Christ, Our High Priest
Sermon
God's Love for Us
Pulpit Messages for the Lenten Season
Some time ago a young man approached me.
"You know," he said,
"the Church has really fooled people for some time."
"For example,
take Holy Communion."
"Does the Church really expect us to believe
that we commune with God in this way
- that this is really the Body and Blood of Christ?"
Where do we begin to answer a question like this?
It's really a question asking a lot of things:
"Is God really real?"
"Is the Church fooling people?"
"Are the promises of God really true?"
"Does anything special happen
when we gather for the sacrament?"
"Is Holy Communion really special?"
But yet the basic question really being asked
is this:
"Is there any way in this world
that we can have contact with God?"
At times all of us may ask this same question
somewhere in our own minds.
"Is it possible for us to have contact with God?"
"Is worship really special?"
"Is the sacrament a means of God's grace
where God really comes to us?"
"When we step off that street,
can we have contact with God?"
The answer, of course, is yes.
And as we look backward
to the Old Testament and the New Testament
we see how this is so.
In the Old Testament
there was a priest by the name of Melchizedek;
and Melchizedek took bread and wine
and offered these as a prefigurement of Christ.
And in the New Testament,
we see Our Lord.
At His Last Supper on Holy Thursday
He did this:
"He took bread, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my body.'
"He took wine, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my blood.' "
What Our Lord did
was to change these elements of bread and wine
into His body and blood,
so that we could commune with Him.
The same body
which on Good Friday
He sacrificed for our sins,
in which there is forgiveness and grace.
The same Body
which on Easter Sunday
He arose from the dead with,
changed and glorified,
in which there is His Eternal Life.
Yes,
in Holy Communion we do have contact with God;
we commune with Him,
and share in His Life, and share in His grace.
It's what Our Lord tells us:
"This is my body.
This is my blood."
And it's what St. Paul tells us:
"The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
"The bread which we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"
For Christ, as St. Paul tells us,
"is the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey him,
being designated by God
a high priest after the order of Meichizedek."
Christ is our high priest,
who changes the elements of bread and wine
into His body and blood,
so that we can commune with Him,
and share in His Life, and share in His grace.
Yes,
in Holy Communion we do have contact with God,
to commune with Him,
and share in His Life, and share in His grace.
And this point is brought home again
in a story that's told.
It involves a saint
by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas.
About the year 1240
the Church was facing a terrible controversy.
And the heart of the controversy was this:
that the sacrament was a zero;
God was no more present here than in the candelabra.
And the implication of the controversy was this:
it's the young man all over again:
the Church is really fooling people;
Christ is not really present.
What one group of people was saying was this:
"Listen - this is only bread and wine."
"God is not really present."
"Stop fooling yourselves."
And it is here that we meet St. Thomas Aquinas,
a Dominican priest, and one of the greatest minds in the Church.
And Thomas' mind was troubled:
He searched the Scriptures,
he read the words of Christ:
"This is my body.
This is my blood."
And what Thomas decided was this:
He would write a treatise;
he would prove without a shadow of a doubt
that Christ was present in the sacrament.
For his heart and his mind
had convinced him of the truth.
So Thomas set out on his task.
He wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote.
And what he wrote was brilliant.
He had written volumes by this time,
but this work was his greatest.
For what Thomas had done was this:
he had disproved their arguments one by one.
"No one will ever be able to say," he thought,
"that Christ is not present."
But the story now is only beginning.
Going to the church to pray,
Thomas wanted time to think.
And as he knelt before the altar,
his prayer was this:
"Lord God,
can anyone prove that you are present
in this most blessed sacrament?"
"If I have spoken the truth,
God, let me know."
And it was here that it happened.
In the presence of others, this was seen:
He received Holy Communion.
And after kneeling in the pew,
he walked up to the altar.
And there before a huge crucifix,
he did this:
Standing before Christ on the cross,
he threw down his manuscript.
He had given it to God, for God to judge it.
And there by the altar the manuscript lay.
