The Eternal Priesthood

Front matter

THE

ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD.

BY

I. The Nature of Priesthood

THE ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD.

CHAPTER I.

THE NATURE OF PRIESTHOOD.

"Forasmuch as no act can be more excellent than the consecration of the Body of Christ, there can be no order after (i.e. higher than) the priesthood." "No act is greater than the consecration of the Body of Christ." "The Bishop and the priest are equal in respect to the consecration of the Holy Eucharist." S. John Chrysostom founds the sanctity of the priesthood, which, in Bishop and priest, is all one, upon the twofold jurisdiction over the natural and the mystical Body of Christ—that is, upon the power of consecration and upon the power of absolution.

It is of divine faith that our Lord ordained the Apostles to be priests when by the words hoc facite in meam commemorationem. He thereby conferred on them the power of sacrifice. It is also of divine faith that when, three days later, He breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He gave them the power of absolution. In these two powers the priesthood was complete. The pastoral authority and the world-wide commission of the Apostles were not yet given. They had received the twofold jurisdiction over His natural body and over the mystical body, together with the power of bestowing the same by ordination upon others, for their priesthood was the "sacerdotium Christi ad Ecclesiam regendam a Spiritu Sancto positum."

In conferring the same afterwards, they bestowed this sacerdotal office upon some in all its fulness—that is, with the power of bestowing it upon others; and on some, with the limitation that the priest ordained could not confer upon others the sacerdotal jurisdiction which he had received. Excepting this alone, the priesthood in the Bishop and the priesthood in the priest are one and the same, and yet the Episcopate, by the divine power of ordination, is greater than the priesthood. But this difference is divine and incommunicable. S. Jerome says; Quid enim facit, excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod presbyter non faciat.

It is of faith that the Episcopate is the state of perfection instituted by Jesus Christ. It is certain also that the priesthood is included in that state. Whatsoever is true of the priesthood in itself is true both of Bishop and of priest. And in this we see why at first the names were for a while common and interchanged. The injunctions of Christian perfection given by S. Paul to Timothy and to Titus were given to Bishop and to presbyter or priest alike. And the whole book of S. John Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio, expressly applies equally to both.

S. Thomas says that priests partake of the priesthood of our Divine Lord, and that they are configured or conformed to Him. Let us therefore weigh the words priesthood, participation, and configuration, as here used.

1. What, then, is the priesthood of the Incarnate Son? It is the office He assumed for the redemp- tion of the world by the oblation of Himself is the vestment of our manhood. He is Altar, Victim, and Priest, by an eternal consecration of Himself. This is the priesthood for ever after the order of Melchisedech, who was "without beginning of days or end of life"—a type of the eternal priesthood of the Son of God, the only King of Peace.

2. By participation, S. Thomas means that the priesthood of Jesus Christ being the one, only, perpetual, and universal priesthood, all priests consecrated under the New Law are made one with Him, and share in His own priesthood. There are not two priesthoods, as there are not two sacrifices for sin. But one sacrifice has for ever redeemed the world, and is offered continually in heaven and on earth: in heaven by the only Priest, before the Eternal Altar; on earth by the multitude and succession of priests who are one with Him as partakers of His priesthood; not as representatives only, but in reality; as also the sacrifice they offer is not a representation only, but His true, real, and substantial Body and Blood offered by their hands.

This is the argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The priesthood of the Old Law was a shadow; the priesthood of the New Law is the substance. It is fulfilled in the one Priest and the one Sacrifice which are perpetuated by the priesthood, on earth united with Him.

