The relationship of the priest to the faithful.

“Let everyone consider us in this way as Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries.”

(1 Cor 4:1)

In the catacombs, various pictures were found painted on the walls, primarily representing Christ the Lord in all forms. They also painted Him in the form of Orpheus. We know from history that Orpheus was a famous poet in ancient times who is said to have tamed even wild animals with his music and singing, just as Jesus drew the worst criminal to himself and turned him to God. Another rumor has been preserved about this Orpheus. She says that Orpheus’ wife was bitten by a snake, resulting in her death. Orpheus could not recover from this loss – he wandered the mountains-valleys out of grief and sang mournful songs. Until he finally decides that he will go down to the underworld to Hades, i.e., to the land of the God of the dead; there, he will look for his wife, and no matter what it costs him, he will bring her back to the surface among humans. After untold hardships full of terrible dangers, he reached the underworld region. Here, he found his wife among the dead, and with the strange magic of his singing, he so moved Hades, the ruler of the underworld, that he released his wife Eurydice, with whom he returned to the surface of the earth among men with great joy.

Therefore, they depict Christ the Lord in the form of Orpheus because even the most blessed creation of the mighty Lord God, namely man, was bitten by a snake in which the devil hid. This poisonous bite extinguished the life of his soul and deprived him of eternal life. Jesus took pity on the man and decided to free his soul from the underground Hell. He descended from Heaven: by untold labors and terrible torments, He redeemed the soul of man from Hell. When He finished His great work, He returned to Heaven, but in His stead, He placed His apostles, priests, here on earth to continue His divine work, the salvation of men. Jesus Christ continues to live and work in his priesthood:

Christ teaches through the mouth of the priest; Christ offers the sacrifice through the hands of the priest, and Christ distributes the blessing through the priest’s actions. What Christ did when he walked the earth is what the Catholic priest also does. That is why St. Apostle Paul: “So we are Christ’s ambassadors and as if God exhorts through us” (2 Cor 5:20). “Let everyone consider us to be Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries” (1 Cor 4:1). The relationship between the priest and the faithful is so close and inseparable that if this relationship were to break up, the Catholic faith and the Church of Christ would also break up and cease. This will be discussed. Listen up!

Once, a stout deer was resting in the grass, dozing, when suddenly a shot from a machine gun rang out. The deer jumped up, looked around, and, seeing no one, lay down in the grass again. Before long, the rifle fired again. Startled, the deer jumped to its feet and turned its eyes curiously in all directions, but even now, it did not see a person, so it lay down in the grass again. No sooner had he laid down than the rifle rattled a third time, and the deer was gone. – This example moved one of the young men so profoundly that he decided not to go to the party. That’s what the sermon sounded like to me, he told his comrade, because last year, right around this time, I fell off my horse and almost broke my neck. Now, in the winter, I have barely recovered from pneumonia. That was the second shot. I’m afraid the third shot will catch me at this party. I’m not going there; I’d instead go to St. Confession. His fellow began to mock him for being a superstitious coward when frightened by the priest’s silly fable. The young man was ashamed and went with the other species for fun. Wine, music, and singing quickly diverted his mind from the sermon. They chatted merrily and sipped delicious wine. When he raised the glass to his mouth, he was caught by a violent cough, and in the effort, a vein burst in his lungs, and he exclaimed: I said that the third shot would see me here, and that was it.

Whoever has ears to hear, listen! He never went unpunished and rejected the words of the priest preacher. Christ the Lord said a long time ago: “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever despises you despises me.” (Luke 10:16)

2. Now, he fixes his gaze on the altar from the pulpit. The priest St. mass. How is the Most Holy Sacrament altar formed? So the priest, before the lifting, recites the words that Christ the Lord said at the Last Supper: “This is my body. This is my blood.” The transfiguration would not have happened even if an angel had spoken these words. However, I, the smallest of Christ’s disciples, will take bread in my hands and say Christ’s words over it, and the transformation will happen. In this strange power lies the dignity of the ordained priest. I prove that the priest renews Christ’s sacrifice of the cross with the Holy Mass and makes the faithful partakers of the graces of the sacrifice of the cross. That is why the priest is called the vicar of Christ.

Terrible blindness and unforgivable indifference have gripped people living now:

• They do not notice Christ, the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross.

• They do not want to participate in the graces of redemption because they despise St. Mass.

• They do not participate in it.

Poor blind people! How much happiness, blessings, and graces you will get rid of! Be careful not to take this grace of God in vain; God may take it away from you. In France, they are already in such a state that five or six villages have one old priest because young priests were called up for military service, many priests died in the war, and now they suffer from such a terrible shortage of priests that they have to take the dying believers to the sixth village. to find a priest who would provide him with the sacraments for the journey to eternity, and it most often happens that the sick person dies without the sacraments on the way.

Such abandoned believers will gather in the Church on Sunday, where instead of St., they pray the mass themselves; instead of the sermon, they read the instruction from some book, and while they perform the Sunday service like this without a priest, they go to bathe themselves in tears, they mourn the previous St. masses, sermons. Previously, they did not respect St. Mass; now, they must be without them for punishment. People living in our times treat a priest like a sick person treats health: they mourn him when they no longer have him. Even the faithful will recognize what a priest is worth when he is no longer among them. So that you, too, do not behave like that, appreciate the priest’s work, listen eagerly to the word of God, and devoutly participate in St. masses. Pray for the spiritual shepherds so that they work more successfully to save souls.

Especially in country days, ask the supreme shepherd, Jesus Christ, to pour into the hearts of as many young people as possible the vocation to the priesthood because, unfortunately, the current family upbringing fills young people with horror towards the priesthood when they experience that everyone scorns, rejects and hates the priest. Well, nothing for that! Nevertheless, even to the death bed of that slanderer, that enemy, the rejected priest approaches, presents to his sinking eyes the five wounds of the suffering God, shows him the stream of mercy that washes his soul white, and hears the priest’s words: “Brother, accept, holy food for the journey to eternity, may he protect you from the evil enemy and lead you to eternal life.”

Christ lives in priests; we are His soldiers, and our banner is the cross of Christ. I take up this banner and follow my divine master. I am going to the holy battlefield to win souls to Christ. God’s word is my sword, the helper of St. mass, food is prayer, and watchword is love. If you ask to be saved as I want to save you, none of you will be damned. When the eternal Judge comes to judgment, then together, in one place, the shepherd and his flock will be. We will confidently come before the Lord Jesus to receive the imperishable crown of eternal life from Him.