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Sesquicentennial lesson: Through sacrifice faith will bear fruit

Editors Note: St. Benedict’s Abbey hosted the last public celebration of the Sesquicentennial year April 20. The Mass featured a procession of Benedictine College student groups bearing banners and other symbols of their participation in campus life. Along with photographs from that day, included on the following pages is the homily delivered by Prior James Albers, a 1994 Benedictine College graduate.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” – Jesus’ opening words this morning from our gospel. As we close out this year of celebration – the 150th of our foundation as a monastic community in Northeast Kansas, we come back to the source and summit of our faith: the Eucharist, where we began over 150 years ago on April 27, 1857.

When our band of monks – Fr. Henry Lemke, Fr. Augustine Wirth and Fr. Casimir Seitz – arrived in Doniphan, just a few miles north of here,

Left to right, Kate Buchanan, Desirae Jansen, and Rachel Ruhl of the Daughters of the King, were among the representatives of more than 20 student organizations who participated in the procession.

their hearts must have been troubled with the epic charge they had been given in establishing monastic life here in Kansas. Jesus tells us this morning, “You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” And so they set out heroically to meet their charge. Father Casimir, newly ordained, the first priest ordained in the territory of Kansas, constructed a simple altar out of four fence posts and two planks so that he could celebrate his first Mass; he set out to inaugurate his monastic, priestly life here in Kansas with his faith in Christ and the Eucharist. Our readings this morning focus us directly and indirectly on this same faith in Christ and the priesthood. In the classical theology of the Church, affirmed again at Vatican II, we know that every baptized person is a priest; we are a holy nation, a people set apart. The ministerial priesthood received at ordination has its own individual character, but each of us by way of our baptism is a priest. So the question comes to us, who’s a priest, and in this common priesthood what are we called to do? A priest is a mediator between God and human beings; one who offers sacrifices of praise to God and thereby bridges divinity and humanity. Following that idea, a priest is just that, a bridge-builder, a pontifex. Pope Benedict, of course, is the pontifex maximus. His visit to our country this week, his celebration of the Mass today at Yankee Stadium is an outpouring of his responsibility as the ultimate bridge-builder in our Catholic faith. Rooted in the example of Christ and the Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict, we who are baptized are bridgebuilders between divinity and humanity. Taking a look at the Old Testament we have a rich background for understanding priesthood in this context. Aaron was the most prominent and founding father of the long line of temple priests. These priests would, on be-

Elizabeth Lanciotti, a member of the choir, comprised of monks and students, looks on during Mass. A banner from the student Hunger Coalition is displayed along the far wall.

half of Israel, offer sacrifice to Yahweh as peace offerings, or thank offerings, or signs of atonement.

Though not a temple priest, but a rabbi, Jesus’ life was very much centered on the temple, he knew the life of the temple. We hear in the gospels that he often went up to Jerusalem to participate in the rituals of the temple, and we hear too how he proclaimed divine judgment on the temple: “I will tear down this place, and in three days rebuild it.”Jesus, as we know, was referring to the temple of his own body.

So Jesus is saying that his own person, his very body would now be the place where God is properly praised, that he personally would be the new temple, he personally would be the new priesthood. He interpreted his death on the cross precisely as a high priestly act; this ultimate temple sacrifice would reconcile divinity and humanity.

On the night before he died he took bread and he said, “This is my body, which will be given up for you.” Jesus, using temple language, sacrificial language, offers himself up in atonement for our sins; “My body will become a sacrifice.” And then, taking the cup of wine he said, “This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.” Jesus is saying, “In my own sacrifice, in my own dying, I will be the temple.”

In our readings today, then, at the very end of the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Luke says, “Even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.” Luke is recounting the many people turning toward Christ in the early Church, including the numerous temple priests.

In Jesus, these priests were acknowledging that they saw precisely the fulfillment of who they were. Overcoming their pride, they saw in him not their enemy, but one who brought their work of sacrifice to fulfillment. Priests of the Church even to this day participate in that wonderful relationship.

In a similar manner, men and women religious to this day offer their lives as a sacrifice and prayer. Here, in this place, for these many years, nearly 300 men have offered their lives to God as monks of this abbey; lives that became, have been and are a sacrifice for God’s Church.

Then in our second reading from the Letter of Peter we hear, “Come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but chosen and precious in the eyes of God. And like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” Peter is saying to us to see Jesus as this new temple. Though rejected, Jesus is the living stone chosen by God to be the cornerstone of his new temple, the place of perfect praise. Then as baptized, we are called to participate in that temple.

We participate in the temple not as individuals – we are not here as individuals; I am not hear as Prior James worshipping God, the monks are not here as individuals offering praise, each of you is not here as yourself, focused in on your individual relationship with Christ – that’s not the Eucharist, that’s not our shared faith. We are here as the Body of Christ, living stones that make up this Body, and our acts of worship here today, in

Matt Eshnauer, left, an unidentified student (carrying banner), and Eric Stone proceed into the church representing the Benedictine College Knights of Columbus Council. Clipboard in hand, Brother Leven gathered and qued the jumble of student groups moments before their formal procession into the church.

this Eucharist, must show our sharing in this Body.

Through this shared act of worship we must become so configured to Christ that our lives become that sacrifice, that act of praise, and thus we become mediators between divinity and humanity for those around us. The message then is that our participation as a living stone in the structure of the temple – the Body of Christ – will help build up that temple.

Key in this is understanding that our participation in building up the temple comes only from our listening to God, participating in his life, and living out what he asks of us. And here comes the pitch: How well do we listen to God? Do we understand what he is asking of us, or have we placed our own desires and wants ahead of his? It is easy to say what I want in life, how I think I can best accomplish what I want, even