But this participation has another and more personal meaning. The oblation of our Lord for us binds us to offer ourselves wholly to Him. Christus … victima sacerdotii sui, et sacerdos suæ victimæ fuit. … Ipsi sunt hostiæ sacerdotes. S. Ambrose, speaking of the sacrifice of Abel, says: Hoc est sacrificium primitivum, quando unus quisque se offert hostiam, et a se incipit ut postea munus suum possit offerre. Priests offer the true Lamb and "the Blood which speaketh better things than that of Abel." Every priest, morning by morning, offers to the Father the eternal oblation of Jesus Christ; but in that action he ought to offer also himself. When he says, Hoc est corpus meum, he ought to offer his own body; when he says, Hic est calix sanguinis mei, he ought to offer his own blood; that is, he ought to offer himself as an oblation to his Divine Master, in body, soul, and spirit, with all his faculties, powers, and affections, in life and unto death. S. Paul writes to the Philippians, "If I be made a victim upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and congratulate with you all." This it may be he also said of the martyrdom which was before him; but it was spoken out of the consciousness that he had long and daily offered himself to his Divine Master, as a partaker of His sufferings for the sake of the elect. The same words might have been written by S. John, who always had a martyr's will, though he died in the way of nature; the same, too, is implied in every Mass, by every priest who offers himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. The participation of the priest in the priesthood of Christ requires also a share in the law of self-oblation, of which the prophet writes: Oblatus est quia ipse voluit; and S. Paul, who says of our Lord that He, "by the Holy Ghost, offered Himself unspotted unto God." And, as S. John says, "in this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." The offering of the Body and Blood of Christ requires of the priest a spirit of self-sacrifice and of self-oblation without reserve. The obligation of charity, which binds all Christians, when the need may arise, to lay down their lives for the brethren, and pastors to give their life for the sheep, is in an especial way laid upon every priest in the self-oblation of the Holy Mass, which is the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

3. Lastly, the word configuration expresses the conformity of the priest to the great High Priest. S. Paul says that the Son is figura substantiæ ejus—that is, the figure or express image of the substance of the Father. The Greek text reads, χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ· the character of His substance. The priest, then, is the figura Christi, the express image of Christ, the χαρακτὴρ or character of Christ, because upon him is impressed the image of His priesthood, and a share in it is given to him. He is, as S. Paul says, configuratus morti ejus—configured to His death. In every Mass we set forth "the death of the Lord until He come." And we make oblation of ourselves in conformity to His oblation to the Father. Albertus Magnus and S. Thomas have said truly that no greater power or dignity, than the power and dignity of consecrating the Body of Christ, was ever bestowed on man; and no greater sanctity or perfection can be conceived than the sanctity and perfection required for so divine an action in the priest.

S. Thomas tells us that ordination impresses a character, and that the character is a spiritual and indelible sign or seal, by which the soul is marked for the exercise of the acts of divine worship, and for the teaching of the same to others. The priesthood of Christ is the source of all divine worship. All the faithful are conformed to Christ by the character impressed upon them in Baptism and Confirmation: and priests also in Ordination. But in Christ Himself there was no character, because He is the examplar and type of all characters; for Christ is the Character or Figure of the Father, and all divine perfection is in Him, of which the character in us is a partial conformity. The character we receive is impressed, not on the essence, but on the powers of the soul—that is, on the intellectual or the affective powers—and is either passive or active. The character of Baptism is a passive power for the reception of all other Sacraments, and for conformity as sons to the Son of God. The character of Confirmation is an active power for the public witness of the faith, and for the life of action and of patience as good soldiers of Christ. The character of Ordination is an active power for the exercise and ministry of divine worship. The sacerdotal character, therefore, is a participation of the Priesthood of Christ and the closest configuration to Him in His office of mediator. Finally, this character is the cause and source of sacramental grace, proper to each of the three Sacraments which impress it, and commensurate to their ends and obligations.

The word "character" means the precise outline of an engraving, as on a seal, and the impression of it signifies that a mark or reproduction of the same outline, as by a signet, is left upon the soul. This is clearly a metaphor, as also is the sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand before the four winds shall blow upon the earth. S. Thomas, in saying that the character is impressed, not on the essence of the soul, but upon its powers, means on the intellect by way of light, and on the affections by way of love.

