Jesus Christ The Eternal High Priest

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4). We are told in the entrance antiphon, the whole Church participates in the mission of Christ the Priest. Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, the lay faithful participate in Christ’s priesthood, and are rendered capable of sanctifying the world through secular affairs. Priests, in a way that is different in essence and not just in degree, also participate in Christ’s priesthood, and are constituted mediators between God and men, especially through the sacrifice of the Mass, which they carry out in the person of Christ.

Today, the day on which we celebrate Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest, we should pray in a special way for all priests. Particularly for those priests who have influenced your life in a particular way: the priest who baptized you, the priest who has heard so many of your confessions, the priest who gave you First Holy Communion, the priest or bishop who confirmed you or who married you. Pray also for the priest who will bury you. God has placed all these particular ministers at certain moments in your life to be there for you.

In the entrance antiphon of today’s Mass, we are told “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 110:4). The Letter to the Hebrews gives us a precise definition of priesthood when it tells us that “Every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5:1). The priest, who is a mediator between God and man, is intimately connected with the sacrifice he offers. This is the principal act of worship whereby man adores his Creator.

The Old Testament sacrifices were offerings made to God in recognition of his sovereignty and in thanksgiving for favors received. The act of total or partial destruction of the victim on the altar was a symbol and image of the authentic sacrifice which, in the fullness of time, Christ was to offer on Calvary. Jesus, being made high priest forever, offered himself to God as a most pleasing victim of infinite value.

In the Easter preface, we are told he willed to be at one and the same time the priest, the victim, and the altar. St. Thomas Aquinas comments on Calvary: Jesus, the High Priest, made a most acceptable offering of praise and thanksgiving to God. It was so perfect that none greater can be thought of it. This sacrifice is also a supreme act of atonement and propitiation for our sins. One drop of Christ’s blood would have been sufficient to redeem all the sins of mankind.

Christ’s petition on the cross for his brethren was heard readily by his Father. Now in heaven, “He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Christ is priest indeed, but he is priest for us, not for himself. It is in the name of the whole human race that he offers prayer and acts of human religious homage to his eternal Father. Pope Pius XII has said he is likewise victim, but victim for us, since he substitutes himself for guilty mankind.

Now the Apostle’s exhortation, “Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), requires all Christians, so far as human power allows, to reproduce in themselves the sentiments that Christ had when he was offering himself in sacrifice. Sentiments of humility, of adoration, praise, and thanksgiving to the Divine Majesty. It requires them also to become victims, as it were, cultivating a spirit of self-denial according to the precepts of the Gospel, willingly doing works of penance, detesting and expiating their sins. This could be a resolution that we make today.

All Christians have a priestly soul. Blessed Alvaro del Portillo has said the whole Church participates in the redemptive mission of Christ the Priest, which is entrusted to all the members of the people of God, who through the sacraments of initiation, having been made sharers in the priesthood of Christ, offer to God a spiritual sacrifice and bear witness to Christ before man. All the lay faithful participate in Christ’s priesthood, although in a manner which is different from that of priests; not only in degree, but essentially.

With a truly priestly soul, they sanctify the world through the perfect exercise of their secular activities, seeking in everything the glory of God. In the case of the housewife, for example, it will be through her domestic duties; or with the army officer, by demonstrating his patriotism principally through the cultivation of the military virtues; or with the businessman, by improving his company’s situation and promoting social justice.

In this way, all of them, offering their lives and their work through the Mass, make daily reparation for the sins of the world. Priests and bishops have been expressly called by God, not in order that they should be separated from the people or from any man, but that they should be completely consecrated to the task for which God chooses them.

The Second Vatican Council says they could not be the servants of Christ unless they were witnesses to and dispensers of a life other than that of this earth. On the other hand, they would be powerless to serve men if they remained aloof from their life and circumstances.

The priest has been chosen from among men to be invested with a dignity that astounds even the angels, and then sent back to men to serve them in relation to God with a special and unique salvific mission. The priest repeatedly takes the place of Christ on earth. He has received Christ’s power to forgive sins. He teaches men the way to heaven. Above all, he lends his hands and his voice to Christ in the most sublime moment of the Mass.

In the sacrifice of the altar, he consecrates in the person of Christ, taking Christ’s place. One writer says there is no dignity comparable to that of the priest; only the divine maternity of Mary is superior to this divine ministry.

