Tu Es Sacerdos

Today's second reading, from Chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, centers on the subject of Christ the High Priest.

Paul* references the Psalm, Dixit Dominus (Ps. 109 or 110, depending which version you use), verse 4:  "The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent:  Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech."   Reading that at Mass last night got me thinking again about something I'd been pondering over in meditation earlier in the week.

It's story that appears in all three Synoptic Gospels.  I'll use the version from Luke, Chapter 6, because it's the one I was reading when the idea occurred:

And it came to pass on the second first sabbath that, as he went through the corn fields, his disciples plucked the ears and did eat, rubbing them in their hands.  And some of the Pharisees said to them:  Why do you that which is not lawful on the sabbath days?
And Jesus answering them, said:  Have you not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was hungry and they that were with him:  how he went into the house of God and took and ate the bread of proposition and gave to them that were with him, which is not lawful to eat but only for the priests?  And he said to them:  The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.  (Lk. 6:  1-5)

Now the big point of this scene is Jesus declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath (for more on that, I recommend reading what Pope Benedict says on the subject in Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 1).  Corollary to that is the message that Jesus makes more explicitly in Mark, Chapter 7:  Don't set your love of God at enmity with your love of neighbor.  Or, as St. Escriva said:  "Make sure your personal mortifications don't mortify others."

What I'm interested in here, though, is David doing something reserved to the priests.  The incident to which Our Lord's referring appears in 1 Samuel (or 1 Kings, depending which version, yadda, yadda), Chapter 22.  Now, David is in these straits because he's on the run from Saul, who knows he's going to lose his kingdom to David.  (Remind you of Herod at all?)  Why is God replacing Saul with David?
Because back in Chapter 14, Saul did something reserved to the priests.  He offered a sacrifice with his own hands, instead of waiting for Samuel to come and do it.

So here comes David and eats the holy bread that's reserved for the priests.  Why isn't this a deal-breaker?  Because David doesn't barge in and say, "Give me those loves of proposition!  I'm the Anointed, and I'm hungry!"  Instead, he asks the high priest for whatever he can spare, "though it were but five loaves" (1 Sam. 21: 3).

Five loaves . . . why does that sound familiar?

Oh, well.  Anyway, the point is that David doesn't take God's Law into his own hands.  He asks and receives.  The Son of David will take after him in this:

Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant (Philippians 2:  6-7).

In other words, Saul's great sin was in trying to take that which can only be given.  Hence in today's reading from Hebrews, Paul* tells us, in regards to the high priesthood:

Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God, as Aaron was.  So Christ did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high priest:  but he that said unto him:  Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.  As he saith also in another place:  Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech.

He goes on in Chapters 6 and 7 to explain the order of Melchisedech's priesthood, how his offering of bread and wine in Genesis 14 foretells a new priesthood that will supersede the Levitical priests of the Old Testament.  So when Jesus uses this story to refute the Pharisees, He's not just arguing from legal precedents.  He's showing us how David foreshadows Himself.  Just as David was granted to do that which was reserved for the priests, the Son of David would usher in a new priesthood, according to the order of Melchisedech.  How fitting, then, that David himself, who ate the holy bread, should also have written the Psalm prophesying the priesthood of his Divine Descendant.**

And the sacrifice of that priesthood, like Melchisedech's, would be under the species of bread and wine.  That, of course, is where David's five loaves come in.  For in prefigurement of that sacrifice, the Son of David would use five loaves to feed five thousand.

*Despite the militant agnosticism prevalent in contemporary scholarship, I subscribe to the tradition that ascribes authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews to St. Paul, and of the Gospels to the evangelists whose names they bear.  Said authorship cannot be conclusively disproven, and I will maintain this stance until the competent authority in Rome charges me under obedience to do otherwise.  So there.

**Yes, I know, David did not write all the Psalms, but we know he wrote this one.  Christ Himself tells us he did, in Matthew 22: 43-45.  So double there.

Going To The Dogs

I'm more of a cat person, myself.  I'm told Pope Benedict is, too.

Tip o' the Fedora to Father Z. for this story.

Down under, where dissent seems to be working overtime to undo the graces bestowed by World Youth Day 2008, some lovely folks have gathered around a suspended priest and decided to pass out Holy Communion to anything with a mouth.

FATHER Greg Reynolds wants his church of dissident Catholics to welcome all - ''every man and his dog'', one might say, risking the non-inclusive language he deplores - but even he was taken aback when that was put to the test during Mass yesterday.
A first-time visitor arrived late at the Inclusive Catholics service in South Yarra with a large and well-trained German shepherd. When the consecrated bread and wine were passed around, the visitor took some bread and fed it to his dog.
Apart from one stifled gasp, those present showed admirable presence of mind - but the dog was not offered the cup!
Father Reynolds, a Melbourne priest for 32 years, launched Inclusive Catholics earlier this year. He now ministers to up to 40 people at fortnightly services alternating between two inner-suburban Protestant churches.
The congregation includes gay men, former priests, abuse victims and many women who feel disenfranchised, but it is optimistic rather than bitter.

Not like us "bitter clingers," I'm sure.  Everything's always happy in the Church of the Warm and Fuzzy - Extremely fuzzy, in this case.

This is soooOOOOOoo just the kind of thing I love to see.  You've got a suspended priest performing illicit Masses in Protestant churches (must be that whole "enemy of my enemy" thing), albeit doing as little of it as he can and have the Mass remain valid.  Both he and his congregation insist that their sins are not sins, in fact are meritorious in some cases.  Odd they should need a Savior, no?  In fact, I doubt they believe they do need Him.  They certainly don't seem to believe that He will come to judge the living, and the dead, and the world by fire.  That's just ooh, so judgmental.  Hence, the Eucharist doesn't really mean all that much - not like it's the source and summit of our worship or anything - so they pass out the Eucharist to all and sundry, and they, in turn, give it to their dogs.  Ironic that "dog" is "God" spelt backwards.  Furthermore, just as at Mass we receive Christ twice over, in the words of Scripture and in Holy Communion, these folks have dishonored both the Liturgy of the Word and of the Eucharist.  For Christ explicitly said, "Give not that which is holy to dogs" (Matt. 7:6), so it's obvious that they respect neither Christ's teaching nor His Person.

Pray tell, by what stretch of the imagination does one offer worship to Christ by spitting in His face and making a mockery of Him?

Congratulations, Father Reynolds!  You've just won the Abbé Guibourg Award for Best Black
Mass of the Year!

See, when you desecrate the Blessed Sacrament in the name of your faith and make a mockery of the Liturgy, you are de facto meeting all the elements necessary for Satanic worship.  Now all those misinformed Protestants who think Catholics are really devil-worshipers can look to you, Father Reynolds, and know their fears are confirmed.  I sure hope you're proud!

Oh, and btw . . . your visitor, who actually gave Communion to his dog?  If he ever was officially Catholic (y'know, baptized and all that), he'll be glad to know that he's probably incurred an automatic excommunication, reserved to the Holy See.  That's right!  If he wants to confess this sin and be absolved, the penance and absolution have to come from the Pope his own self!

Of course, since you lot seem to want as little to do with the Pope as possible, I don't suppose you'll be knocking on his door any time soon.  But hey, we'll leave the light on in the sanctuary for you.  Meanwhile, enjoy this preview of a special liturgy coming by way of your local ordinary . . .just for you!