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Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest

Heb 10:11-18; Ps 110:1-4; Mk 4:1-20:  In our day when subjectivism and even solipsism seems to dominate the teaching of philosophy, Catholic philosophers remind us of the existence of universal truth and universal moral law.  This enables us to rule in the midst of our enemies.  We are solidly established in the truth revealed in nature and in the revealed truth of the Catholic Tradition.  Both divine revelation and natural revelation give us clear vision and deep security throughout our journey of faith, all the way to our heavenly home.  This princely power has been revealed in the day of Christ’s birth, in holy splendor. We share in that heavenly dew each time we celebrate the Eucharist when we invoke the Holy Spirit to rest upon the bread made body and wine made blood that we offer to fulfill the Lord’s promise from which He will not repent.  Indeed, we share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ who is a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The priesthood of the King of Salem, Melchizedek, is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, the Great High Priest who did not share in the ministry of the Temple, but his very body became the New Temple in which dwells the living sacrifice of praise that far out ranks the Temple sacrifice because it takes away sin.  The New Melchizedek offers his body and blood upon the Altar of the Cross, and it is this once for all sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world and enabled the Son to forever take away the sins of the world.  From this being lifted up in sacrifice to being lifted at the Right Hand of the Father in Heaven, the Son takes his place on his seat forever at the right hand of God.  Now he awaits the Day on which his enemies are made his footstool.  This is possible only because the Eternal Son, who has taken on a human nature, has been consecrated and who consecrates us in our celebration of the Eucharist in which we hear again and again the Holy Spirit giving testimony so that we might realize our own identity in Christ. Indeed, the Father has written his Word upon our hearts and in our ministry when we hear again and again : “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.”

Saint Matthew has the Lord Jesus referring to the call experience of the Prophet Isaiah.  This great teacher of Israel heard the LORD command him to pour himself out in preaching so that “they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”  He was to bring his hearers to the point of total helplessness; he was to enable them to experience the limitations of their senses and their reason.  Once they were on the precipice, on the boundary between light and darkness, then they could be caught by the truth the Lord Jesus buried in the parables.  Then and only then could they be startled by the Truth that sought them even more fervently than they sought the truth. The Word became flesh and dwells among us; He is the Way the Truth and the Life.  Anyone who seeks the Truth seeks Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word ever at the right hand of the Father.  This is the Word that became a seed and planted itself in his heart so that he might bear much fruit.  This is the Word that commanded his silence and went forth to bury itself in the hearts of many men and women down through the centuries unto our own day.  Still the Word that the Sower, Christ and his saints, have sown over the fields of history bears fruit in the Holy Spirit, a fruit that will last: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.