"Scripture does not say that He will not allow you to be tried, but that He will not allow you to be tried beyond your strength"
--St Augustine
"Scripture does not say that He will not allow you to be tried, but that He will not allow you to be tried beyond your strength"
--St Augustine
January 21, 2021
Memorial of Saint
Agnes, Virgin and Martyr
Lectionary: 314
Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son, who has been made perfect forever.
The main point of what has been said is this:
we have such a high priest,
who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.
Now every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices;
thus the necessity for this one also to have something to offer.
If then he were on earth, he would not be a priest,
since there are those who offer gifts according to the law.
They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary,
as Moses was warned when he was about to erect the tabernacle.
For God says, “See that you make everything
according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Now he has obtained so much more excellent a ministry
as he is mediator of a better covenant,
enacted on better promises.
Responsorial Psalm
R.
(8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I
come to do your will.
Sacrifice or oblation you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Burnt offerings or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
May all who seek you
exult and be glad in you,
And may those who love your salvation
say ever, “The LORD be glorified.”
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Our Savior Jesus
Christ has destroyed death
and brought life to
light through the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples.
A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea.
Hearing what he was doing,
a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem,
from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan,
and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.
He told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd,
so that they would not crush him.
He had cured many and, as a result, those who had diseases
were pressing upon him to touch him.
And whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him
and shout, “You are the Son of God.”
He warned them sternly not to make him known.
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Making Good Copies
Today's first reading explains that Jesus
raised the priesthood to a new level -- a higher, holier level -- when he
fulfilled the old covenant and ushered in the new. Although the ancient Jewish
priesthood is the foundation for the Christian priesthood, we no longer have
high priests, because Jesus is the High Priest. And we all become priests.
In our baptisms, we all died to our earthly human nature and were resurrected as priests, prophets and kings joined to these important service-oriented functions of Christ. When we gather to worship God as a community, we, the common priests (the laity and consecrated religious) together with the ministerial priests (the ordained clergy), offer him our sacrifices and prayers.
Christ comes to earth today in the Sacraments through the ministerial priests. In Catholicism, because their ordinations connect all the way back directly to St. Peter's, they become "in persona Christi", i.e., they are simultaneously sinful man and the holy presence of Christ. Two thousand years ago, Jesus gave his holy orders to the Apostles (the meaning of ordination), who gave Christ's holy orders to the next priests, who ordained the next, and so on to this very day; this is called the "apostolic succession of priests".
Thus, Jesus our High Priest is fully present with us at every Catholic Mass in the Word of God, in the Eucharist, and in the priest (regardless of how sinful he is) through whom Jesus preaches the Word and through whom Jesus changes the bread and wine into the Eucharist.
When we -- the common priests and the ministerial priests -- eat his body and drink his blood, we are united to Christ's sacrifice and the salvation that it gives us. Thus united to Jesus, we all become Christ's body on earth for the continuation of his ministry. Are we continuing his ministry well?
Since everything earthly is temporary, right now we are only copies and shadows of the heavenly Christ. The sanctuaries in our churches, where the bread and wine become Christ's actual body and blood, are copies and shadows of heaven where we will be consecrated to him forever in complete love and perfect holiness.
We who are temples of the Holy Spirit are the true tabernacles holding the true presence of Christ for all the world to see and consume. Do others see the true presence of Jesus in us? Yes -- as long as we behave like the Body of Christ that we are. Whenever we sin, we hide Jesus from the world.
To be holy priests (common or ordained), we must imitate the examples of Jesus and continually learn from his teachings and purify our lives so that we more accurately represent his true presence on earth. This is what changes the world; this is how prayers get answered.
Today's Prayer
Blessed be Your presence, Lord, in the community and in the ministers of Your Church. Praised be to You for pouring forth Your grace that works through them. Amen.
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God Bless You.....
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