God so loves the world that He wants to fill it with His presence. He wants all creation to reflect His beauty and His love, and for all creation to know Him. God’s image and likeness is most powerfully presented in His most precious creation: human beings. When God wants to bring His loving presence to the world through a new human life, he calls upon someone already among the human race to cooperate with Him to bring this about. Recall your own existence into life – hello mom! Why did God ordain the creation of new life in this way? Because God never acts on His own. God is not a solitary, but a Trinity. He said, “Let us make a man in our image and after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) He called the prophets to deliver His word rather than dropping it from Heaven. He established the Church as His instrument of salvation in the world. He invites husband and wife to co-create with Him in the same sense He calls priests to assist Him.
Although the sacrament of Holy Orders refers to ordination as a deacon, priest, or bishop, the discussion here will focus mainly on priesthood.
There has been only one priest in the history of the Church – Jesus Christ. To realize this we first need to understand exactly what a priest is. The basis of priesthood was established in the Old Testament times. People were mindful of their sinfulness and of their need to make atonement as a community to God for their sins. Someone was thus chosen from among the people to be their representative and intermediary with God to offer sacrifices. These priests would sacrifice animals on the altar, sprinkling their blood as a sign of the new life which reconciliation brings.
Yet these sacrifices were not enough to truly atone for sin. Because when people sin they offend God who is infinite and damage God’s creation, rendering it much less than God intended it to be. To restore justice, a true atonement calls for people to make restitution to an infinite God for their offense and for what they have done to His creation.
But as we have already discussed, how can an imperfect human being possibly make restitution to the all perfect God that would truly restore justice? Nothing we might do on our own could possibly make up for what our sins have done to God and His world – we are far too limited. Only God is infinite and powerful enough to pay a debt owed to Himself – yet God is not the one who owes the debt! So if humanity owes a debt to God which only God is able to pay, yet God does not owe the debt, how can this situation be resolved?
Only by someone who is both God and human, and thus able to make a proper atonement and restitution for sin. That is why Jesus is the only true priest – chosen by the Father from humanity as our representative, yet with a divine nature as well and thus capable of making the only true acceptable sacrifice to God.
A priest is ordained in persona Christi – in the person of Christ. This means that when a priest performs the sacraments, it is actually Jesus, the only priest, performing them through the human instrument of the ordained priest. Jesus instituted this when he commissioned the apostles, the first ordained priests, by sending His own breath upon them so that they would be truly acting in His very person (John 20:21-23). A priest acts in the very person of Christ, for He is the only one truly able to perform the role of a priest.
Part of the problem in understanding priesthood is that we often look at it in terms of our natural world – as a “career choice” – instead of its supernatural reality. When a man is ordained a priest he is not simply choosing a career – he is chosen by God to become supernaturally configured to the very person of Jesus Christ in a way that transcends earthly understanding. This has very powerful implications for how this life is to be lived.
First, only men are called to this vocation. This really is not that difficult to understand. It is not a foreign concept in our natural world that even though God loves men and women equally, there are certain roles he assigns to one sex and not the other. We have already offered motherhood as a prime example. God’s choosing only men to bear this supernatural presence is not a slight to women, just as God’s choosing only women to bear His natural presence through His children in not a slight to men. It’s simply His design.
Secondly, Jesus did not enter into an earthly marriage. There is a critically important reason for this: He was called to marry someone else. “On that day, says the Lord, (Israel) will call me, ‘My husband.’…I will take her as my wife forever” (Hosea 2:18,21). “ As a young man marries a virgin, so shall your Builder marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you” (Isaiah 62:5). “For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32). Firmly rooted in Scripture is the truth that Jesus marries the Church. We are His bride, in anticipation of the heavenly marriage, where “they neither marry nor are given in marriage,” (Matthew 22:30) but instead we all become the bride of Christ forever, “for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). When a man is ordained a priest, he also takes the Church for his bride. But since the person of Christ is truly present in the ordained priest this is more than mere symbolism – it is truly Jesus marrying his Church through the human instrument of the ordained priest. The celibate vocation – and it is a ‘marriage’ vocation separate from earthly marriage – is an anticipation and participation in the heavenly marriage of Christ and his Church. If we think of priesthood only in natural terms, it is difficult to understand celibacy. If we keep in mind the supernatural configuration to the person of Christ that happens through ordination, we see that it is a very appropriate way for a priest to live. With every ordination of a celibate priest, Jesus is a sense marries his Church all over again. Priestly celibacy is to be thought of not as the absence of earthly marriage; it is the presence – to all of us – of the heavenly marriage of Jesus to his Church.