It signifies therefore a work of the Holy Ghost the Illuminator and Sanctifier upon the soul. But it signifies not only the universal and uniform work of the Holy Ghost, as in Baptism and Confirmation; but a special and singular work wrought upon the Soul of those only who by Ordination share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. The three Sacraments which impress a character create and constitute each severally a special relation of the soul to God: Baptism that of sons, Confirmation that of soldiers, Orders that of priests; and these three spiritual relations once constituted are eternal, and therefore indelible. Whether in the light of glory or in the outer darkness, we shall be sons, soldiers, and priests, accepted or cast out eternally. And to these three relations a special and commensurate grace of the Holy Ghost is attached. Therefore, S. Thomas says that the character is the formal cause or source of sacramental grace. The character of son has in it all grace needed for the life of a son of God; the character of confirmation all grace needed for the warfare of the soldiers of Jesus Christ, even to confessorship and martyrdom; the character of priesthood has in it all graces of light, strength and sanctity needed for the sacerdotal life in all its manifold duties, trials and dangers. It was of this S. Paul reminded S. Timothy when he said, "Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with imposition of the hands of the priesthood."

Such is the priesthood of the Son of God, the consecration and oblation of Himself: and such is its communication to His priests by participation in His office, by configuration to Himself, and by the impression of the sacerdotal character upon the powers of the soul.

II. The Powers of the Priesthood

CHAPTER II.

THE POWERS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.

S. John Chrysostom sums up the powers of a priest in these two; namely, the consecration of the Sacrament of the Altar, and the absolution of sin, or, as we say in theological terms, in the jurisdiction over the natural and over the mystical Body of Christ. The word jurisdiction has here a special significance. It means usually the authority by which a priest rules the flock committed to him with the judicial power of binding and loosing the bond of sin. How, then, can there be jurisdiction over the Blessed Sacrament? Jurisdiction signifies the whole sacerdotal authority given in ordination, but its exercise is suspended until the priest shall have received license to use the powers of his priesthood. This jurisdiction comes to him from his Bishop, and to his Bishop from the Vicar of Jesus Christ, in whom alone resides the plenitude of jurisdiction over the universal Church. The first and highest act of that jurisdiction is to consecrate and to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. Hence arises the expression of jurisdiction in corpus verum, which words, nevertheless, have also many deep meanings.

1. First, they set before us the humility of our Divine Master. The Incarnation was a descent which had many degrees. He emptied Himself by veiling His glory; He took the form of a servant; He was made man; He humbled Himself; and that to death; and to die in ignominy. Here are six degrees of humiliation. And as if these were not enough, He perpetuates His humility in the Blessed Sacrament, and places Himself in the hands of His creatures, and is bid, morning by morning, by their word to be present upon the altar; and is by them lifted up, and carried to and fro, and, in the end, He is received by the worthy and by the unworthy. In this divine manner He subjects Himself to the jurisdiction of His priests now, as in the days of His earthly life He was subject to the law, and to those who bore authority, even to Caiaphas and to Pilate. Humility is the root of all obedience; and patience is obedience made perfect. The oblation of Himself is obedience continued for ever as the law and motive of His priests.

2. Next, this power of jurisdiction implies the divine stewardship which is intrusted to the priest. The Church applies to S. Joseph, the foster-father of the Divine Infant, the words of the Holy Ghost: "He that keepeth the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof, and he that is the keeper of his master shall be glorified." The guardianship of the Blessed Sacrament is in the priest. The key of the tabernacle is committed to his trust. It may be said of him, as of his Master, that "he openeth and no man shutteth, he shutteth and no man openeth." The priest is, in the truest sense of the word, the guardian of his Lord; and no greater glory can be laid upon him; no relation more intimate, close, and ceaseless can be conceived.

And this stewardship is also a power to dispense and to distribute the bread of life. The disciples gave it to the five thousand in the wilderness. "They were ministers of Christ, and dispensers of the mysteries of God." And in this they were shadows of the divine reality of Holy Communion, of which we are stewards.

