Today
is the feast of St.Leo the Great, the pope who is famous for meeting
Attila the Hun at the gates of Rome and talking him out of sacking
the city.
In the Office of
Reading, we get a sermon from St. Leo, which addresses both the
kingship and the priesthood that we all received at baptism. He makes
distinctions, of course, between ordained priests and the
laity, but stresses the connection between the two:
For
all, regenerated in Christ, are made kings by the sign of the cross;
they are consecrated priests by the oil of the Holy Spirit, so that
beyond the special service of our ministry as priests, all spiritual
and mature Christians know that they are a royal race and are sharers
in the office of the priesthood. For what is more king-like than to
find yourself ruler over your body after having surrendered your soul
to God? And what is more priestly than to promise the Lord a pure
conscience and to offer him in love unblemished victims on the altar
of one’s heart?....For indeed one sacramental priesthood is
celebrated throughout the entire body of the Church. The oil which
consecrates us has richer effects in the higher grades, yet it is not
sparingly given in the lower.
Meditating
on this priesthood of ours, and the offering of "victims on the
altar of one's heart", I can't help but thinking of the message
of Our Lady of Fatima, which was above all else to "offer up"
in reparation for sin, all the sufferings, great and small, that come
our way each day. We have the privilege and ability to do this
because, belonging to the body of Christ, our sufferings can be
joined to our great High Priest, and actually allowed to "count"
for the salvation of sinners. Because, incorporated into Christ, our
sufferings are His sufferings. This, in turn, shows
why it makes perfect sense to pray the psalms of suffering and
desolation in the voice of Jesus in His agony.
Don't
you just love it whenever you see—yet again—the elements of our
faith clicking together so perfectly?