Can you even imagine the joy? – in persona Christi –
All devout priests experience the most profound satisfaction and joy when celebrating Mass. It is enough for them to know:
- That they are in immediate, intimate, personal communication with God Himself; that they are holding Him in their hands, looking at Him, conversing with Him and that He is looking into their very hearts with ineffable love.
- That they are giving Him the greatest possible joy and glory that even He could desire, greater glory than all the Angels and Saints give Him in Heaven.
- That they are calling down on themselves, on the World, on their native land countless blessings.
- That they are surrounded by throngs of Holy Angels who are watching their every movement.
- That they are helping, consoling, rejoicing the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
If we understand the divine dignity of the priesthood, we shall comprehend more fully the infinite greatness of the Mass. No one on this Earth can give God as much glory as a devout priest.
There seems to be a widespread belief that the only reason why one comes to Mass is to receive Holy Communion. But as St. Paul told the unruly Corinthians: if you come to Mass to eat, then stay home (1 Corinthians 11:34).
The Mass is the re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary in an un-bloody manner on the altar of the church. That is why the altar is called the altar and why the priest is called a priest.
A priest is one who offers sacrifice, who makes holy by offering sacrifice, and an altar is where a sacrifice takes place.
The Mass is not a remembrance of the Last Supper, nor is it a merely symbolic act. In the Mass, Christ is offered to the Father for the sins of the world, for the living and the dead, just as Christ offered himself on the Cross two thousand years ago. And so the offering of the Mass imparts grace to those who assist in its celebration, who join themselves with the priest in offering the only Perfect Sacrifice, which is the only true worship of God. The worship of God in the Mass is why we come to Mass and is the basis for the obligation to assist at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day.
Holy Communion is the wonderful fruit of the Sacrifice. And it is indeed a wondrous, wonderful and grace filled act in which one receives Holy Communion. But we receive Holy Communion only after the Sacrifice has been completed. The reason for the Consecration of the bread and wine to become the true Body and Blood of Christ is so that the living Lord Himself can be offered to the Father. To be offered in Sacrifice in the Mass, the true Body of Christ must be present on the altar, the true Blood of Christ must be on the altar. The Sacrifice is consummated when the priest consumes the Body and Blood of Christ. People wrongly think that when the priest consumes the Body and Blood of Christ, he is merely receiving Holy Communion a few minutes before the people do. No. What the priest does in consuming the Sacred Species is to complete the Sacrifice. It is only then that the people are invited to receive the fruit of that Sacrifice in Holy Communion. (That is precisely why Eucharistic Ministers do not approach the altar until after the priest consumes the Body and Blood of Christ.) The most important thing that we do at Mass is to worship God in joining ourselves with the priest (which he invites us do to) in offering the holy sacrifice. And from that – all other grace flows.
Every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Hebrews 5:1
Similar to the way in which the humanity of Our Lord is the instrument of His divinity, the priest is the instrument of Our Lord Himself. As Mary was the instrument when she was overshadowed by the Holy Spirited (Luke 1:35), so are priests the instrument when they are overshadowed at ordination, a priest is given the power to act in the person of Jesus Christ. From that point, the priest, by pronouncing merely human words, such as “For this is My Body” or “I absolve you from your sins” accomplishes supernatural effects beyond human power. In those moments in which the priest is engaging the character of Holy Orders, Christ acts through him to grant spiritual benefits to souls. When a layman says “I absolve you” to a contrite friend, nothing supernatural happens. When a priest says these words, Christ washes that soul with His own Precious Blood.