3. Thirdly, this jurisdiction shows the divine power inherent in the priesthood. The words we speak are not ours, but His; not human, but divine. "This is My Body" has no equal, except "Let the light be." These words created the light. The other words do not create; but they constitute, or bring upon the altar, the presence of the Incarnate Word. They elevate the bread and the wine from the natural to the supernatural order. This is a power, not creative, but of omnipotence. The bread and the wine are no longer subject to the conditions or laws of nature as to their substance, but only as to their sensible phenomena. A divine change passes upon them: and yet not a natural change; for they pass away as to their substance, and yet abide as to their sensible effects. There is no such change in the order of nature; for there the whole natural substance and accidents either abide, or go together. Here the phenomena or sensible species and effects abide, as if they were in the natural order. The substance passes away in the supernatural order of the new creation. The words, "Let the light be," had their effect in the first creation of nature. The words, "This is My Body," have their effect on the first creation and in the second; in both the old creation and the new. They stand next in order to the words, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that Holy (One) which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." For this cause the action of consecration and the action of the Incarnation are related to each other. Next to the Incarnation there is no action so transcendent, so purely divine, as the consecration and the Holy Sacrifice. It is the continuity of the Incarnation and Oblation of the Incarnate Son. The voice that speaks the words is human: the words and the effects are of the almighty power of God.

4. Fourthly, this jurisdiction expresses the intimate closeness of the relation between the priest and the Son of God. It would seem that, after the participation of His priesthood, the impression of His character, and the configuration of the priest to his Divine Master, there is no relation left to be conceived. And yet there are two still to be spoken of. First, there is the continual daily fellowship of the disciple with his Master, and the servant with his Lord. He is servant, friend, companion. As Peter, James, and John were of all the disciples nearest to our Saviour upon earth, so are His priests among the faithful now. All the day long they are near to Him; all their life is related to Him. From Him they go out in the morning, and to Him they return at night.

Next, there is the relation of a true, substantial, and living contact in the Holy Mass as real as when S. John lay on His bosom at supper, or as when He washed S. Peter's feet. When we hold the Blessed Sacrament in our hands we are in contact with God, with God Incarnate, with the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. More real than the earth under our feet, which will pass away, is the presence of the Incarnate Word, which will never pass away. We are in contact with His substance. "He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." But we are also united to the substance of His Body; and we are members of it by a real and substantial participation. S. Paul says that we are "members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bone," and he bids us to "bear God in our body." This contact and union is eternal life. If, as we hold the Blessed Sacrament in our hands, our eyes were opened like the eyes of Cleophas at Emmaus, we should know that beyond this sacramental and substantial contact there is nothing more intimate, except union with Him in the light of glory.

Such, then, are the reasons which have illuminated the teachers of the Church to know that there can be conceived no office higher, and no power greater, than the office and power of a priest. In the order of divine actions it places the priest, in respect to the power of consecration, next to the Blessed Virgin, the living tabernacle of the Incarnate Word; and, in respect to the guardianship of the Blessed Sacrament, next to S. Joseph, the foster-father and guardian of the Son of God. What more can be bestowed upon the priest? What obligation to perfection can exceed the obligation of such a power, of such an office, and of such a living contact with the Word made flesh? S. John Chrysostom says the hand that consecrates ought to be purer than the solar light; and if the hand of the priest, what should be his eyes which gaze upon the Divine Presence, veiled but hardly hidden, and the lips which say, "This is My Body," and the ears that hear our own familiar voice uttering these words of the new creation of God? But if such should be the sanctity of the body, what should be the purity of the soul of the priest: in his intellect, with all its powers, faculties, memory, imagination; in his heart, with all its affections and desires; in his conscience, with all its discernment and sovereign commands; and in his will, with all its inflexible resolves and steadfast reign over his whole outward and inward life?

Surely, then, the priesthood is by its own nature, requirements, and obligations an essential rule, and the highest state of perfection divinely instituted by our Lord Himself.

