THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY ORDERS
And Michas said:
Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest,
and I will give thee every year ten pieces of silver,
and a double suit of apparel, and thy victuals.
Judges 17, 10
Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ,
you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus
I became your father through the gospel.
1 Corinthians 4, 15
The
Sacrament of Holy Orders continues Jesus Christ’s priesthood,
which He bestowed upon His Apostles. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic
Church refers to it as “the sacrament of apostolic
ministry” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1536).
The
priesthood of the New Covenant has its roots in the priesthood of the Old
Covenant. God’s chosen people have constituted “a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation” (Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6). But from among the twelve tribes of Israel, God
chose the tribe of Levi and set it apart to minister liturgical service (Num
1:48-53; Josh 13:33). The Levite priests were “appointed to act on behalf of
men to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb 5:1; cf.
Ex 29:1-30; Lev 8). This priesthood was instituted to proclaim the Word of God
and restore communion with God by sacrifice and prayer (Mal 2:7-9). However,
this priesthood was powerless in bringing about salvation in the Christian
meaning. The sacrifices for sin had to be repeated ceaselessly. They could not achieve definitive sanctification and justification, which only Christ’s
single sacrifice of himself could and would accomplish at the appointed time in
salvation history (Heb 5:3; 7:27; CCC 1539, 1540).
In the
New Covenant, two participations exist in the one priesthood of Christ
between the laity and the clergy. Our High Priest and unique mediator between
God and humanity has made his Church “be a kingdom and priests to serve his God
and Father” (Rev 1:6). We who are baptized “like living stones, are being built
into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). God’s chosen people in the
New Dispensation are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special
protection” (1 Pet 2:9). The entire community of believers, therefore, is as
such priestly in their baptismal vocation according to their particular
spiritual gifts. Christians are anointed first and foremost in the Sacrament of
Baptism and then again when their baptismal grace is perfected in the Sacrament
of Confirmation.
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As
anointed priests in the Church, Christians are united to Christ and his
sacrifice in the offerings they make of themselves in their daily lives. Paul
exhorted the Christians in Rome to “offer [their] bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, [their] spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). The Second
Vatican Council affirms, “[The laity] exercise the apostolate in fact by their
activity directed to the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the
penetrating and perfecting of the temporal order through the spirit of the
Gospel. In this way, their temporal activity openly bears witness to Christ and
promotes the salvation of men. Since the laity, by their state
of life, live amid the world and its concerns, they are called by
God to exercise their apostolate in the world like leaven, with the ardor of
the spirit of Christ.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2).
Catholics
profess Jesus Christ to be “the one (heis / εἷς)
Mediator between God and man” (1 Tim 2:5), by which Paul means He is the one
who has ‘universally’ redeemed the world and has reconciled all humanity (Jew
and Gentile) to God by serving as a ransom for sin which was paid through the
outpouring of his most precious blood (2:6). Our Lord’s principal mediation in
his humanity does not preclude the mediation or intercession of the faithful in
and through His merits by prayer and sacrifice “so that everyone might be saved
and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:1-4). The apostle has no
intention of emphasizing that Jesus is the “one and only” (monos / μόνος)
mediator in the entire economy of salvation. The Christian faithful are indeed
called to participate in our Lord’s mediation as active and living members of
His Mystical Body who partake of the divine life (1 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 1:3-4). This
prerogative is conferred on these members by right of adoption as sons and
daughters of God, who participate in Christ’s divine nature since it is in his
humanity – not divinity – that Christ as Head of His Mystical Body intercedes
for us all before the Father as both eternal High Priest and sacrificial
victim.
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On the other hand, the ordained minister acts in the person of Christ (in persona
Christi). Our Lord is present in the ecclesial service of his anointed minister
as Head of his body. Under the sacrament of Holy Orders, the priest acts in persona Christi Capitis, representing the person of Christ. “It is the
same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents.
Now, because of the sacerdotal consecration that he has received, the minister is truly made like the high priest and possesses the authority to act
in the power and place of the person of Christ himself. 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).
The
ministerial priesthood, then, is a divine office that extends from the common
priesthood of the faithful through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
This is an office that our Lord has committed to his pastors to serve as
shepherds of his flock in his name and in him. It depends entirely on Christ
and his unique priesthood for the good of all people and the communion of
the Church. The sacred power of Christ is communicated to the ordained minister
through the sacrament of Holy Orders. The exercise of this authority in the
divine office “must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, who by
love made himself the least and the servant of all” (CCC 1551).
The
ministerial priesthood acts in the name of the whole Church when offering to
God the prayer of the Church, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice (CCC 1552).
“The prayer and offering of the Church are inseparable from the prayer and
offering of Christ, her head; it is always the case that Christ worships in and
through his Church. The Church, the Body of Christ, prays and offers
herself ‘through him, with him, in him,’ in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to
God the Father. The whole Body, caput et membra, prays and offers itself, and
therefore, those who, in the Body, are especially his ministers are called
ministers not only of Christ but also of the Church. Because the ministerial priesthood represents Christ, it can represent the Church” (CCC,
1553).
