Over the past fifty years medicine has made great strides. Researchers have discovered remedies for diseases that were once incurable. They have also discovered vaccines that protect us from contracting some infections. Surgical technology has reached new heights of sophistication. We recognise and appreciate all these scientific advances; but the reality is that they only defer death, they do not defeat it.

Deep within every human being there is a limitless capacity for life. It is a capacity created by God Himself and which can only be satisfied by God. The Divine life is without beginning or end. There is no limit to the number of creatures who can share in that Eternal Life
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To fulfil that hunger for life that we experience, God sent us His Only Begotten Son. So Jesus says, “I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full”. (John 10.10) In chapter twelve of his Gospel, John records how, when Jesus was having a meal in the home of Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, Mary brought a jar of costly ointment and poured it over the feet of Jesus. The Evangelist remembered that “The house was full of the scent of the ointment”. (John 12; 3)

The Fathers of the Church interpreted this event in the light of the Resurrection. From the Body of Christ, broken on the Cross, there flowed out the power of the Holy Spirit that filled the whole Church with new life, and continues to fill every member of the Church. That is the life that we were given in Baptism that was sealed by Confirmation and nourished by the Eucharist.

There was a price to pay for this new life. God had created Man and Woman in his own image and likeness. Their love for each other was to reflect the nature of the God who had created them. In the First Epistle of John we read, “let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God IS love”.

We know that our First Parents disobeyed God with the result that division, conflict, suffering and death itself became the inheritance of the human race. The story of how that dismal destiny was reversed is contained in the Books of the Old and the New Testament.

God chose a particular tribe to be His Chosen People. He led them from exile and slavery to a new home and freedom. He gave them leaders, Moses and Aaron and their successors. They became the contact between God and the People of God. They became mediators.

We are familiar with the idea of “mediator” in labour disputes or international conflicts. Their objective is to bring opposing parties together and restore harmony between them. In the Old Testament there were two kinds of mediators, those who brought God’s message to the people – the prophets – and those who brought the needs of the people to God – the priests.

These two roles come together in the Person of Jesus. He brings a new message from God and He brings the sins and the needs of the people to the Father. He takes upon Himself the burden of our sins and he pays the ransom price for our rescue and salvation with the Blood that he shed on the Cross.

The mission of Jesus began in Galilee where he went round “teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom.”   For three years he exercised his prophetic role as the Messenger of his Heavenly Father. The signs and wonders that he performed confirmed the authenticity of his prophetic teaching

This brought Him into conflict with the Scribes and Pharisees who eventually plotted his death. As He hung upon the cross, Jesus identified Himself with the sinful of every age. He felt almost estranged from His Heavenly Father. “My God, my God, why have you deserted me?”

He begs God to forgive those who have rejected Him, “Father, forgive them they do not know what they are doing”.   The repentant thief who was dying beside Him was the first to hear the assurance of eternal life. Indeed, I promise you...today…. you will be with me in paradise”.

The priestly offering of His death in atonement for the sins of the world is summed up in the last words of Jesus, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”.

Perhaps you noticed that the mission of Jesus fell into two parts. The first part was the proclamation of the message of the Gospel: the second part was the Sacrifice of Calvary. Our liturgy follows that same pattern – the ministry of the Word followed by the celebration of the Eucharist.

The ministerial Priesthood of Jesus is perpetuated through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Just as once he called apostles to share his ministry, so also today he calls priests to bring God’s message to His people, to exercise a prophetic, teaching role; but also to make present to us the Sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary and his resurrection from the dead.

We do this at the special request of Jesus Himself. Luke records the words of Jesus in chapter twenty-two of his Gospel. “Then he took some bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it and gave it to them saying, ‘this is my body which will be given for you; do this as a memorial of me’ He did the same with the cup after supper, and said ‘this cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be poured out for you’ .  We need to ask ourselves whether the decline in Mass attendance reflects a forgetfulness of what Jesus did for us and, if so what are consequences?

Today, here in the Western, industrial and capitalist world we face a serious shortage of priests. Pray for vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life. During these weeks of Lent, meditate on the Sacrifice of Jesus. Reflect on the message of the Gospel. With humility let us all acknowledge and confess our sins and intensify our prayers for vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.