Friday of the
Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 15:14-21; Luke 16:1-8)
When baseball player Grant Desme gave up the very real
possibility of joining the Oakland Athletics to study for the priesthood, some
probably said that he was following a “higher calling.” Priesthood has traditionally been considered a
way to serve God in a noble way. Even in
St. Paul’s time this was true as he intimates in the reading from his Letter to
the Romans today.
Paul writes that in preaching the gospel he is performing
a “priestly service.” He doesn’t mean
that he is acting like an ordained priest in the contemporary sense but that in
facilitating the self-sacrifice of the pagans to Christ, he is serving like an
Old Testament priest. The fact that Paul
mentions it at the culmination of his letter indicates that he too considers
the work a “higher calling.”
The same calling is available to all of us. In responding to the challenge of the New
Evangelization, we help others find their way to Christ. This priestly ministry is not foreign or out
of character to laypersons. Rather as
baptized members of Christ’s body we share in his priestly office.
