Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 306​

He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin.

Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them "brothers" saying:

I will proclaim your name to my brethren,
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.

I am always excited by the opportunity to reflect on the Letter to the Hebrews. This sacred author accentuates the priesthood of Jesus and, by extension, the priesthood of the whole church. He also has a most wonderful sense of the priest as a saint who is right at home among sinners. Or is it, "a sinner among saints?" Indeed they cannot be told apart.

Jesus has a most unusual attitude about sinners, "he is not ashamed to call them sisters and brothers." We saw this often as he went about his ministry of healing and preaching. When he called Saint Matthew he sat down at Matthew's table with all sorts of riffraff. He was criticized for that and responded, "The well do not need a physician; sick people do." When crowds followed him into the wilderness without provisions of any kind, he had pity on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Recognizing the priesthood of Jesus forms a very different conception of ourselves in God's presence. We are not simply students in his classroom, disciples who try to unravel his enigmatic statements. We are not exactly wayward sheep under the stern rod of a shepherd. Those similes are helpful but we should also understand that we stand in God's presence as priests. We offer ourselves, our stories, our achievements and disappointments and our disgraced but beautiful world as peace offerings. While he is the Master in every way, he nonetheless gathers us to himself and in himself as he stands before the Father.

If he is God -- which he most emphatically is! -- he does not let that stand between us. In fact, if his actions mean anything, it's apparent he did not deem his equality with God something to be grasped or jealously guarded. He squandered his divinity upon us like the prodigal son who wasted his inheritance on unsavory companions in a foreign land. But his end was worse as he wasn't feeding pigs when he decided to return to the Father.

Gathered by the Priest, painfully aware of our sins but more acutely aware of his mercy, we pray with Jesus for the salvation of the world. As he offers his own life in one consummate act, we offer our lives in sacrifice. Our offering is never total. God knows the full measure of our reluctance and our willingness. But the Lord makes our imperfect sacrifice perfect in Himself. The Spirit that gathers us to him is the Spirit that rushes him before the Father.

As I offer the Mass I find the simplest sacrifice is the most necessary: I forget about myself: my sins and foolishness and particular concerns. I pray with the entire church in the Lord. Like every other rite or ceremony, this prayer is not about me. I say with the centurion, "I am not worthy..." and then enter the Presence of God through the open Heart of Jesus because he was not ashamed to call me brother.