But this is not all. The priest has also jurisdiction over the mystical Body of Christ—that is, over the souls of those who are born again of water and the Holy Ghost. S. Paul says, "We are the good odour of Christ unto God in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one, indeed, the odour of death unto death; but to the others, the odour of life unto life. And for these things who is so sufficient?" That is, who shall not fear? What can be more formidable than to stand between the living and the dead, charged with the priestly office, to give account for the souls committed to our trust? The Fathers call it an office which angels fear to bear. To be a king over a people, or a leader over an army in which the earthly life of men is at stake, is formidable. How much more is a superiority the effects of which are eternal? What sanctity, what charity, what humility, what patience, what wisdom, what firmness, what equity, are "sufficient for these things"? If the relation in which a priest stands to His Divine Lord in the Holy Mass demands spiritual perfection, certainly the relation of teacher, guide, and judge of men demands the same. The priest is set exercere perfectionem—that is, to manifest perfection in himself, and to form the souls of men to the same law and likeness. He must needs then be perfect first himself.

The titles by which this relation is illustrated are many, and show how manifold are its obligations. Even under the Old Law the typical priests were described as fishermen, and hunters, and shepherds. Under the New they are called fishers of men, and shepherds of the flock. But they are more than this.

They are stewards set over the household to give to every man meat in due season—that is, to guide and govern the household of God.

They are ambassadors from God, having, therefore, commission to treat and to conclude in His name. They have the credentials of a divine embassy, with express conditions on which to call upon men to reconcile themselves with Him; and with a discretion to judge and to decide who do and who do not come within the terms and conditions of their commission.

They are fellow-workers with God in the field of the world and in the vineyard of the Church. They are ploughers, and sowers, and reapers. The priesthood has the office of breaking up the fallow ground of the nations, and of destroying the roots of unbelief that hinder the plough. "I have made thee as a new thrashing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou shalt thrash the mountains and break them in pieces, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away." They are sowers who cast the seed of the Word upon all lands and beside all waters. They are reapers who go weeping in the midst of a barren and dying world, who shall one day come with joy, bringing their sheaves with them. But these titles, though expressive, are ideal and pictorial. There are others more homely and lying closer to our life and needs.

Priests are also fellow-builders with God in edifying the Church, and rearing the temple of the Holy Ghost upon the one only foundation which Christ, the Master-builder, has laid. They are fathers of all who are born again by water and the Holy Ghost: but in a special sense, and with a more intimate and an eternal relation, they are fathers of those whom they have baptised. S. Paul says to the Corinthians, "If you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus by the Gospel I have regenerated you." This title is the most simple and intelligible to all, old and young, learned and unlettered. The relation of father and child is universal in the order of nature, and it becomes a spiritual instinct in the order of grace. The title of father is the first, the chief, the highest, the most potent, the most persuasive, the most honourable of all the titles of a priest. He may receive from the world and from its fountains of honour many names, from the schools of learning many degrees, from the ecclesiastical law many dignities; but none has so deep and so high a sense as father, and none but the spiritual fatherhood will pass into eternity. The world has overlaid the title of father with its own profuse adulation, and priests have consented to their deprival in accepting the world's addresses. With the title, the consciousness of paternal or filial relation has been first obscured, then forgotten, and in the end lost. The closest bond of mutual confidence and charity between the priest- hood and the faithful has been thereby relaxed, and a distance and diffidence has often grown up instead.

Priests are also judges of men. The Jews forbade any man who was not a father to become a judge; for justice must be tempered with compassion. But for the spiritual judge more than natural compassion is needed. The spiritual judge needs the charity of God, of whom all paternity or fatherhood in heaven and earth is named. A judge must needs be just, and justice includes mercy. S. Gregory the Great, in explaining the celestial hierarchy, says that the "thrones" are the just, in whom God dwells and reigns, as in the seat of His sovereignty. Our Divine Master said, "Ye that have followed Me, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." This was spoken to the Apostles and to the Episcopate, which, in their stead, now succeeds to the spiritual judgment of the world. Each Bishop in his throne, surrounded by his priests, judicially binding or loosing the souls of men by the power of the keys, is the judge of arbitration to avert the judgment of the last day.

