Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time (July 6, 2017): Participating in the holy priesthood of sacrifice.

Genesis 22:1b-19
Ps 115:1-6, 8-9
Matthew 9:1-8
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070617.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/17_07_06.mp3

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town.
And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
“Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.”
At that, some of the scribes said to themselves,
“This man is blaspheming.”
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,
:Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?
But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins”–
he then said to the paralytic,
“Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.

The story in today’s Gospel references the Christian priesthood that Jesus was initiating. As our High Priest, he revealed the priesthood’s authority to heal (the Anointing of the Sick) and to forgive sins (Confession). Our Catholic priests come from an uninterrupted line of ordination that goes back to the Apostles to whom Jesus gave, in person, this authority. This is what gives priests of the original Church (Catholicism) the ability to make the Sacraments effective and real and miraculous, regardless of whether they are holy men or sinful.

In the first reading, Abraham foreshadowed this priesthood. He offered a sacrifice as a gift to God in obedience to the calling he had been given by God. Although he didn’t kill his son, the knife raised above his son showed a willingness to give up everything for the Lord, and this was the true sacrifice. When the priest at Mass raises the bread and wine (before it becomes Christ’s body and blood) above the altar, he represents all of us who are willing to give up everything for God. This is why the bread and wine are brought to the altar by members of the congregation instead of from the back closet or sacristy.

What are you willing to give up, and what are you clinging to that should be sacrificed for the sake of doing the work of God? Very often, God is only looking for our surrender, our willingness. He doesn’t always take what we offer, as we see when he stopped Abraham from killing Isaac. God provides the substitute sacrifice to help us let go without losing.

When we do experience losses, if they are offered to God, they become a time of rising up and walking forward, a time of healing with great gain. We gain a greater intimacy with God. The ram that God provides to us is found in the thicket of our thorny pain. We discover that the true sacrifice was not what we had to give up. The true sacrifice is the attitude of letting go. We gain much from this, because trying to hold on to anything that is not God himself holds us back from receiving everything that God wants to give to us.

Whenever the gifts of the altar are presented during Mass, we can mentally place our losses into the bread basket and the wine carafe. We can also put into it whatever we’re afraid of losing, the material possessions that we hold tightly and the bad attitudes that we don’t want to change. The priest will offer these to God, upon the altar, by saying a prayer of sacrifice on our behalf.

Prior to coming to Mass, we should always do an examination of conscience to identify our recent venial (minor) sins. (Stubborn or grave, mortal sins, which have been killing our relationship with God, need the healing graces that are provided in the Sacrament of Confession.) During the Penitential Rite at the beginning of Mass, we should offer our sins to God and mentally place them on the altar.

God blesses such sacrifices. He is very pleased with our willingness to let go.