And kneeling in the pew,
burying himself in prayer,
the people saw this:
There from the cross,
Christ descended.
And the words Our Lord spoke were these:
"Thomas, you have written well
concerning the Sacrament of My Body.
"This is My Body.
This is My Blood."
This miracle was vouched for
by a score of eyewitnesses.
All who were there
saw this and heard this.
Is there any way to have contact with God?
Yes.
Is Christ really present
in the sacrament of Holy Communion?
Yes.
In Holy Communion do we commune with God,
to share in His Life, and share in His grace?
Yes.
For Christ,
"is the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey him,
being designated by God
a high priest after the order of Melchizedek."
For Christ,
"Took bread, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my body.'
"Took wine, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my blood.' "
Christ is our high priest,
who in, with, and through His Church,
changes these elements of bread and wine
into His Body and Blood,
to commune with us:
to share His Life and His grace with us.
Take, eat.
Take and drink.
For this surely
is the Bread of Life.
This surely
is the Bread of the Angels.
This surely
is God with us.
God Himself is present,
let us now adore Him.
Amen.
PRAYER OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
O almighty and eternal God, behold I approach the Sacrament of Thine only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I come as one sick to the physician of life, as one unclean to the source of all mercy, as one blind to the light of the eternal sun, as one poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. I beseech Thee, therefore, out of the abundance of Thine immense goodness, deign to heal my infirmity, cleanse me from my sins, illumine my blindness, enrich my poverty, clothe my nakedness. Grant that I may receive the Bread of angels, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, with as much reverence and humility, contrition and devotion, purity and faith, with such uprightness of purpose and intention, as may be profitable to the salvation of my soul. Grant me, I beseech Thee, to receive not only the Sacrament of the Lord's body and blood, but also the grace and virtue of the Sacrament. O most merciful God, grant me so to receive the body of Thy only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which He took from Mary ever virgin, that I may merit to be incorporated into His mystical body, and numbered amongst His members. O most loving Father, grant that Thy beloved Son, whom, now hidden beneath the sacramental veil, I propose to receive, I may at length contemplate forever, face to face: who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
"You know," he said,
"the Church has really fooled people for some time."
"For example,
take Holy Communion."
"Does the Church really expect us to believe
that we commune with God in this way
- that this is really the Body and Blood of Christ?"
Where do we begin to answer a question like this?
It's really a question asking a lot of things:
"Is God really real?"
"Is the Church fooling people?"
"Are the promises of God really true?"
"Does anything special happen
when we gather for the sacrament?"
"Is Holy Communion really special?"
But yet the basic question really being asked
is this:
"Is there any way in this world
that we can have contact with God?"
At times all of us may ask this same question
somewhere in our own minds.
"Is it possible for us to have contact with God?"
"Is worship really special?"
"Is the sacrament a means of God's grace
where God really comes to us?"
"When we step off that street,
can we have contact with God?"
The answer, of course, is yes.
And as we look backward
to the Old Testament and the New Testament
we see how this is so.
In the Old Testament
there was a priest by the name of Melchizedek;
and Melchizedek took bread and wine
and offered these as a prefigurement of Christ.
And in the New Testament,
we see Our Lord.
At His Last Supper on Holy Thursday
He did this:
"He took bread, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my body.'
"He took wine, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my blood.' "
What Our Lord did
was to change these elements of bread and wine
into His body and blood,
so that we could commune with Him.
The same body
which on Good Friday
He sacrificed for our sins,
in which there is forgiveness and grace.
The same Body
which on Easter Sunday
He arose from the dead with,
changed and glorified,
in which there is His Eternal Life.
Yes,
in Holy Communion we do have contact with God;
we commune with Him,
and share in His Life, and share in His grace.
It's what Our Lord tells us:
"This is my body.
This is my blood."
And it's what St. Paul tells us:
"The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
"The bread which we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?"
For Christ, as St. Paul tells us,
"is the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey him,
being designated by God
a high priest after the order of Meichizedek."
Christ is our high priest,
who changes the elements of bread and wine
into His body and blood,
so that we can commune with Him,
and share in His Life, and share in His grace.
