Thursday- 1st week - Ordinary Time After Christmas : Priestly Office : Eli
Through Baptism, all the faithful are incorporated into Christ and share in his three-fold mission: priestly, prophetic, and kingly. The inner person is the sanctuary, and the outer person is the outer court. The brain is the veil that separates both.
The prophetic mission is the communication faculty between God and the conscience. This is called the inner person—a combination of the soul and heart, working on reflections, imagination, and conscience.
Conscience is the part of heart where morals begin. and moral is the will of God.
The priorities of the inner person are to enter the presence of the Lord when God calls. For this purpose, one should always be vigilant. This mission operates more in a spiritual realm, requiring one to know the will of God and communicate it to the kingly office and ensure it is implemented.
The priorities of the outer person that is priestly mission are to actively be involved in the interests of society, family, and one's own personal interests. The attitude should be one of pastoral care for the physical realm.
The function of the kingly mission is to comprehend information—specifically, God's will revealed through the prophetic mission and human needs identified by the priestly mission—and then to make wise decisions for action. These actions result in either a blessing or a curse.
Priorities of the inner person should not overpower the priorities of the outer person. This can cause misuse of the priestly mission a Catholic receives in baptism. One reason for the failure of Catholics: Misuse of priestly power for worldly priorities .
1 Samuel 4: 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the LORD of hosts into the camp.9. Take courage and act like soldiers, Philistines; otherwise you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they were your slaves. Fight like soldiers!” 10. The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated; everyone fled to their own tents. It was a disastrous defeat; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, were dead.
Mistakes of Eli(priest) and his sons were the underlying reason God allowed the Philistines to defeat Israel and capture the Ark from Shiloh, as the people treated the Ark superstitiously, not God, due to the corruption of Eli's sons who abused their priestly duties and led Israel astray, showing a failure to honor God's holiness. Their bringing the Ark into battle wasn't seeking God's will but relying on a religious object, leading to disaster, death for the sons, and Eli's own demise, signifying God's departure from Israel.
Eli's failure as priest and father was his severe inability to restrain his wicked sons, from dishonoring God and abusing their priestly office, showing favoritism over divine law, which led to divine judgment, the loss of the Ark of the Covenant, and the end of his priestly line.
Eli failed as priest and father by ignoring his sons' sins, prioritizing family peace, honoring his sons over God, and demonstrating spiritual negligence and blindness.