Rev. Robert Ketcham 

It seems to me that he mentions him often; I think he speaks of him in his interview with Peter Sewald, and I know that he refers to him in his autobiography, Milestones.  In his letter proclaiming the Year of the Priest, the Holy Father ascribes to his first pastor, Father Blumschein, the honorable memory of having left him “an example of unreserved devotion to his pastoral duties, even to meeting death in the act of bringing viaticum to a gravely ill person”.   

It is a strong image.  It is meant for all of us and rightly comes from the ministerial priesthood, which is for all of us.  And, obviously, our Holy Father knows that it is an image that speaks to all of us.  I think there are two reasons why: [1] you and I all know people who are gravely ill, and [2] you and I are all called to die for them, just like Father Blumschein.  

It is a great deal easier to agree with the first reason than with the second.  One is obvious, and the other not so.  Both are true, but the second requires an appreciation of what it means for the Christian to die.  We turn then to Christ and to his priesthood, in which we all share, and in which we find the beauty of a life born of dying that gains for our prayers a divine audience. 

Christ is not a priest of the old covenant, offering a sacrifice distinct from himself in the stead of his people; he is the High Priest of the new and everlasting covenant, wherein the priest is the sacrifice.  The priests of old may have rightly offered a lamb in expiation for the sins of the people, but the sacrifice that Jesus offers to the Father for us is his very own body and blood.  He, himself, is both the priest and the lamb slain.

As Christians, you and I have been baptized into this priesthood, which means that we are called to follow Christ above and beyond the old covenant experience of sacrifice, and to make of our very selves an offering to God. 

burnt offering from me you would refuse;
my sacrifice, a contrite spirit;
a humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.
- Psalm 51: 18,19

Every day, then, is full of opportunities for you and for me to die for those who have asked our prayers, as well as those who haven’t, and to make of our selves a sacrificial offering in their stead, as Christ offers himself in ours.   

Consider how Christ came into the world for three reasons: to be, to suffer, and to do.  Then, consider how you and I are called to pray, to fast, and to visit the sick.  Are these not our participation in Christ’s being, suffering, and doing?  See how each one demands that we give of our selves for others, even as he gives of himself for us.  Baptized into his priesthood of sacrifice, we offer our selves in sacrifice when we pray, when we fast, and when we visit the sick.   

If the world condemns our prayers for being empty words, we rejoice knowing that we have sacrificed our heart and mind by lifting them to God.  If they arraign our fasting for being a reverberation of medieval superstition, we rejoice knowing that we have sacrificed our appetite by subjugating it to our will.  And if they pervert our visitation to be mere sentiment, we rejoice knowing that we have sacrificed our time and energy.

And should the world purport that when we pray or fast or do good deeds we feebly offer some thing in expiation for others, as if to purchase their souls with gold or silver, we reply to this impish equivocation with the brilliant and courageous fullness of the Christian mystery: We are well aware that we have neither gold nor silver, but what we do have we give them; we give them Jesus (cf: Acts 3:6). 

This is the priesthood of the faithful; it is the priesthood of Christ.  It is the contradiction of the cross and the paradox of his own life giving immolation, and it fathers the great Christian mystery: from death comes life.  This is the priesthood for which the ministerial priesthood has been instituted, the latter serving the former as a father his children, willing to give everything for them, even to die for them.

And should a man die in the act of bringing prayer, indeed the Most Blessed Sacrament, to the bedside of a man himself so close to death, he will be honored as long as the Church has breath.  He will be remembered and revered, a model for us all of how our dying brings life.   

- in Jesus and Mary

Father Robert