood of Christ. There are two ways in which we share in the priesthood of Christ. First, is the Common priesthood of all the Baptized in Christ, and second, the Ministerial priesthood, i.e., the clergy, which is at the service of the Common priesthood.
I have suggested this meditation on the nature of the priesthood of Christ because all of the events that will take place during this Holy Week describe to us, in the most profound way, the true essence and meaning of Christ’s priesthood. The Gospel of St. Luke tells us that “when the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up (meaning; his return to His Father in heaven), he set his face (another translation says, he resolutely determined) to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).
Today, on this Palm Sunday, in the fashion of a triumphal entry, the Lord sets foot in Jerusalem, where his earthly mission of saving souls, will be consummated. Now the way in which Jesus’ mission is brought to completion, gives us a concrete definition of the nature of Jesus’ priesthood. Unlike the priests of the Old Covenant who entered the sanctuary with a lamb to be sacrificed for the remission of sins, Jesus, the priest of the New Covenant, is both a priest and a victim. Jesus is the one who “entered once for all into the sanctuary not with the blood of goats and lambs, but his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). Jesus himself is the victim lamb, he himself is the sacrifice offered to God the Father. A priest and a victim.
When John the Baptist had the awesome task of introducing Jesus to the world, he did not say, “behold the Messiah,” nor did he say, behold Jesus my cousin, the Son of God, no, rather he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). He called Jesus the “Lamb of God.” We also do well to remember that Jesus, like all the other Jews, is going to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Passover. And all the Jews, each family is carrying a one-year-old unblemished lamb that is to be sacrificed to God, for the remission of their sins. But among these thousands of Lambs, God has His own pure and unblemished Lamb, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This, my friends, is the true nature of Jesus’ priesthood, a victim for our sins. And now, we see the words of Isaiah being fulfilled, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that before his sharers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By perversion of justice, he was taken away” (Isa. 53:7).
This is the work of God. The saving work that is to be consummated in Jerusalem. This holy week, we behold this great work of humility, the work of great “emptiness to the level of a slave, and of obedience unto death.” We tremble with terror at the sight, yet within us we burn with the fire of love as we are drawn to Him. And we say, “what is man that you should care for him”? (Psalm 8:4). And why should the redemption of man come at such a high cost? The answer, I believe, is to be found in Love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16).
And when Jesus has risen from the dead, he told his disciples, “As the Father sent me, so I send you,” (John 20:21). And he said, “Behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves; so be shrewd but simple” (Matthew 10:16). Then He said to Peter, the head of the Church, “Peter do you love me? Feed my lambs” (John 21:15).
This, my friends, is how we share in the priesthood of Christ, the common priesthood of all the Baptized. We are victims as well, but victims of love. Our victimhood lies in the nature of love, by laying down our lives for our friends, our brothers and sisters, our loved ones, especially those of the household of the faith; the sick, the poor, the suffering, the oppressed, the prisoners. And let us always remember that in order to share in Christ’s glory, we must share in his suffering, his victimhood first. And we draw strength from Jesus himself who gives us that grace through the reception of his body and blood. He is the one who helps us to love, and He is the one who loves in and through us. So let us always seek to receive him in the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, and in our common prayers.
Amen
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