What am I willing to offer or give up (Thursday, Week 1, Year 1, St Agnes)

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We continue with our reflection on Jesus the high priest. As it has been said over and over again, a priest is a mediator, a link between God and humans. How does this happen? When we think of priests in general (traditional priests, Old Testament priests, the ministerial priests of the New Covenant, etc), we see that the mediation function of a priest is mainly done through the offering of sacrifices, gifts and prayers. If a priest offers no sacrifice, I wonder what actually marks him out as a priest. The essence of priesthood is mediation; and mediation comes out more clearly through the offering of sacrifices. 

About Jesus, the holy and blameless high priest, the Letter to the Hebrews has this to say: “He had no need to offer sacrifices daily like the high priests of the Old Covenant; He has done this once for all when He offered up Himself” (cf. Heb. 7:26-27). One thing that distinguished Jesus from the priests of the Old Covenant is that He sacrificed Himself while other priests sacrificed animals. This self-sacrifice was what He was actually doing on earth; and He did it more perfectly when He offered the ultimate sacrifice of Himself on the cross. Even when He offered up and denied Himself of certain conveniences in order to help, to teach, to heal, to feed, and to pray for the people, He was making huge sacrifices of Himself. 

And that is why our gospel text (cf. Mk. 3:7-12) narrates that a great multitude followed Him wherever He went because they heard all that He did: He healed many; went about doing good. Some heard about Him and wanted to go and see for themselves. Others were just curious for the spectacular. Some were just desperate to meet Him because of some particular need, e.g. for healing, for deliverance, for enlightenment, for direction, etc. Whatever it was, the reasons were many. But the bottom line is that everyone wanted something from Jesus because He had something to offer. Whatever Jesus can give and offer, people would want, and they will want more and more. People couldn’t have enough of Him and we can’t have enough of Him either. If Jesus were to be physically here with us as He was among the people of old, I am sure the people of our time may even crush him in their bid to have a bit of Him. As narrated in the gospel, Jesus even had to get onto a boat to keep himself from being crushed. Why all these? Because He had and still has something to offer up, to give up, and to sacrifice for the people!

Now, if we truly believe in and sincerely want to follow Jesus our high priest and Savior, then we should be ready to do what He did – to make an offering of ourselves, to present ourselves as a living sacrifice so that He can continue His saving work with, through and in us. Hence it would not be so much as what we want from Jesus, but what we are willing to give up and offer to Him as a loving sacrifice. St Agnes offered something: she offered her virginity; she offered her life for the sake of Jesus. What are we ready to give up and offer to Him?  




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