Dear Friends,
Happy and Blessed Mother’s Day to all mothers! A special blessing for mothers will be given at the end of all the Masses this weekend. We give thanks for the gift of our mothers, and in a special way remember those who have gone before us. A gift will be distributed to our mothers as you leave Church today. Be sure to get it on the way out of Church.
In the first letter of Saint Peter, chapter 2, he writes, “Beloved: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Jesus indeed is the precious living stone who is “the way and the truth and the life.” But please pay close attention to the words in bold which proclaim a fundamental truth that perhaps we are not fully aware of.
Saint Peter is telling us that we ourselves are living stones part of the Mystical Body of Christ and that we all share, through our Baptism into Christ, a holy priesthood. Therefore, we are able to offer spiritual sacrifices through Jesus to God. Now this is more than offering some suffering up during the day which is very efficacious for sure. Saint Peter is informing us that we are to bring all our sacrifices to the altar at Holy Mass and to offer them up with the offering of the bread and wine thereby exercising our priestly role with Jesus our High Priest and Savior.
At Mass, we are not to be spectators watching the Holy Sacrifice unfold before us. Rather we are “‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own…” At Mass, we are participants who with Jesus exercise a priestly office by offering our sacrifices, our lives, with Him and through Him to the Father. In return, we receive Jesus Himself, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity and share in intimate communion with God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Ponder your priestly role, especially at Holy Mass. Participate fully and actively in all its parts so as to receive all that God is granting us through Jesus Christ, His Son and our Lord.
God bless you, God love you,
Monsignor McCulken
