Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek
When a priest dies, his body is vested in the
vestments he wore when he celebrated Mass: alb, amice, chasuble, stole,
maniple. The point is that the priesthood of the Church is the priesthood of
Jesus Christ and as such is not just a temporary job but a permanent and
eternal character conferred upon a man.
The biblical origin of this understanding is
without a doubt Psalm 110:4 and the quotation of this Psalm in the Epistle to
the Hebrews 7:17 which identifies the eternal priesthood of Christ with the priesthood
of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek is a mysterious man, a pagan priest,
who acknowledges the blessings God has given Abraham by presenting to him bread
and wine. Abraham reciprocates by giving
Melchizedek a tithe of the spoils he has just gained in battle.
A good inter-faith gesture and that would have
been the end of it, if Melchizedek had not been mentioned in the Psalms and
then picked up by the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The temple has been destroyed and so the Jewish
priesthood has ended. At least it seemed so to the Christian Jews. But the
author of Hebrews argues that the old priesthood has not been abolished but
replaced by the priesthood of Christ and this priesthood is eternal.
The priesthood of Jesus Christ unlike the
Levitical priesthood is not based on heredity but on divine appointment. Melchizedek
has no genealogy. Despite human weakness, a man is called by God to be a priest.
Melchizedek was a gentile and Christ came to save not just the House of Israel,
but the people of all nations. This new priesthood of the last Supper is
prefigured in Melchizedek’s offering of bread and wine. Melchizedek was not a
priest of the Old Covenant. Christ as a priest offered the perfect sacrifice
for sin and made the new, perfect, and everlasting covenant with His own blood.
There are endless wonderful tales about Padre.
Recollections of his wisdom and wit abound. We often find ourselves wondering
what Fr. Rogers would do in this situation or that. This parish is forever marked by his
influence.
But the most important thing about him, what he
once was here, he is now, just a priest: a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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