The priesthood is a marvelous gift which Christ has given to his Church. The priest is a direct and daily instrument of the saving grace which Christ has won for us. If you grasp this, if you meditate on it in the active silence of prayer, how could you ever think of the priesthood in terms of renunciation? It is a gain, an incalculable gain. Our Mother Mary, says St. Josemaria, the holiest of creatures—only God is higher—brought Jesus Christ into the world just once. Priests bring him on earth to our soul and body every day. Christ comes to be our food, to give us life, to be even now a pledge of future life. (Christ Is Passing By, 80)

Today is a good day to thank Our Lord for this great gift. Thank you, Lord, for the invitations to the priesthood that you constantly issue to men. I ask you today for all seminarians in my country, on my continent, all over the world, that they may yearn to be truly holy priests, that they may give a lot of importance to their formation and let their souls be guided.

For our part, we can make the resolution of treating Christ’s priests ever more lovingly and reverently, seeing them as Christ who is passing by, and bringing us the most marvelous gifts we can desire. What they bring us is eternal life.

St. John Chrysostom, very conscious of the dignity and responsibility of the priesthood, at first resisted the idea of being ordained. He justified his behavior saying, “If the captain of a great ship with a big crew full of oarsmen and laden with precious merchandise ordered me to take the tiller and cross the Aegean or the Tyrrhenian Sea, my first reaction would be to resist. If I were asked why, I would immediately reply because I don’t want the vessel to sink.”

But as St. John appreciated well, Christ is always close to the priest, close to the ship. It is his will that priests would continually feel supported by the esteem and the prayer of all the Church’s faithful. They should treat them with filial love as being their fathers and pastors, says the Second Vatican Council. They should also share their priests’ anxieties and help them as far as possible in prayer and active work so that they may be better able to overcome difficulties and carry out their duties with greater success.

What the faithful require of their priests is that they be always exemplary and base their effectiveness on prayer; that they celebrate the Holy Mass lovingly; and that they care for God’s holy things with the consideration and respect they deserve; that they visit the sick and attach great importance to catechesis; that they always retain the joy which is born of self-surrender, and which is so helpful even to those who are separated from God.

Pope Pius XII said one thing we can ask God for today is that his priests be always available and open to everybody, and detached from themselves. Because the priest does not belong to himself, as he does not belong to his relatives and friends, nor even to a particular country. The charity he has to breathe must be universal. His very thoughts, his desires, his sentiments are not his own; they belong to Christ, who is his life.

The priest is an instrument of unity. It is the will of God “that they may all be one” (John 17:21). Our Lord has said that “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste” (Matt. 12:25), and that no city or household can survive if unity is lost. In the Second Vatican Council, it says priests ought to be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit. This exhortation of St. Paul is directed especially to those raised to sacred orders, so that the mission of Christ may be continued.

One writer says this is principally the priest’s responsibility to work for peace and harmony among his brothers and to ensure that the unity of the faith is proof against differences of outlook in accidental and earthly affairs. With his word and example, he has to safeguard the conviction that nothing in this world warrants destroying the marvelous reality of the cor unum et anima una—one heart and one soul—which animated the first Christians and which must be the same for us.

St. Josemaria in The Forge says he will manage to fulfill his mission of unity more easily if he is open to all, if he is held in high regard by his brothers and sisters. Pray for the priests of today and for those who are to come, that they may really love their fellow men every day more and without distinction, and that they may know also how to make themselves loved by them.

Pope John Paul II, in addressing many priests throughout the world, said as we celebrate the Eucharist at so many altars in so many places, let us give thanks to the Eternal High Priest for the gift which he has bestowed on us in the sacrament of the priesthood. In this thanksgiving, may there be heard the words which the evangelist puts on Mary’s lips on the occasion of her visit to her cousin Elizabeth: “The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Luke 1:49).

On one occasion, Our Lord was walking with his disciples towards the inhabited districts of Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he put a question to those who were accompanying him: “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27). In all simplicity, the apostles tell him what people have been saying about him. Some say he is John the Baptist, others Elijah, and others again one of the prophets.

There were all sorts of opinions about Our Lord. But in a frank and affectionate way, he then asks his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29). He doesn’t ask them for a more or less favorable opinion. He asks them for the firmness of faith. After they spent so much time with him, they must know who he is, unhesitatingly, with certainty. Peter immediately replies, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29).

Our Lord has the right to ask also of us a clear confession of faith, with words and deeds, in a world in which confusion, ignorance, and error seem to be the normal thing. We are closely united to Jesus by baptism, and the bond grows stronger and stronger by day. In this sacrament, a deep intimate union with Christ was established. In it, we received his spirit and were raised to the dignity of the children of God.

It is a communion of life much deeper than could possibly exist between any two human beings. Just as the hand joined to the body is filled with the life that flows from the body as a whole, so the Christian, says one writer, is filled with the life of Christ. Using a beautiful image, he himself taught us how we are united to him: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5).

