Homily for 32d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
32d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 7, 2021
Heb 9: 24-28
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“He has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice” (Heb 9: 26).

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews contrasts the sacrifice of Jesus Christ with the yearly sacrifice offered by the Jewish high priest on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

The high priest went into the inner sanctuary of the Jewish temple, a building of wood and stone that was imagined to replicate God’s temple in heaven.  Jesus by his resurrection and ascension entered heaven itself.

From "Feasts of The LORD Amos 3:7/amos37.com"

The high priest sacrificed a goat upon which he had symbolically laid the sins that the Jewish people had been guilty of in the preceding year.  Christ offered his own body, taking upon himself the guilt of the whole human race since time began and forever.

The letter notes that “the high priest enters the sanctuary with blood that is not his own” (9:25).  Christ, on the other hand, offers his own blood in atonement for our sins.

The high priest had to make the sacrifice of atonement every year.  It had no permanent or lasting effect.  Unlike the Jewish priest, Christ doesn’t “offer himself repeatedly” (9:25) but only “once for all … to take away sin by his sacrifice.”

(Velasquez)

The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus on the cross took place once but with eternal effect, covering and atoning for the sins of every man and woman.  That sacrifice is effective upon us thru this sacrifice of the Mass, in which his body and blood given for us are made present.  We did not have to be on Calvary with our Blessed Mother, Mary Magdalene, and the Beloved Disciple to be redeemed.  Calvary comes to us in the Eucharist, life-giving Calvary, because this is the body and blood of the Risen Christ promising “salvation to those who eagerly await him” (9:28).

Christ is the only priest needed to offer this effective, eternal sacrifice of atonement for sins.  The Eucharist isn’t a new sacrifice but the same sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  At Mass it’s Christ who proclaims, “This is my body given for you” and “This is my blood of the covenant.”

Every ordinary priest like me who celebrates these sacred mysteries is really only a stand-in for Christ, the one priest of the New Covenant, the only one who offers this single sacrifice of the New Covenant.

But this saving sacrifice is available to us 2,000 years after Christ offered it only because men he’s chosen and called are here, now, to make his Eucharistic sacrifice present.  Therefore Christ’s Church always needs priests to act in his name, in his stead, to offer his sacrifice to the Father, to allow his sacrifice to touch us now, for the forgiveness of sins:  your sins, my sins, the sins of all men and women everywhere.

Since Christ always needs new priests to offer his sacrifice, we need to pray that men will continue to answer his call to priestly service and that priests will be faithful to their vocation.  We need to encourage young men whom Christ is calling to this beautiful and necessary life of ministry, calling to make him present to us on his altar, in the confessional, and in all his holy sacraments.

Any young man who hears Christ calling him, as Jesus once called Simon and Andrew, James and John, shouldn’t hesitate to follow Jesus, to pray about his vocation, to consult prudent people about it, and to inquire about seminary.  Christ’s grace gives us the strength and the courage to follow him and helps us serve his people by making him present, especially in this sacrament of atonement for our sins.