But now you and I know the truth...Ite missa est....let us go and live it....

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Priesthood Sunday. October 31st, 2010

This Weekend we celebrate Priesthood Sunday. Today should be a time of refection for each one of us of the profound gift of the Priesthood, in order to thank God for and to grow in a deeper understand of the awesome mystery of the Priesthood. Without the priesthood, you or I, nor anyone could get to heaven. This is the faith of the True Church of Jesus Christ. Those who don't believe or don't understand this, really don't believe or understand Jesus Christ as High Priest, who is the only way to the Father.

And so, what we really celebrate this weekend is the priesthood of Jesus Christ, as the one and only mediator between the Father and man. Jesus is the great High Priest, who at his place at the right of the father, constantly intercedes for mankind and each one us. He is the High Priest who constantly offers Himself a new for the salvation of mankind, in order to lead all men back to the Father from Whom they came.

Before the priesthood of Jesus there were many priesthoods in the world; different pagan priesthoods and of course, the Jewish priesthood. One thing that all the priesthoods in the history of the world have in common, is they all offer sacrifice. The very definition of a priest is one who offers sacrifice.

But in order to offer sacrifice, there of course has to be a victim. In pagan priesthoods, this victim could be anything from a goat to cow, and yes even a human being. In the Jewish priesthood it was a ram, a lamb, or a bull, among other things.

But Jesus' priesthood was of course different from any priesthood that came before. First of all, Jesus was not just one who offers a sacrifice of any victim; no, Jesus was the very first priest who offered Himself as the victim. He was the first priest/victim in the history of the world. He was the one who offered himself as the sacrificial victim; he was the sacrificial lamb.

He who was the offerer and the offeree, was not only true man, but true God. And so, Jesus offered Himself to the Father in the perfect sacrifice of adoration and praise to the Father, for the salvation of the whole world. He was the sacrificial victim who shed his blood for you and for all. Jesus, the Great High Priest, suffered once and for all, pouring out his blood, giving up his life, for all of us. So we know Jesus died to save us, but we don't always grasp or understand the way Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary saves us.

Jesus died on Calvary so that He could rise again from the dead and then He ascended into heaven. When Jesus ascended into heaven, as the great High priest, he began the Heaven liturgy through which he constantly offers himself before the Father on our behalf. But in order to be saved, we must also take part in that heaven liturgy, even while we are still on earth. In order for that to happen, Jesus sent His Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost to begin His visible Church on earth and to give her, through the priesthood he established on earth, the power to offer the earthly liturgy.

During the earthly liturgy, at the epiclesis (when the priest holds his hands over the gifts of bread) Jesus again, at the words of the priest, sends down his Holy Spirit in a new Pentecost in order to join the early liturgy to the heavenly liturgy (this is why the bell rings). And through the same spirit working in the priest, and at the priest's words, "this is my body, this is my blood", the risen body and blood of Jesus present at the right hand of the Father, now by the power of the Holy Spirit becomes present as well on the altar. The ordinary bread and wine, by the divine power of God working through the priesthood, becomes transformed through transubstantiation into the same Jesus in His body, blood, soul and divinity.

Now this is the most amazing part; Jesus presence at the right and of the father and His presence on the altar at this point, are the very same presence, for at this point we are truly in heaven, adoring the very same Jesus that all of the angels and saints adore. The heavenly liturgy and the earthly liturgy become one.

On earth present as well, are all the graces for the salvation of the world, that Jesus won at his crucifixion. And He wishes to send these grace out into the world to bring all the lost sheep, all souls, into this same heavenly/earthly liturgy so that he can not only save them but unite them to himself, and so to the Father in the unity of their Holy Spirit of Love.

However, and this is very important, Jesus has ordained that these graces will not go out into the world but through his mystical body, the Church and her members; that is, each one of us. Jesus wants to save the world through us, the members of His Church. However, in order for you to take these grace out into the world, to renew it and save it, you must take an full, active, conscious and fruitful participation in the Liturgy , the holy Mass, the heavenly liturgy and earthly liturgy united. How do you do this?

By baptism you too have been given a share in the priest hood of Jesus Christ, not in the same way as an ordained priest. But, like Jesus, your baptismal priesthood is also a victim hood. You are to share in the priesthood/victimhood of Jesus. At your baptism, you have been given the power to offer yourself to God as a spiritual sacrifice, at Mass, along with the whole Body of Christ to the Father for His honor and glory and for the salvation and sanctification of men. How do you do this?

Through an interior act of your will, on the altar of your heart, you surrender and offer yourself to God....Then interiorly you place yourself on the paten to be offered to the heavenly Father. And then the Holy Spirit, as he transforms the bread and the wine at the words of the priest, also transforms you into other Christs--this is known as divinization, where you and God become united in love. This union is what your heart truly longs for and every human heart longs for, to be united to perfect Love, and perfect Love is God himself.

But for this to happen, each of us must become like the grains of wheat which had died in order to be made into the altar bread, and like the grapes that were crushed to be into the altar wine. If the grains of wheat didn't die to be made into the bread, and the grapes weren't crushed to be made into the wine, then they could not at the consecration be change into Jesus' body, blood soul and divinity.

In the same way, if you and I don't die to self and surrender ourselves totally to God in a sacrifice of love, we can't be transformed into his other self in order to take his saving grace, his saving love, his saving life out into the world. The grain of wheat and the grape are not destroyed, but they are transformed into the Body and blood of Christ as food for the soul....same too with us, in sacrificing ourselves to God, we are not destroyed but are transformed into his body and blood as food for our dying world.

The Liturgy is the work of Jesus Christ, the high priest and head of His mystical body. But His mystical body includes each member of the Church including all of us. The Liturgy is the offering of the whole Christ to the Father, both head and body. Each member, if they interiorly offer themselves to the Father as members of the body of Christ, united to the sacrifice of the head-Jesus, become more and more living active vital member of Jesus body, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus then sends out these active members of His body to take his love and healing power into the world. Filled with the Spirit of Jesus, it is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. As living active members of the body of Christ, everything we do, we do with Jesus, in Jesus, and through Jesus; better yet, everything we do Jesus does in us, with us and through us. Jesus renews, transforms and saves the world through our lives of holiness. People no longer see us, but Christ and His love alive in us. This is the mission of each one of us...ite missa est...Go on your mission!

This is the great mystery we celebrate on this priesthood Sunday, and through it, you and I literally have the power to save the world. But we can only enter into the mystery, experience it's divine power and be transformed by its divine love, if we enter into it with faith, with trust in Jesus words to us, and with love for him and through him, with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

We are call to be co-redeemers with Christ, members of His Mystical Body on earth, living our lives not for ourselves, but for the salvation of the world. If our world is dying, if it is going to hell in a hand basket, it is because not enough Catholics know the truth about the priesthood of Jesus Christ; and so are not allowing themselves to be transformed at Holy Mass into living active members of the body of Christ in the likeness of the head-Jesus, in order to take His saving and healing love out into the world. But now you and I know the truth...Ite missa est....let us go and live it....

Our Lady Mother of all priests, mother of the Mystical Body of Christ help us offer ourselves at this Holy Mass in order to begin to share already in the Joys of heaven and share that joy with our ever increasing joyless world, for our salvation and for the salvation of the whole world. Amen.