We're Shifting Gears: Prophet to Priest

Mediating the Life of God to Others through Expression: Minister as Christ to every person you deal with

During these first weeks of “Ordinary Time” (weeks 9 through 21) we will be focusing on mediating the

life of God to others. We do this by giving visible expression to the invisible life of God within us.

These reflections focus on showing us how to exercise the priesthood we received at Baptism. They are meant to motivate and support us in ministering to one another.

There is only one priest, Jesus Christ. But everyone who “becomes Christ” by Baptism is a “priest in the Priest.” Every baptized Christian is a priest.

Every one of us was commissioned, consecrated and committed by anointing with chrism at Baptism to let Jesus himself act and minister through us as priest. This is the Good News: when we minister to each other, it is not just we, but Christ who ministers in us.

Ministry is always sacrifice. To give someone a minute, an hour of your time is to give a minute, an hour of your life. And there is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for a friend.

St. Paul exhorted the baptized: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God.” Wherever our live bodies are, we are sacrificed to letting Jesus minister through us. Through our bodies. We do this by giving physical expression to his love, his truth, his invisible life within us.

These are reflections on the Scriptures read at Mass during weeks 11 to 18 of Ordinary Time. They focus on the call to ministry. For those of you who have adopted Reaching Jesus — Five Steps to a Fuller Life as a plan of life, they are a follow-up to Step Four: “Being a Priest.”

Live, love, and enjoy!

In His love,

David