During days 2-4 of the Christmas octave, Mother Church gives us three important feasts: Saint Stephen, which is a day for deacons, Saint John, a day for priests, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which traditionally is a day for altar servers. It bears noting, yet again, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Christian faith. Hence, liturgical ministry, what we do around the Lord’s table of word and sacrament, is important.
Liturgical ministry, which is not limited to the ordained, is not only important but is what makes us who and what are: Christians. The Mass is our destiny. Participating in the Eucharist is participation in the not-yet, which helps us concretely live the already of God’s kingdom. What it means to live this tension between the already and the not-yet is to live as if God’s reign was already fully established.
In addition to the liturgical service of the ordained, there is the ministry of altar service, lector, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, usher, cantor and/or chorister, musician, etc. Being a member of the assembly is itself a form of service. It would be good in this instance to revive our old language about assisting at Mass.
Because the priest acts in persona Christi captis, that is, in the person of Christ the head, his ministry is essential. A vocation to the priesthood is a rare and very precious thing in the Church. Like deacons, priests, who are ordained deacons before priestly consecration, thus ever remaining deacons, are ordained for service to the People of God. While their vocation encompasses a lot of areas, the primary focal point of a priest’s ministry is to celebrate the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
Saint John, by Peter Paul Ruebens, ca. 1611
Our Gospel today has a remarkable affinity with yesterday's readings. This affinity consists of “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” whom tradition affirms as the Apostle John, upon entering the empty tomb and seeing the burial cloths, “saw and believed.”1 What he believed is that Jesus rose from the dead. Yesterday, if you remember, as he was being stoned to death, the deacon, Stephen, “saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”2
The Church views Christmas, well, everything really, through the lens of Easter, even as she acknowledges through the liturgical year that it’s a long road from the stable through the cross to the resurrection. In our first reading, from the First Letter of John, in which we hear the word “proclaim” twice and “testify” once, the essence of the Good News is conveyed: for the sake of our salvation “the Word of life” took on flesh.3
Since Jesus’s Ascension, which was shortly followed by the descent of the Holy Spirit, which event marked the beginning of the Church, the best testimony and proclamation of God-made-man in the person of Jesus Christ is the Eucharist. Indeed, it is the Holy Spirit, whom the priest calls down during the Eucharistic Prayer, who transforms bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
Because of this transformation, we can not only hear, see, and touch the risen Christ, we can eat and drink him. At Mass, we, too become witnesses of the Incarnation. Hence, we are called to testify and proclaim the Good News. Another name for our testimony and proclamation is evangelization.
By our eating and drinking, the Lord incorporates us ever more into his Body, the Church. By our communion, Christ strengthens the bond between us and fills us with his life-giving Spirit. At the end of Mass, we are sent to make Christ present wherever we go.
Today, let’s give thanks for priests. Let’s give particular thanks to our pastor, Father Andrzej. Through his nearly forty years as a priest, he can tell you that it’s a long way from ordination to resurrection. Yet, by his tireless efforts and pastoral care, he bears witness to the risen Christ.
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