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The Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

After we get through the first book of the Bible, we have encountered different events such as the Act of Creation, the Fall of Mankind into Sin, and the effort made by God to gather to himself a people that would bring his holiness and truth to the rest of mankind.

Today’s first reading is taken from the second book of the Bible: Exodus. Israel has just been rescued from its slavery to the Egyptians by being led across the Red Sea, as it was miraculously parted. And now, Israel has been led to a place named Mt. Sinai (a.k.a. Mt. Horeb) where God made a covenant with Israel through the covenant mediator of Moses.

God had determined Israel’s vocation to be “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). This covenant required Israel to rule through priestly sacrifice. By the selfless witness of Israel, the rest of fallen humanity was to be reconciled to God. But Israel failed soon enough. Then, they failed again… and again!

Ultimately, Israel would fail in its vocation: to rule through priestly sacrifice. God was setting Israel and the rest of humanity up for what he was going to ultimately accomplish. Through the saving work of his Son, Jesus Christ, God himself would become the perfect Israelite and fulfill Israel’s vocation himself.

In the second reading, St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “while we were sinners Christ died for us” (5:8). In the person of Jesus, God became the priest and ruled through priestly sacrifice. The result of this sacrifice is reconciliation with God for the whole world, precisely what Israel was called to be from the beginning!

So what about us, the followers of Jesus Christ? You would think that since Jesus took on Israel’s vocation and fulfilled it as a Priest-King, all we would have to do is simply accept this work of his and merely stand back as recipients of this salvific work.

But no! The redeemed, the Church, those who have had this reconciliation applied to their lives, are an extension of the Incarnation. The Catholic Church is a communion, (Latin: communio) of saved humanity that is to serve as the instrument whereby this once-for-all work of Jesus is extended and made real in the flesh of those who take on his life through Holy Baptism.

The Church is both kingly and priestly because it is Christ’s Mystical Body. Christ’s once-for-all work of redemption is made present through the priestly self-sacrificial rule of his Mystical Body: the Catholic Church. By uniting our prayers, our suffering, our acts of charity, to the redemption of Christ made present in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the redemption is spread to the rest of the world, to all the nations, and the Church finds her increase, her growth.