PRIESTLY PERFECTION IN LOVE


SUNDAY, THIRTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Deut 6:2-6; Ps 18:2-4,47,51; Heb 7:23-28; Mk 12:28-34

Love as the Perfect Sacrifice

Last Sunday, we reflected on our vocation to the priesthood as coming from our vocation to Jesus Christ. As we progress in our Christian journey into the mystery of Jesus Christ, we are transformed more and more into him by our meditation on his suffering and glory. The more we become like him in all things, led by the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts, the better we become at playing his mediatory role as priests. According to Revelation 5:10, he ransomed us and made us a kingdom and priests to serve our God. Today's readings explain the sacrifice we are to offer to God as priests in the place of his Son, Jesus Christ. The first reading from Deuteronomy reminds us that the role the people of Israel played for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ prefigured our priestly role. In the passage, Moses explained to the people that keeping the commandments of God would make them successful in the vocation they have received and as a people consecrated to the Lord. As noted in our reflection, their consecration is to mediate the coming of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all peoples. Hence, as a people consecrated to the Lord, they were to give the world the holiest thing: the word of God. The transmission of the word of God to the nations finds its culmination in the incarnation of the Eternal Word.

Moses urged them to love God as the perfect means of consecrating themselves to God. By so doing, they will fulfil their priestly role. “Listen, Israel: the Lord our God is the one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. Let these words I urge on you today be written on your heart.” This injunction is a call for total consecration of each person to God. To love God with all our heart, soul, and strength is to dedicate all our affections, rational faculty, and human operations to him. The psalm reveals to us how David achieved his priestly dedication to God. He lived in concordance with the divine will because of his love for God. “I love you, Lord, my strength, my rock, my fortress, my saviour. My God is the rock where I take refuge; my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold. The Lord is worthy of all praise, when I call I am saved from my foes.” For David to come to such a high perfection of love, he must have known God to a high level. Such knowledge is offered by faith and not by the senses. David’s faith in God made him pleasing to God. He renewed the promise made to Abraham to David. His love of God with all his heart, soul, and strength made David a king and priest after God’s heart. He inherited the kingdom of God.

The letter to the Hebrews explains how love makes a real priest. The perfect love of the Son for the Father established him as the Eternal High Priest. The many other priests of Leviticus could not play the role perfectly because of sin and death, which is its consequence. The presence of sin in them means imperfect love of God that destroys their consecration to God. “There used to be a great number of priests under the former covenant, because death put an end to each of them; but this one, because he remains for ever, can never lose his priesthood. It follows, then, that his power to save is utterly certain, since he is living for ever to intercede for all who come to God through him.” Jesus Christ, the ideal high priest, offered himself to God in love once and forever. The flaw in human nature, which made the Law ineffective for the holiness of life, also made the priests appointed by Law ineffectual to mediate between God and men.

The perfection of the Son is through his love of the Father for all eternity. Thus, the Father’s love for us made him promise his Son to be our perfect mediator. “The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.” God called us to inherit the perfection of the Son. The inheritance is assured for us when we make the profession of faith in Jesus Christ at baptism. At our baptism, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts. He will lead us into all truth, which is of Jesus Christ, and inflame our hearts subsequently with the love of God, that we may possess the promised kingdom and serve our God as priests. This is the meaning of the summary of the commandments that our Lord gave the scribe who enquired from him of the greatest one. “This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself.” Our Christian consecration entails dedicating our whole mind to know God, our whole heart to love him, our entire strength to serve him, and our whole soul to live for him. It is our transformation into Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. It is a priestly vocation that comes to perfection at the perfection of our love for God, our marriage with the Lamb of God.

Let us pray: Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service, grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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