Friday, November 5, 2021

 

Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

(Romans 15:14-21; Luke 16:1-8)

 When Grant Desme gave up the very real possibility of playing major league baseball to study for the priesthood, many probably thought 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 today’s reading from his Letter to the Romans.

 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.  Rather he intends that in enabling others recognize the Lordship of Jesus, he serves like an Old Testament priest.  The fact that Paul mentions it at the culmination of his letter indicates that he too considers this work a “higher calling.”

 The same calling "higher calling" is given to all of us.  In responding to the challenge of the New Evangelization, we help others can 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 too share in his priestly office.