What Are You Looking For? Part 2: The Liturgy and the Sacraments

The Sacrament of Holy Orders: Priests

The Sacrament of Holy Orders: Priests

                For most of us, we won’t have all that much contact with the bishop during our lives, therefore the degree of ministerial participation we will be most familiar with is that of the presbyterate.  The parish priest is the person who will most likely marry us and bury us and baptize our children.  The priests serve as co-workers of the bishops.  “’The function of the bishops’ ministry was handed over in a subordinate degree to the priests so that they might be appointed in the order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ.’”  (CCC 1562) 

                In the early Church, it quickly became apparent that as the gospel spread throughout the known world the apostles would need help.  So they appointed bishops.  These bishops oversaw the churches in the various cities and towns.  But before long, the bishops themselves needed additional help.  The growth of the Church was so explosive that there were more churches than the bishop of the city could care for by himself.  Even then, the liturgy of the Church was centered on the Eucharist, but it was impossible that the local bishop could be at every church in the city to say the Mass on Sunday.  So they appointed priests to serve the local congregations.   That is why we have the “two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ.”  (CCC 1554)

                Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, the priest is joined with the episcopal order.  He is to be the extension of the bishop in the ministry of the gospel at the parish level.  It is his job to faithfully preach and teach the laity so that they can be equipped to go into their world with the light of Christ.  It is the parish priest who bears the responsibility of building up the Body of Christ.  He is to offer the sacrifice of the Mass.  It is he who hears the confessions and restores the sinner back to the Church.  At the Easter Vigil, it is the pastor of the parish who baptizes and confirms the catechumens and candidates prior to their receiving their first Eucharist.  He does all of this under the authority of the local bishop as an extension of the bishops’ ministry. 

                “’Because it is joined with the episcopal order the office of priests shares in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and sanctifies and rules his Body.  Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing the sacraments of initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament.  Through that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ the head.’”  (CCC 1563)

                This means two very important things.  First, when a man receives the sacrament of Holy Orders and is ordained a priest, he becomes joined to the authority of Christ in a very special way that a lay person is not.  It is the authority that Jesus Christ gave to Peter, and that Peter passed on to his successors.  It’s the authority that was conferred by the apostles to the bishops they appointed.  And they passed on to their successors.  Every parish priest is joined to the authority of the bishop, and he carries out the work of his ministry in the power of that authority. 

                The second important thing conferred upon reception of the sacrament of Holy Orders for a priest is that he is “able to act in the person of Christ the head.”  This doesn’t mean that he is without sin as Jesus Christ was.  He is as human as the rest of us.  What it does mean is that, “In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth.  This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis (in the person of Christ the Head): ‘It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents.  Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself (virtute ac persona ipsius Christi).

                ‘Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ.’” (CCC 1548)