I've recently come to admire our Orthodox brethren who have the practice of venerating not only those saints of God that have brought the Good News to the World after Christ's coming, but also those Old Testament figures who paved the way and who eagerly awaited the coming of the Savior.
While celebrating the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, my confessor reminded me about this. Since God is outside of time, those moments we see in the past are as present to Him as those moments that, God-willing, are to come. This gives us a glimpse of God's power, as well as His love.
The first high priest of the Jewish people is my namesake. Aaron, derived from ancient Egyptian and Hebrew meaning "heavenly paradise", "high mountain" or "the enlightened" (thank you Wikipedia), was a man who made mistakes, who was utterly human, and yet called by God to be spiritual leader of His people.
How fitting, then, for a man who's name is the same and who is on the path to become a priest, to have a devotion to this saint. He is the archetype not only for the priesthood today, but he also foreshadowed the man who became the foster-father of Christ, St. Joseph. They both were men, sinful men, who were called to cherish God in a specific way, guiding and nurturing, and remaining faithful despite their sinfulness.
And so today, I renew my efforts to be like this saint of old, and my patron. May he continue to pray for his brothers and sisters here on earth.
St. Aaron, prophet and high priest, pray for us!
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