Yes,
in Holy Communion we do have contact with God,
to commune with Him,
and share in His Life, and share in His grace.
And this point is brought home again
in a story that's told.
It involves a saint
by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas.
About the year 1240
the Church was facing a terrible controversy.
And the heart of the controversy was this:
that the sacrament was a zero;
God was no more present here than in the candelabra.
And the implication of the controversy was this:
it's the young man all over again:
the Church is really fooling people;
Christ is not really present.
What one group of people was saying was this:
"Listen - this is only bread and wine."
"God is not really present."
"Stop fooling yourselves."
And it is here that we meet St. Thomas Aquinas,
a Dominican priest, and one of the greatest minds in the Church.
And Thomas' mind was troubled:
He searched the Scriptures,
he read the words of Christ:
"This is my body.
This is my blood."
And what Thomas decided was this:
He would write a treatise;
he would prove without a shadow of a doubt
that Christ was present in the sacrament.
For his heart and his mind
had convinced him of the truth.
So Thomas set out on his task.
He wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote.
And what he wrote was brilliant.
He had written volumes by this time,
but this work was his greatest.
For what Thomas had done was this:
he had disproved their arguments one by one.
"No one will ever be able to say," he thought,
"that Christ is not present."
But the story now is only beginning.
Going to the church to pray,
Thomas wanted time to think.
And as he knelt before the altar,
his prayer was this:
"Lord God,
can anyone prove that you are present
in this most blessed sacrament?"
"If I have spoken the truth,
God, let me know."
And it was here that it happened.
In the presence of others, this was seen:
He received Holy Communion.
And after kneeling in the pew,
he walked up to the altar.
And there before a huge crucifix,
he did this:
Standing before Christ on the cross,
he threw down his manuscript.
He had given it to God, for God to judge it.
And there by the altar the manuscript lay.
And kneeling in the pew,
burying himself in prayer,
the people saw this:
There from the cross,
Christ descended.
And the words Our Lord spoke were these:
"Thomas, you have written well
concerning the Sacrament of My Body.
"This is My Body.
This is My Blood."
This miracle was vouched for
by a score of eyewitnesses.
All who were there
saw this and heard this.
Is there any way to have contact with God?
Yes.
Is Christ really present
in the sacrament of Holy Communion?
Yes.
In Holy Communion do we commune with God,
to share in His Life, and share in His grace?
Yes.
For Christ,
"is the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey him,
being designated by God
a high priest after the order of Melchizedek."
For Christ,
"Took bread, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my body.'
"Took wine, and He blessed it,
and said, 'This is my blood.' "
Christ is our high priest,
who in, with, and through His Church,
changes these elements of bread and wine
into His Body and Blood,
to commune with us:
to share His Life and His grace with us.
Take, eat.
Take and drink.
For this surely
is the Bread of Life.
This surely
is the Bread of the Angels.
This surely
is God with us.
God Himself is present,
let us now adore Him.
Amen.
PRAYER OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
O almighty and eternal God, behold I approach the Sacrament of Thine only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I come as one sick to the physician of life, as one unclean to the source of all mercy, as one blind to the light of the eternal sun, as one poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. I beseech Thee, therefore, out of the abundance of Thine immense goodness, deign to heal my infirmity, cleanse me from my sins, illumine my blindness, enrich my poverty, clothe my nakedness. Grant that I may receive the Bread of angels, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, with as much reverence and humility, contrition and devotion, purity and faith, with such uprightness of purpose and intention, as may be profitable to the salvation of my soul. Grant me, I beseech Thee, to receive not only the Sacrament of the Lord's body and blood, but also the grace and virtue of the Sacrament. O most merciful God, grant me so to receive the body of Thy only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which He took from Mary ever virgin, that I may merit to be incorporated into His mystical body, and numbered amongst His members. O most loving Father, grant that Thy beloved Son, whom, now hidden beneath the sacramental veil, I propose to receive, I may at length contemplate forever, face to face: who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
