2025/10/13

217. Reconciliation

As we discussed in the previous issue, the words that the priest says to the heavenly Father on the altar, "so that it may become for us the Body and Blood of your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ," cause the same phenomenon as what happened to Mary, the mother of Jesus. At that moment, the Holy Spirit descends on the priest, and the power of the Most High overshadows him. So, the child to be born, the Eucharist, "will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk 1:35). The words Mary received from the angel were testified to by the Apostle Peter, who called Jesus "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:16) and "the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:69). In imitation of this, priests and believers today are to witness to these words of Peter continually to the Eucharist. 

But when Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” why did Jesus noted that the Father's will was in those words, saying, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17)? This question takes us back to the Genesis account, "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man" (Gen 3:8-9). God may have called Adam to give him a mission. But they had already disobeyed God's will at that time. God did not know this because the Lord God, who had "created man in his own image" (1:27), did not dare to know how the will of man, whom He had "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (2:7), making him His likeness, would work. 

So, God must have been very disappointed when Adam replied, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate" (Gen 3:12). For not only had he disobeyed God, but he had also attributed the cause of his disobedience to God. Adam was literally not created by God as a male in particular. What God created was "man," before there was a man or a woman, and then a "woman." And it is the "woman" with her womb who will carry on God's work of creating man (man and woman). As for the male, God had a plan for what was to come. God must have wanted to be reconciled with the "man." 

God encouraged Adam by saying, "In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). We can now see that these words were an allusion to the fact that one day Adam would work with the sweat of his face to obtain the "bread of life," die and return to the ground, and be resurrected with a body of dust into which God had breathed the "breath of life." God's plan, which He had tried to announce to Adam when He called him in the Garden, was to give him the priesthood and to celebrate with the people the day which God had blessed and hallowed (cf. 2:3). This plan was fulfilled by Jesus Christ in the priesthood of the New Covenant. This priesthood is a mission to life, like that of a woman carrying an unborn child. That is the mission regarding the Eucharist. 

What takes the initiative in the placentation process in the pregnant woman's womb is the fertilized ovum, or foetus, while the maternal body is passively involved. Therefore, it is the foetus, not the mother, who is the main placental maker. Half of the genes in the foetus and placenta are of paternal origin and are therefore "foreign" to the maternal body. Nevertheless, the mother does not reject the foetus. This reminds us that many of the disciples who rejected Jesus' words about the “bread of life” left and no longer walked with him, but the Apostles remained with him (cf. Jn 6:66-69). 

Placenta formation is said to be based on a close dialogue between the maternal and foetal sides. The foetus re-educates the mother's immunity, so to speak, and the mother permits and controls the foetus's invasion. The mechanism by which the uterus accepts the placenta is so precise that it is a "miracle of reconciliation between mother and foetus," a placentation process unique to the human species. This delicate balance of negotiations is the essence of the phenomenon of pregnancy, and the reconciliation that takes place here is not just a static peace, but the maintenance of a dynamic balance. This is what Jesus meant when he said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (Jn 14:27). This reconciliation must also be happening to the priest on whom the Holy Spirit descends at the altar. 

The womb is not just an "organ." It supports the establishment of human life. It has an extremely profound meaning that affects the development, immunity, brain, and sociality of the human species. Women bear a burden, unique to the human species, unparalleled in other creatures, in their placentation process. It is the same with the priesthood of the New Covenant. Bearing the role of being filled with the Holy Spirit and giving birth to the Eucharist, priests who live like Mary, the mother of Jesus, will achieve the "reconciliation" that the history of God and man has so strongly demanded. Peter's answer was in accordance with the Father's will when he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God". Jesus went on to say as follows. 

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16:18-19). 

Maria K. M.