AT THE CROSSROADS 23-26

At the Crossroads 23

What is a Priestly People?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: God forms his people Israel. (63) Israel is the priestly people of God, "called by the name of the LORD", and "the first to hear the word of God", the people of "elder brethren" in the faith of Abraham.

Today, we comment on: what is a priestly people? What does “Israel is the priestly people of God” mean?

The Old Testament Priesthood functioned as mediator between God and the people, and offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. But this was possible only because God, by His own divine initiative, did choose, call, and separate people to be His priests whose seat of function was the Temple and the sanctuary of the Temple. There, the priests of Yahweh presided over the proclamation of Yahweh’s marvelous saving deeds, the offering of sacrifices and prayers and the ethical dimension of governing the people.

A Vatican article “Priesthood of the Old Covenant” says this: “During the Exodus crossing through the desert of Sinai, God build up the people of Israel as ‘a kingdom of priests and a consecrated nation" (Ex 19:6). Yet within this people, completely priestly in nature, God chose one of the twelve tribes, that of Levi, for liturgical service. Those priests were consecrated by means of unique rite (see Ex 29:1-30) and their functions, duties and rites were established in a detailed way, above all in the book of Leviticus. The members of this tribe, priestly by excellence, did not receive part in any inheritance when the people was able to settle down in the Promised Land. God Himself was the lot of their inheritance (see Jos 13:33). Having been appointed to proclaim the Word of God (see Ml 2:7-9) and to build up communion and peace with God by means of sacrifice and prayer, the priest was always a source of hope, of glory, of strength, and of liberation within the people of Israel which maintained its faith in the future Messiah.’” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says this: (1539) The chosen people was constituted by God as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." But within the people of Israel, God chose one of the twelve tribes, that of Levi, and set it apart for liturgical service; God himself is its inheritance. A special rite consecrated the beginnings of the priesthood of the Old Covenant. The priests are "appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins."

This historical privileged place of Israel in the history of salvation makes us profoundly respectful of the Jewish roots of our Christian faith today, and deeply appreciative of the Old Testament as the deposit of God’s promises that would be fulfilled in the New Testament, in Jesus and in His Church.--Fr. Ben Alforque, MSC




At the Crossroads 24

The Stages of Revelation: the Role of the Prophets

The Catechism of the Catholic Church talks of the stages of God’s revelation to humankind and of humanity’s free acceptance of God, by degrees of knowledge and intimacy.

After the experience of God by our first parents, God revealed Himself through the Covenant with Noah: God’s commitment to preserve all of creation and all of humanity as fundamentally His. This was followed by the Covenant with Abraham. With Abraham, God made it known that though peoples were diverse and conflictive, still, they come from the same root, living in the same land, and called to continue the procreation of the human race and the preservation of the integrity of creation. The great liberating act of God in the exodus of Israel from Egypt spoke of God’s forming a people, not based on ethnicity and race but fundamentally on the class category of the poor, needy, violated, and oppressed. The vocation of this liberated people, Israel, was to administer the Justice and Mercy of Yahweh, as a new way of life defined by the New Charter of Liberation: the Ten Commandments, and the legislations in the Covenant Code and the Code of Holiness. This Israel would do as a priestly people: a mediator between God and all of creation, a nation ready and willing to offer herself on behalf of all, announcer of God’s saving deeds, and a living example of holiness by her prayerful life and ethical conduct of governing the people.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church continues, thus: (64) “Through the prophets, God forms his people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation of a new and everlasting Covenant intended for all, to be written on their hearts. The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the People of God, purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the nations. Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope. Such holy women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith and Esther kept alive the hope of Israel's salvation. The purest figure among them is Mary.”

But who were the prophets through whom God chose to reveal Himself in a still more dramatic way? And what are the more profound sides of God to which humanity and all of creation are called to participate and to be in communion with?