If we struggle to be saints, we Christians can achieve such a strong union that we will be able to say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). St. Paul says this closeness to Christ should also fill us with joy. If we are a living part of the mystical body of Christ, we share in everything that Christ does.

In each Mass, Christ offers himself up completely together with the Church, which is his mystical body, made up of all the baptized. By reason of their union with Christ through the Church, the faithful offer the sacrifice together with him. They also offer themselves with him. They take part in the Mass, therefore, as those who offer and are offered.

On the altar, Jesus Christ presents to God the Father the redeeming meritorious sufferings he underwent on the cross and those of his brothers. Is a greater intimacy or union with Christ possible? Is a greater dignity possible?

If we live the Mass well, it can transform our lives. St. Josemaria says if we have in our souls the same sentiments and intentions as Christ on the cross, we will make our whole life an endless act of atonement and a sedulous petition and a permanent sacrifice for the whole of mankind. God will grant you a supernatural instinct to purify all your actions, raising them to the order of grace and converting them into instruments of apostolate.

“And you, who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15). We know Christ well in the Eucharistic sacrifice. There, our faith is strengthened, and we find the courage to confess openly that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God who has come to save all.

The Mass is offered by priests, said Pius XII, but also by the faithful. Since by the character that is graven upon their souls, they share in the priesthood of Christ himself. Although the faithful’s participation is essentially different from that of those who have received the sacred orders. Only by the words of the priest representing him does Christ make himself present on the altar at the moment of consecration. But all the faithful share in the oblation which is offered to God for the good of the whole Church. They offer the sacrifice together with the priest, uniting themselves to his intentions of praise, petition, atonement, and thanksgiving.

Pius XII says what they are doing is uniting themselves to Christ himself, the Eternal Priest, and to the whole Church. St. Paul the Apostle says in the Mass each day we can offer up all created things, and all our actions, our work, our sorrows, our family life, our fatigue and tiredness, the apostolic initiatives we want to undertake that day. The offertory is a particularly appropriate moment for us to present our personal offerings for them to be united to the sacrifice of Christ.

We could ask ourselves, what do I place each day on the paten? What does God find there? Guided by our priestly soul, we are moved to identify ourselves more closely with Christ in our ordinary life. We will offer up not only the material realities of our life, but our very selves, in the most intimate oblation of our being.

We pray in the Mass, “Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Almighty Father.” We pray, “May the Lord accept this sacrifice at your hands, for the praise and glory of his name, for our benefit, and for that of all his holy Church.” We should try and give this and other prayers of the Mass a personal meaning, making it into a personal prayer. We go to Mass to make its unique sacrifice of infinite value our own. We appropriate it to ourselves, and present ourselves before the Blessed Trinity clothed in the countless merits of Christ. In certain hope, aspiring to forgiveness, to greater grace in our soul, and to eternal life.

We adore with the adoration of Christ. We make satisfaction with the merits of Christ. We ask with his voice, which is ever efficacious. All that is his becomes ours, and all that is ours becomes his: prayer, work, joys, thoughts, and desires, all of which acquire a supernatural and eternal dimension. All that we do is worthwhile insofar as it is offered on the altar with Christ, who is at the same time priest and victim.

St. Josemaria says when we seek that intimacy with Our Lord in our own lives, the human side intermingles with the divine. All our efforts, even the most insignificant, take on an eternal dimension because they are united to the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Our participation in the Mass culminates in Holy Communion: the fullest identification with Christ that we could ever dream of. Before the institution of the Eucharist, in the years they spent crossing and recrossing Palestine with Jesus, the apostles were never able to enjoy such a union with Christ as we can enjoy.

We can think about our Mass and our Communions. We can consider whether we prepare well for them, humbly rejecting all voluntary distractions. Whether we make many acts of faith and love. Whether we frequently make our own St. Peter’s cry of faith: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Matt. 16:16).

Let us give thanks to Our Lady for the indescribable gift of the priesthood. For by being able to serve the Church, in the Church, every human being, may gratitude also awaken our zeal. We thank you, Mother, for the ministerial priesthood, whereby priests receive the sacrament in the sacrament of holy orders by their ordination. We thank you also for the common priesthood of the faithful, for each baptized person has a priestly soul.

We want to unceasingly give you thanks for this. We want to give you thanks for the whole of our lives. We give thanks with all our strength. We give thanks together with Mary, the mother of priests. John Paul II says, “How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me? The cup of salvation I will raise, and I will call on the Lord’s name” (Ps. 116:12–13).

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.