In the Second Reading, Saint Peter describes the Christian faithful as a "Royal Priesthood" - and yet we set aside men to be "priests." Priesthood means sacrifice, and the Royal Priesthood of all the Baptised speaks to our calling to offer our lives as sacrifices of prayer and praise to the Lord.
Homily for the 5th Sunday in Eastertide on 1 Peter 2:4-9 and Acts 6:1-7.
Most of my theology exams, while I was studying in Rome, were oral exams. They were a somewhat frightening ordeal, you had only 10 minutes and you could be asked anything at all about the course. There was nowhere to hide. Some professors added a twist of cruelty to it; they would bring students inside the lecture theatre to prepare their answer while the person ahead of them was being examined. This got even worse during COVID when oral exams were moved onto Zoom: everyone who was waiting to take the exam logged in to the same video call and watched as one by one their peers had to face the music.
Predictably, some of these exams were absolute car crashes: I remember one liturgy exam, being sat at my desk shouting out the answers as the student in front of me couldn’t answer a single question correctly, before he had technical difficulties with his microphone, and the professor terminated his exam. Perhaps one of the worst exams was in my first year of theology, where my level of Italian was not quite up to scratch and at least one friend from seminary watched as I struggled to cobble together an intelligent answer about an obscure German theologian I didn’t really understand in a language I had yet to master!
One of the nicer exams I faced, although also in Italian, was a Sacraments exam, being asked about the Sacrament of Baptism, where towards the end of the exam the professor asked,
- Dimmi signor Hauschild, quale sono i tre munera di battesimo?
- Tell me Mr Hauschild, what are the three munera of Baptism?
An easy one, at Baptism each one of us receives the ministries, the munera, of priest, prophet, and king. That’s what St Peter Says today in our second reading (1 Peter 2:4-9)
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Canon Dominic and I watched the King’s Coronation this morning. We watched as the screens were erected around the King and the Anglican archbishops, as he was anointed with oil. That oil was the oil of Chrism, a spiced oil, which we call the priestly oil. In the Catholic Church we use sacred Chrism whenever we set something or someone aside for sacred duties. It is the Sacred Chrism that is used to anoint the hands of the priest, to set them apart to hold the Eucharist. It is the Sacred Chrism which anoints the vessels, the chalice and the paten, in which the consecrated body and blood of Christ are offered to the father, it is Sacred Chrism used to anoint the altar in every Church, to make it a fitting place of sacrifice. Sacred Chrism anoints the head of a newly ordained Bishop as a sign of his headship over the Church. And it is the Sacred Chrism which is used at Baptism and Confirmation, to seal us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and set us apart as members of Jesus Christ, who is priest, prophet, and king.
This is where my examiner laid a trap for me:
- Ah, Ma signor Hauschild, non ci siamo tutti lo stesso come la Regina Elizabeth?
- Ah, but Mr Hauschild, we are not all the same as Queen Elizabeth?
A little trap, because he knew I was English. No, although at Baptism we are all made into priest, prophet, and King, we are not all Kings in the same way that Queen Elizabeth was then Queen or that (now) King Charles is King. It means something different. Nor, for that matter are we all prophets like Elijah or Isaiah. Nor are we all priests in the same way.
We are a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a people set apart, and yet we still exist in different states of life to which we are called by God. This is even seen in the first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles; the whole body of believers needed the Apostles to lead in prayer and teaching, and needed the elders to assist them, and (in our first reading) needed some people to carry out the works of charity – to look after the widows and the poor in the community. The Apostles and Elders, men set aside for the mission of the Church, set apart seven men as deacons (which means servants) to lead the ministry of the Church on their behalf. Not everyone is called to be a Bishop, a Priest, or a Deacon, these people are set apart to serve the Church in a particular way. What then does Saint Peter mean when he says, you are a royal priesthood?
A priest is one who offers a sacrifice. The Ministerial priests, the Bishops and Priests in the Catholic Church, offer the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary on our behalf. What sacrifice does the ordinary Catholic offer? What sacrifice is offered by the Royal Priesthood of all baptised believers? St Peter provides the answer;
the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God
I’m sure many of you will know Graham Kendrick’s hymn the servant King, and it’s famous chorus;
This is our God, the servant king, who calls us now to follow him, to bring our lives as a daily offering of worship to the servant king.
Your sacrifice, our sacrifice, is our very lives, every moment of them from our Baptisms to our deaths. The spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God are lives lived in obedience to his commandments; (1) love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your mind, and all your souls, (2) love your neighbour as yourself, and (3) go out and make disciples of all nations. Whether you are a king living in a palace, or a beggar living on the street, or an ordinary person living somewhere in the great gulf between those two extremes, you are called to make your life an offering to God.
How can we do this? First, we do it by praying. Let the first words you say when you wake up be a prayer, offer your day and everything in it to the Lord, and thank him for the gift of a new day. Second, we do it by deciding to glorify the Lord in our lives. By deciding to remove ourselves from sinful things and to do good instead. Decide to make virtue a habit. At the end of the day, pray again, ask yourself “how did I give glory to God today?” Finally, we do it by coming here, to Sunday Mass, and offering the week we have lived to God.
When it comes time to consecrate the gifts, I will say; “Pray brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the almighty father” at this moment we all act as priests together, joining our sacrifice with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, and offering it to the Lord for consecration. Offering it to be made holy.
Unless we do this, our priesthood will be empty and lifeless - without offering the sacrifice in unity with Christ our good works mean nothing and our prayers lack an anchor. There is no priesthood without sacrifice, and without this sacrifice our priesthood is wasted. (This morning I will be baptising two children, and entrusting their parents and godparents with the care of their priesthood; to teach them to pray, to teach them to offer the sacrifice of love. This is a grave responsibility).
Each of us is anointed with Sacred Chrism as priests to offer this sacrifice, the sacrifice of our whole lives so that we may sing the praises of God who called [us] out of the darkness into his wonderful light both now and in eternity.
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