Daily Retreat 01/19/09
2009 Jan 19 Mon: Ordinary Weekday
Heb 5: 1-10/ Ps 109(110): 1. 2. 3. 4/ Mk 2: 18-22
From today’s readings: “ Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.... You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.... New wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
The Priesthood of Christ
Too often, you and I turn to Scripture and mine it for merely an inspirational verse for the day - some little nugget of divine revelation, preferably when it makes a memorable motto. But ultimately, the Word of God can’t be condensed into a Reader’s Digest version! Even though some verses of the Bible are deliberately appealing as appetizers, such verses should be followed as an invitation to ever deeper contemplation....
The eternal and unparalleled priesthood of Christ is one of the central themes of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The topic is too theologically rich to be adequately summarized because, in fact, the whole carefully-crafted epistle purposely begins by laying out the essential background needed to understand the universal context of Christ’s priesthood, and then the epistle explores the infinite dimensions of His priesthood and how His sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice that atones forever in the establishment of the new and eternal covenant.
Since none of that can be summed up in a slogan, you may experience the temptation to tune out today’s and the upcoming sections of the Letter to the Hebrews. But what a loss that would be, as if, like the folks in His hometown (cf. Mt. 13:53-58), we had concluded that Jesus was simply too much for us! So instead, let us try to at least take a look at what the Holy Scriptures teach us about the priesthood of Christ and the profound implications of that - my reflections over the next few days will focus on this theme.
Heb 5: 1-10/ Ps 109(110): 1. 2. 3. 4/ Mk 2: 18-22
From today’s readings: “ Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.... You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.... New wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”
The Priesthood of Christ
Too often, you and I turn to Scripture and mine it for merely an inspirational verse for the day - some little nugget of divine revelation, preferably when it makes a memorable motto. But ultimately, the Word of God can’t be condensed into a Reader’s Digest version! Even though some verses of the Bible are deliberately appealing as appetizers, such verses should be followed as an invitation to ever deeper contemplation....
The eternal and unparalleled priesthood of Christ is one of the central themes of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The topic is too theologically rich to be adequately summarized because, in fact, the whole carefully-crafted epistle purposely begins by laying out the essential background needed to understand the universal context of Christ’s priesthood, and then the epistle explores the infinite dimensions of His priesthood and how His sacrifice is the perfect sacrifice that atones forever in the establishment of the new and eternal covenant.
Since none of that can be summed up in a slogan, you may experience the temptation to tune out today’s and the upcoming sections of the Letter to the Hebrews. But what a loss that would be, as if, like the folks in His hometown (cf. Mt. 13:53-58), we had concluded that Jesus was simply too much for us! So instead, let us try to at least take a look at what the Holy Scriptures teach us about the priesthood of Christ and the profound implications of that - my reflections over the next few days will focus on this theme.
posted by FrPitstick | 1/17/2009
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