To be a prophet, in the Old Testament tradition, means to be a spokesperson of God. Essentially, prophetism in the Old Testament was not about predicting the future, but about proclaiming the divine alternative in a human situation of evil and sin and of environmental degradation and ecological destruction. As persons, the prophets came from the ranks of the poor and arose from the cracks of society. – Fr. Ben Alforque, MSC


At the Crossroads 25

The Old Testament Prophets

Today, we continue with our commentary on the prophets of the Old Testament.
Prophets in the Old Testament appeared in the history of Israel during the period of the judges, but they played most prominently in the period of kingship in Israel, in the time of the exile and after the exile. In the period of the judges leading to the early period of the monarchy (around 1,000 BCE), bands of prophets and seers were known to have existed in Israel. They were a charismatic group engaged in divination. Later, individual prophets became distinct from one another. They were divided into two groups: the prophets of Yahweh and the false prophets who kowtowed to the existing social order and its rulers. The writing prophets of Yahweh are classified into minor and major prophets. Minor prophets wrote shorter prophetic works, like Amos and Hoseah; major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah produced larger prophetic books.

The prophets of the Old Testament were confronting social realities marked by clashes between the Yahwist ideology of justice and egalitarianism, on the one hand, and Baalism as an ideology of national oppression and class exploitation, on the other. The exile and post-exilic social realities mirrored the same social conflicts, this time involving foreign rulers. That is why the prophetic religious articulation of this national oppression and class exploitation has been the sin of idolatry and running after other gods. On the other hand, the prophetic proclamation of the divine alternative has been the call to the people and to Israelite rulers to return to the Covenant with Yahweh, and to be faithful to the terms of this covenantal relationship.

Listen to Isaiah: “What care I for the number of your sacrifices? says the LORD. I have had enough of whole-burnt rams and fat of fatlings; In the blood of calves, lambs and goats I find no pleasure…trample my courts no more.. learn to do good. Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan's plea, defend the widow” (Is 1,7-17).

Or to Amos: “I hate, I spurn your feasts, I take no pleasure in your solemnities; But if you would offer me holocausts, then let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream” (Amos 5,21.24).

The prophetic language was also full of romance and hope: “I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their bodies, and replace it with a heart of flesh, so that they will live according to my statutes, and observe and carry out my ordinances; thus they shall be my people and I will be their God” (Ezek 11,19-20). – Fr. Ben Alforque, MSC


At the Crossroads 26

People of Haiti, Here We Come!

Today, I set foot on the island of Hispaniola, the second largest islands in the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean. The community of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart welcomed my sister and me in the MSC Provincial House, in Santo Domingo.

Here I met an MSC confrere from Haiti, Fr. Joel. Ordained priest last December 2009, Fr. Joel lost his brother in the January earthquake. His father’s face is now deformed, his cranium having been hit by hard objects while he walked in the streets of Port-au-Prince during the earthquake. Fr. Joel, now a missionary in the Dominican Republic, returned home to celebrate with his family a memorial mass for his brother. His brother’s body was found 7 days after the earthquake, and, being in the state of decomposition with countless others, was summarily bulldozed and buried in a mass grave. A seminarian, Rev. Eric, is here too for his pastoral year, prior to his ordination late this year or early next year. He hails from Haiti, and he too lost his relatives in the earthquake.

Our MSC confreres here have been to Port-au-Prince several times since the earthquake. They are helping coordinate whatever response could be made to the situation of the people in Port-au-Prince, especially to our MSC parishioners and those living in tents in the grounds of the MSC Formation House.

Their information is worthwhile considering very seriously. There are about 3 million people affected by the earthquake: 2 million without homes from the city of Port-au-Prince and another 1 million who come from around the city. Now, try to imagine 2 to 3 million people living in tents in the open spaces and grounds in the city. This is a city without a cathedral or church (7 churches collapsed), a Christian community without a pastor and without a functioning governmental social services system. There are no stores or malls; no food, no water, no electricity, no means of communications. All supplies are coming from the outside world, but with a defective distribution system. Picture in your mind bodies left dead and dying in the streets or elsewhere, not because of the earthquake anymore but because of hunger! And to top it all: the coming month of May is a season of heavy rain and floods, and the months of June and July a time of strong hurricanes and storms! What will happen to these millions who are now living in tents? Is nature part of the consideration in the rescue and relief operations? And to think that Port-au-Prince continues to lie on the seismic belt of the island.

Tomorrow, February 2, my sister and I will proceed on a 6-hour bus trip to Port-au-Prince across the mountains and the long deep fault. I carry with me the spirit of solidarity of our parishioners and of our Diocese, with the leadership and support of our Bishops. That is why I say: People of Haiti, here we come! – Fr. Ben Alforque, MSC