Christ, the Priest, and Death to Sin | Blessed Columba Marmion | An excerpt from Christ, The Ideal of the Priest
For the priest, as for every Christian, the Gospel has established clearly the two fundamental conditions for salvation: an act of faith and the reception of baptism: qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit salvus erit (Mk 16:16).
Having discussed faith, I shall now speak to you of the life of grace which we
receive in baptism. This grace is like a seed which needs to grow, and which
every Christian must develop constantly during his whole life.Here is how St. Paul describes the secret, supernatural force of baptism: "For we are buried together with Him, by baptism unto death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4). These words give us a comprehensive view of the essential elements of our sanctification and the direction we must give to our efforts towards virtue.
God's ways and views are not ours. He has said it Himself "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways ... as the heavens are exalted above the earth., so are My ways exalted above your ways" (Is 55:8-9). In order to sanctify the world, He has chosen what St. Paul calls the "folly of the cross": stultitia crucis (1 Cor 1:18). Which of us would ever have imagined that for the salvation of men, it would be necessary for God to deliver up His only Son to the opprobrium of Calvary and the death of the Cross? And yet, that which seemed folly to the eyes of men is the plan ordained by the divine wisdom: "But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen that He may confound the wise" (1 Cor 1:27).
The world has been renewed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and every Christian, in order to achieve his own salvation and sanctification, must be in spiritual communion with the mystery of this death and this life restored. The whole essence of perfection for the follower of the Gospel and for the priest lies in participation in this double mystery.
The soul can only be united to God in proportion to its likeness to Him. In order that God may draw it to Himself and elevate it, He must be able in some way to identify Himself with it; that is why, from the beginning, He had created it to His own image and likeness.
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