Jesus, Squared

During the offertory at Mass yesterday - when members of the congregation brought forward the bread, wine, and water to be offered in the Eucharistic Prayer - I was reminded of the Gospel accounts of the multiplication of the loaves.  I am sure you recall how a boy present among the hungry crowd had thought to bring along five barley loaves and a couple of fish (Jn.6:9; Mt.14:17), which he offered to Jesus and the Apostles.  Jesus took the boy's offering, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the apostles to distribute to the crowd of 5,000 plus.  Miraculously, not only did they have enough to feed the hungry throng, but they collected twelve baskets full of leftovers.

In an earlier post I shared how the same four verbs (italicized above) used by the evangelists to narrate Jesus actions in the multiplication of the loaves (Mt.14:19), are exactly the same verbs used to narrate His actions at the Last Supper, when He established the Eucharist (Mt.14:26).  Yesterday however I glimpsed a different connection between the two:  Jesus takes the bread and wine we offer Him at Mass and uses them to perform different kind of miraculous multiplication - multiplying not the quantity of bread and wine, but His presence. Wherever a crumb of the consecrated Host is present, Jesus' whole Body  is present, and with It His Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  Exactly the same is true for a drop of His Blood - with It comes His Body, Soul, and Divinity - the whole Christ!  And as each of us receive Him in Eucharistic communion, His sacramental presence is multiplied throughout the sanctuary!

"Me, a Priest?"

Photo by Patnac

Yes, me - and you too!  Today is the last day of the Church's year, the Feast of Christ the King, and one of the messages in today's readings is how we share not only Jesus' kingship, but His priesthood!

"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen. " (Rev.1:6)

Every baptized man and woman share in the priesthood of Christ, offering all of our words and actions in this world to the Father.  St. Paul wrote of this to the Christians in Rome:

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom.12:1)

The ordained priesthood  supports us in this by making Christ's priesthood sacramentally present - feeding us His Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist, absolving our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, communicating the grace of Confirmation and a deeper participation in the Gifts of the Spirit, anointing us to impart strength and healing in the Anointing of the Sick.  Or as St. Paul wrote:

[Jesus] gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.  

You my friend share the priesthood of Jesus Christ.  So suit up and start offering your day to the Lord!