Since priests are not the source of supernatural life, as Christ is, they are not able to give grace at will or establish new channels of grace. God gives grace how He wills, to whom He wills, in the degree He wills, and when He wills. Priests, on the other hand, have powers to bless, to consecrate, and to sanctify the things that Christ has specified, in the precise way that He has specified.
What a great power this is! Christ binds Himself to give grace to souls whenever a Catholic priest exercises the official functions of the priesthood. Even more striking, He binds Himself to make Himself present in the Holy Eucharist whenever a priest pronounces the words of consecration. When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors: it is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man—not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command. The priest was instructed to do this by Christ: “Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:17-20). So the priest is the obedient servant of God when he prays:
Eucharist Prayer I:To you, therefore, most merciful Father, we make humble prayer and petition through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord:
He joins his hands and says
that you accept
He makes the Sign of the Cross once over the bread and chalice together, saying:
and bless + these gifts, these offerings, these holy and unblemished sacrifices,
Eucharistic Prayer II:Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall,
He joins his hands and makes the Sign of the Cross once over the bread and the chalice together, saying:
so that they may become for us the Body and + Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Eucharistic Prayer III: Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy these gifts we have brought to you for consecration,
He joins his hands and makes the Sign of the Cross once over the bread and chalice together, saying:
that they may become the Body and + Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eucharistic Prayer IV: Therefore, O Lord, we pray: may this same Holy Spirit graciously sanctify these offerings,
He joins his hands and makes the Sign of the Cross once over the bread and chalice together, saying:
that they may become the Body and + Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
The sacrifice of the Mass is the same sacrifice as Cavalry, not a different one. Jesus does not experience the pain, suffering and death more once. The sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary is of infinite value. Yet, because He desires that men cooperate in their own salvation, its fruits are ordinarily communicated to men through the instrumentality of the priesthood. An infinite treasure house of graces, the “unfathomable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), are waiting to be applied to souls.
While the primary role of the priest is to act as an instrument of Christ to confer grace on souls, he also acts as an instrument of Christ in the office of governing. As Christ has charge over His Church and its members, so too do priests. The pope has charge over all Catholics, bishops over the members of their dioceses, and parish priests over their own faithful.
Another aspect of the instrumentality of the priest is his role as teacher. When Christ came on this earth, He gave to the Apostles the fullness of revelation, the saving truth entrusted by Christ to the Apostles and handed on by them to be preserved and proclaimed. Jesus ordered them to teach the nations “everything I have commanded you” and assured them “know that I am with you always, until the end of the world.” (Mt 28:18-20). With this Deposit of Faith came the duty to preserve and transmit it. Priests are instruments for the communication of revealed truths, in a way similar to that of our Divine Lord. Again, they are not the source of these truths and have no authority to teach new truths, but their mission is to pass on the truths that came from Him in the very same meaning and sense in which the Apostles received them.
God makes use of instruments to communicate of His goodness. The humanity of Christ is His greatest instrument. Our Lord as God bestows all supernatural gifts through acts of His human intellect and will. He unites men by supernatural bonds in the body of the Church, and leads the elect to their heavenly home. But Our Lord does not do everything by Himself, as He delights in using instruments. Thus, He calls upon the Church to choose certain men to become priests and act in His name. These priests sanctify souls through the powerful channels of grace which Christ has established. They transmit the saving truths which Christ gave to the Apostles, and they govern the flock of Christ, so as to lead souls to Him.
Every human being is made for Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the human race as a whole belongs to Him. As such, no greater role is possible for a man than becoming an instrument of Jesus Christ in the priesthood.
St. Ignatius Martyr says that the Priesthood is the most sublime of all created dignities.
St. Ephrem calls it an infinite dignity.
