THE COMPASSIONATE HIGH PRIEST
(Part I)
Different
peoples and different tribes have their own ways of describing Jesus, the
Compassionate One. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews had already called
him the Compassionate High Priest who knows our weaknesses and sympathizes with
us. Now that’s a very attractive start. I could have begun by expounding high
theology about Christ the Great High Priest who is the prime analogue of the
priesthood and we priests secondary analogues of the priesthood by our
ordination, and lay people who also participate in the priesthood in a general
way by their Baptism. And I wouldn’t be wrong. But we’ll keep that for later.
For the moment we’ll keep to the grass roots.
The American Indians labelled Jesus
as “The Little Buffalo Calf of God” because he nourished and sustained their
bodies. An African tribe describes him as “the Serpent that moves through the
forest without fear.” In the Andes in South America the people like to picture
him as a weeping child removing a thorn from the sole of his foot. His tears
help them better to understand how he shares their human condition. The thorn
in the foot reminds them of his passion and suffering for their salvation. This
is the Christ whom they feel very comfortable with. He is one of their own,
easily recognizable and belongs. Hopefully, he will become one of our own, too.
“…for us who must sometimes wonder
and worry, for us who feel dread in the face of final suffering, death and the
possibility of annihilation, then belief in a full human Jesus who, like us,
trembles with fear, who is uncertain of the outcome, who experiences an
agonizing sense of failure – this is one who is completely on our side, who
completely takes the part of humanity. And that is the Jesus whom the Gospels
present – one who was not spared anything that is our lot in this world, and
whose final destiny transforms the destiny of all creation” (Donald Spoto, The
Hidden Jesus, pg. 72)
This conveys better the picture of
Jesus, the compassionate High Priest. On his way to Jerusalem one day, Jesus
and his disciples tried to take a short cut through a Samaritan village. The
Samaritans just wouldn’t allow them, simply because they were making for
Jerusalem. The disciples went berserk and requested Jesus to call down fire on
the inhospitable Samaritans. Jesus moderated their harshness, and to drive the
point home he delivered the parable of the Good Samaritan in the very next
chapter of the Gospel. The passage about the Samaritans’ unfriendliness is
taken from chapter IX of Luke’s gospel.
And in the very next chapter, there is the parable of the traveller set
upon by thugs, and Jesus makes out the rescuer to be a Samaritan, humanly
speaking the very last choice after the way Jesus was treated. Here was another
example of the large heartedness of Jesus; and, I am sure, were there
Samaritans among his hearers, they would have warmed to him. When we accept
those who are relatively unattractive, we’ve gone halfway to enabling them
share our faith.
I sometimes wonder if the disciples remembered
to be grateful to Jesus for being accepted themselves as they were; rough hewn,
undeveloped, leaving much to be desired. That is something all priests and
teachers should remember. I daresay Jesus had quite a job with the twelve who
not only had very raw ideas of the Kingdom but also wanted everyone to march
into it in double quick time. Something like that used to happen in the dark
days of the Church’s history when Jews were dragged into churches, ropes tied
round their necks, and made to listen to the sermons about the way to
salvation. And once a year in Rome the Jews men, women and children had to run
down the main street in Rome called the “Corso”, with the Christians showering
them with sticks and stones and abuses. We have come a long way since then. I
believe we appreciate our beloved High Priest’s compassion more than ever before.
We priests and
lay people just want to be like him!
(to be concluded)
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