(Please read the passage cited above first.)
My sisters and brothers,
Jesus, the Son of God, is our high priest. He has entered heaven, not to distance himself from us but to intercede for us.
You who have come here from Spanish-speaking countries know this. It is the same celebration of Mass here as it is there. Only the language is different.
Together with all of us, you and me, Jesus Christ our high priest celebrates Mass here today. All of us baptized people with our high priest celebrate the Mass. All the baptized share in the priesthood of our high priest. You share the priesthood of Christ through your baptism; I likewise share in the same priesthood through baptism, and also through ordination. On the other hand, there is only one priesthood of Christ, shared with all of us in Christ. All of us celebrate the Mass; not only I the ordained priest, but you and I who are priests because of our baptism, we celebrate together the Mass.
You are important, and equal to me because we are joined to Christ, our high priest in the action of the Mass. Next July, when we have one pastor with three other priests for eleven parishes, Jesus Christ, our high priest, will celebrate the Mass with you and the priests wherever we celebrate Mass.
We have to be faithful to Christ in these times of difficulty because we are priests through baptism into Christ our high priest. We do need to have more ordained priests, but more importantly we need to have all of us who have been baptized onto Christ our high priest remaining faithful to the calling God has given us.
This mystery of our high priest is the same mystery as the synodal Church that Pope Francis has begun this week. He is calling each of us to action for the benefit of the whole Church.
Our high priest, Jesus, has entered the heavens, not to distance himself from us but to intercede for us and likewise to be with in his Church and sacraments. Jesus joins us and is joined to us through the baptism that he and we have received. Jesus is always with us and always present in the Church where we celebrate Mass with him.
Jesus, our high priest, has entered the heavens, not to distance himself from us but to intercede for us and to be with us who are with him, his priestly people.