Cassian says that the priest of God is exalted above all earthly sovereignties, and above all celestial heights he is inferior to God alone.
Pope Innocent III says that the priest is placed between God and man; inferior to God but superior to man.
St. Denis calls the priest a divine man and the Priesthood a divine dignity.
St. Ephrem says that the gift of the sacerdotal dignity surpasses all understanding.
St. John Chrysostom says that he who honors a priest honors Christ and he who insults a priest, insults Christ.
St. Ambrose has called the priestly office a divine profession.
St. Francis de Sales, after having given orders to holy ecclesiastic, the Saint was perceived in going out that he stopped at the door as if to give precedence to another. Being asked why he stopped, the Saint replied that God favored him with the visible presence of his Guardian Angel, who before he had received the priesthood always remained on his right and preceded him, but now since the moment of Ordination walked on his left and refused to go before him. It was in a holy contest with the Angel that he stopped at the door.
St. Thomas said the dignity of the priesthood surpasses even that of the angels.
St. Gregory Nazianzen has said that the angels themselves venerate priesthood. All the Angels in Heaven cannot absolve from a single sin. The Guardian Angels procure for the souls committed to their care grace to have recourse to a priest that he may absolve them.
St. Peter Damian said Angels may be present, they yet wait for the priest to exercise his power, but not one of them has the power of the keys—–of binding and of loosening.
St. Francis of Assisi used to say: “If I saw an angel and a priest, I would bend my knee first to the priest and then to the angel. “
St. Augustine says that to pardon a sinner is a greater work than to create heaven and earth.
St. Alphonsus said that the entire Church cannot give God as much honor or obtain so many graces as a single priest by celebrating a single Mass. Thus, by the celebration of a single Mass, in which he offers Jesus Christ in sacrifice, a priest gives greater honor to the Lord than if all men, by dying for God, offered Him the sacrifice of their lives.
St Ignatius said Priests are the glory and the pillars of the Church, the doors and doorkeepers of Heaven.
St Alphonsus said if were the Redeemer to descend into a Church and sit in a confessional, and a priest to sit in another confessional, Jesus would say over each penitent: “Ego te absolvo.” The priest would likewise say over each of his penitents: “Ego te absolvo”, and the penitents of each would be equally absolved. Thus, the sacerdotal dignity is the most noble of all the dignities in this world.
St Ambrose says that it transcends all the dignities of kings, of emperors, and of angels. The dignity of the priest far exceeds that of kings as the value of gold surpasses that of lead.
St Cyprian said that all who had the true spirit of God were, when compelled to take the Order of priesthood, seized with fear and trembling.
St Epiphanius writes that he found no one willing to be ordained a priest, so fearful were they of so divine a dignity.
St Gregory Nazianzen says, in his ‘Life of St Cyprian’ that, when the Saint heard that his bishop intended to ordain him a priest, he, through humility, concealed himself. It is related in the life of St Fulgentius that he too fled away and hid himself.
St Ambrose, as he himself attests, resisted for a long time before he consented to be ordained.
Offering a Prayer For Our Priest
You came from among us to be, for us, one who serves. We thank you for ministering Christ to us and helping us to minister Christ to each other. We are grateful for the many gifts you bring to our community: For drawing us together in worship, for visiting us in our homes, for comforting us in sickness, for showing us compassion, for uniting us in marriage, for baptizing our children, for confirming us in our calling, for supporting us in bereavement, for helping us to grow in faith, for encouraging us to take the initiative, for helping the whole community realize God’s presence among us. For our part, we pray that we may always be attentive to your needs and never take you for granted. You, like us, need friendship and love, welcome and a sense of belonging, kind words and acts of thoughtfulness. We pray, also, for the priests who have wounded priesthood. May we be willing to forgive and may they be open for healing. Let us support one another during times of crisis. God our Father, we ask you to bless our priests and confirm them in their calling. Give them the gifts they need to respond with generosity and a joyful heart. We offer this prayer for our priest, who is our brother and friend. Amen.