Lastly, they are physicians. The priests of the Old Law were taught to discern between leprosy and leprosy, as the priests of the New Law are taught to discern between sin and sin. And for this office two things above all are necessary—science and charity; the science of God, the science of the Saints, the science of self-knowledge; and charity, which, though it will not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax, will never be silent when there is a sickness unto death, or when venial sin may pass into mortal, and the disease of the soul turn to death.

S. Paul might well ask, "for these things who is sufficient?" To stand in such close relation to the Word made flesh; to be set over the souls for whom He shed His Precious Blood; to be charged with their salvation, so that if we be unfaithful their blood will be required at our hands: all this surely demands in the priest a personal sanctity commensurate with the work of guiding souls from sin to penance, and from penance to perfection. How shall they guide who have never trodden the path themselves? Some theologians tell us that a man may exercise perfection—that is, teach others to be perfect who is not perfect himself. The imperfections even of the perfect are many, as the best priest knows better than any man. Nevertheless, to exercise perfection on others requires that the priest should be in the state of perfection, though it be only within the border-line. But no priest can be content with so ungenerous a heart. S. Paul was not so minded when he said, "I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press towards the mark to the prize of the supreme vocation of God in Christ Jesus."

III. The Three Relations of the Priesthood

CHAPTER III.

THE THREE RELATIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.

A priest stands in three relations, of which each one binds him to interior spiritual perfection.

1. The first binds him to the great High Priest, of whose priesthood he is partaker. He is our fountain of sanctity; but He is also our law of obligation. To those who drew near to Him in the priesthood of the Old Law God said, Sancti estote, quia ego sanctus sum. The uncreated sanctity of God demands sanctity in all who approach Him. At the burning bush in Horeb God commanded Moses to put off the shoes from his feet; for the ground he stood on was holy. An unholy man, if he seeks the priesthood, is seeking eternal death; for "who can dwell with everlasting burnings?" The holiness, the purity, the jealousy, the justice of God, are as the flames of a furnace, in which the pure are still more purified; but the impure are consumed. For God is a consuming fire. Only those who are configured to the High Priest of their salvation, and by a true will desire to be perfectly sanctified in body, soul, and spirit, can stand before Him. On them His sanctity has a power of assimilation, which perfects the work which He began in them when He first called them. Isaias, when he saw the Lord of Hosts in His glory, was conscious only of his own impurity before Him. But one of the seraphim flew with a live coal from the altar and touched his lips; and his sin was cleansed. The nearer the pure approach to God, the more they are purified. Of the accessions of sanctity in the soul of our spotless Mother through her earthly life by union with her Divine Son, both before and after His ascension, we will not speak; for she was singular in all things, being without sin and sanctified above the seraphim. But we may meditate on the sanctity of S. John and of S. Peter, after their call to follow our Divine Redeemer. The conscious unfitness of S. Peter made him cry out, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." The miracle of the fishes opened his eyes to the power of Jesus; but it was His sanctity that made him fear to be in His presence. The three years in which the Apostles followed our Lord were their preparation for the priesthood. They had many imperfections, which, as time wore on, were consumed in the sanctity of their Master's presence. They breathed an atmosphere of purity and of perfection. Slow of heart to believe, tardy to understand, hasty in speech, earthly in thought, seeking to be first, and contending with each other which should be the greatest: nevertheless the majesty of their Lord subdued them, and His love reigned over them; and day by day their old minds died in them, and the mind of Jesus Christ grew in them, until it governed them altogether. The work of their purification was always advancing; for the Divine Presence was the refining fire purifying the sons of Levi, and refining them as gold and as silver, that they might offer sacrifices to the Lord in justice. But one of them was a devil—not from childhood, it may be, but from the time when an impure soul came into daily contact with divine purity. It grew daily and gradually, and perhaps insensibly, in impurity, by its conscious variance with the sanctity of Jesus. Judas was ordained in mortal sin; and, after his first Communion, Satan entered into him. For three years he had breathed an atmosphere of sanctity without being sanctified. What should have been for his salvation became an occasion of falling; and the life of the world was turned by him into death.