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Introduction: Diptych
The two readings for today’s
liturgy from a diptych, a two-paneled icon hinged together, portraying
two vocations in the life of the Church: priesthood and marriage.
Since we are about to begin the Year for Priests as declared
by Pope Benedict, and since most of you are living the vocation
of marriage and family, it seems appropriate for us to allow
these readings to illuminate our respective vocations.
First
Panel: St. Paul, the Priest
The first panel of our diptych is
from St. Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians. It is one of the
passages in which St. Paul shows us that he understands his apostolic
ministry in priestly terms. Nowhere does St. Paul offer a systematic
teaching on the priesthood but he frequently describes his life
and ministry in the language of priesthood. This is one of those
occasions. How does St. Paul shed light on the priesthood in
today’s reading?
First, St. Paul tells us that, amid the sacrifices
his ministry entails, he carries “in his body the dying of Jesus.”
Certainly St. Paul believes in Jesus and in the saving power
of his death! Certainly St. Paul proclaiming Christ and “Him
crucified”! But in this passage St. Paul is saying something
more profound. ‘He carries the death of the Lord in his Body
so that the life of Christ might be made manifest to others.’
St. Paul is identified with the death of the Lord in such a way
that he makes its life-giving power available to others.
That
is a good description of the priest. Through the Holy Spirit,
the priest bears the indelible imprint of Christ’s priestly sacrifice
in the depth of his being. In preaching and celebrating the sacraments,
the priest unveils the death and resurrection of Christ and makes
it present to us in its saving power.
Second, the priest does
this not only for himself but for those he serves. Let’s listen
again to St. Paul: “Everything indeed is for you so that the
grace bestowed in abundance on more and more may cause thanksgiving
to overflow for the glory of God.” Truly the priest is a man
of God for others. He re-presents what God has done “for us and
for our salvation.” In so doing, he engenders in us abundant
praise and thanksgiving.
Third, St. Paul says he holds the treasure
of the Lord’s saving love ‘in earthen vessels’. Here St. Paul
speaks to the gap between the holiness of the priestly office
and the weakness and fragility of the office holder. I present
myself this morning as “Exhibit A”! That is why priests must
have a sustained life of prayer and that is why you must pray
for your priests: so as to narrow the gap!
Second Panel: St.
Matthew on Chaste Marriage
Which brings us to the second panel
of our diptych, the vocation of marriage. The description found
in this passage may seem quite negative and foreboding. The context
is the Lord’s teaching on adultery. Jesus identifies adultery
as a sin of both body and heart – a physical union which manifests
a gravely divided heart. Jesus, the Word made flesh, through
whom we were created, truly knows how we are made and what can
be lodged in the human heart. So he identifies the various means
and strategies we use in committing sin: the eye, the hand, the
body, – but also the heart.
To be sure, Jesus’ remedies strike
us as painful and extreme. In stark terms, the Lord warns us
against making our bodies the instruments of sin just as he warns
us of allowing sin and sinful thoughts to invade our inner thoughts.
Thus we confess our sins, “in my thoughts and in my words, in
what I have done, and in what I have failed to do!” Here, in
this Gospel passage, Jesus makes the point that our bodies manifest
what is in our hearts – sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly.
Adultery is married love turned inside-out. What married love
should manifest is not a divided heart but rather a heart that
is growing in its capacity for communion with one’s spouse. The
union of husband and wife should symbolize and expand one’s capacity
to be one with Trinity through union with Christ in the Spirit.
The union of husband and wife should symbolize the marriage
of Christ and his Bride, the Church – a union in which Christ
offers his very life for his Bride and she responds in praise,
thanksgiving, and the gift of new life. So too husband and wife
give of themselves one to the other and thus expand their capacity
to love, to serve, and to foster new life.
What’s more, the division
of divorce is the mirror opposite of that union of mind, heart,
and spirit that married couples are to carry about and express
in and through their bodies.
The Hinge
Recall that a diptych
is a two-paneled icon that is hinged. What is the hinge between
the vocations of priesthood and marriage? It is the Eucharist,
the very mystery we are celebrating! For in the Eucharist the
priest manifests Christ’s spousal love for the Church by renewing
his sacrifice of love and making it present. The priest carries
about the dying of Jesus in his body so that married couples
can manifest in their bodies the life and love of Jesus for his
spouse the Church.
As ardent supporters of the priesthood and
valiant defenders of marriage, may we, the family of the Knights
of Columbus, find in this Eucharistic mystery the wisdom and
strength to live our vocations in joy, fidelity, and fruitful
love!
Return to the Writings of Bishop
Lori
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