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Through
the Sacrament of Holy Orders, priests “share in the universal dimensions of the
mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles.” The spiritual gift they have
received in ordination prepares them for the most entire universal mission of
salvation, that is, to the ends of the earth, to preach the Gospel and minister
the sacraments (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). (CCC, 1565). It is in the Eucharistic
assembly of the faithful (synaxis) that ordained priests exercise their divine
office in the “supreme degree”… “acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming
his mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice
of Christ their head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass, they make present again
and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New
Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once and for all a spotless
victim to the Father” (CCC, 1566).
Priests
are called “to the service of the People of God.” Together with their bishop,
they constitute a unique “sacerdotal college” (presbyterium) in which they
fulfill all their duties. Priests can exercise their ministry only on
“dependence on the bishop and in communion with them.” The vow of obedience
priests make to the bishop during ordination, and the “kiss of peace” at
the end of the ordination liturgy signifies they are communing with him as
his fellow workers in Christ (CCC, 1567). “The unity of the presbyterium finds
liturgical expression in the custom of the presbyters’ imposing hands, after
the bishop, during the Ate of ordination” (CCC, 1568).
Finally,
the Sacrament of Holy Orders also includes the ordination of deacons. They are
situated at a lower level of the Church hierarchy. These candidates also
receive the imposition of the bishop’s hands “not unto the priesthood, but unto
the ministry” to serve the Church. The deacon is a
co-worker with the bishop and the priest (CCC, 1569). Moreover,
deacons also serve in Christ’s mission in a particular way apart from the common
priesthood of the faithful. “Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to
assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above
all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and
blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in
presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries
of charity” (CCC, 1570).
The
ordinations of bishops (selected by the pope), priests, and deacons preferably
occur in a cathedral on Sunday. All three ordinations take a proper place
in the Eucharistic liturgy (CCC, 1571). “The essential rite of the sacrament of
Holy Orders for all three degrees consists in the bishop’s imposition of hands
on the head of the ordinand and in the bishop’s specific consecratory prayer
asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the
ministry to which the candidate is being ordained” (CCC 1573).
The
effects of the Sacrament of Holy Orders are the indelible character and the
grace of the Holy Spirit. This sacrament “configures the recipient to Christ by
a special grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ’s instrument
for his Church. One can represent Christ, Head of the Church, by ordination in his triple office of priest, prophet, and king.
As with the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, the Sacrament of Holy
Orders “confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or
conferred temporarily” (CCC, 1582). Although an ordained person could be
discharged from his office for grave reasons, “the character imprinted by
ordination is forever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination
mark him permanently” (CCC, 1583). By the grace of the Holy Spirit proper to this sacrament, the ordinand is configured to Christ as “Priest,
Teacher, and Pastor, of whom the ordained is made a minister” (CCC, 1585).
The
Sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministerial priesthood have a biblical basis.
We find the verb form for the noun hiereus or ἱερεύς in the
New Testament. The word means “priest” or one who “sacrifices to a god.” Paul
writes to the church in Rome: “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more
boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that
is given to me of God, That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the
Gentiles, ministering (hierourgounta / ἱερουργοῦντα) the
gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being
sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Rom 15:15-15, KJV). What we literally have is
“to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the
gospel of God” (NASB), “the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God”
(NIV), or “in the priestly service of the gospel of God” (ESV).
The
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) has this: “But on some points
I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace
given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the
priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may
be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” Thus, the ministers of the New
Covenant were essentially priests and had priestly tasks. Their supreme act was
to offer up the Eucharistic sacrifice to God in worship (1 Cor 10:16, 18, 20;
11:26; Heb 13:10, 15). No ministerial priestly function is ascribed to
deacons, but there is to apostles, bishops, and elders.
Our Lord
Jesus definitively chose and sent his apostles to act like priests or
“mediators between God and men.” For instance, after the Resurrection, our Lord
appeared to the apostles and said to them: “Peace be with you. As the Father
has sent me, even so, I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on
them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”(Jn
20:21-23). On this occasion, Jesus communicates or transfers the sacred power
to forgive and retain sins. The apostles are to do what the Lord has done in
his priestly ministry with divine authority. The power or authority Jesus
invests in them is the one he has been invested in by God the Father in his
humanity (Mt 5:17-26).
Ministering
the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a ministerial priestly task rooted
in the Old Covenant. For example, ‘ but he shall bring a guilt offering for
himself to the Lord, to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt
offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt
offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which
he has committed shall be forgiven him’ (Lev 19:21-22, RSVCE). Therefore, the New Covenant priests' ordination began with Jesus and the apostles. The
Sacrament of Holy Orders was instituted by Christ himself.
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The
Scriptures reveal that the ordained ministers of the nascent New Covenant
Church had a share in Christ’s priestly ministry and authority that originated
from the Father. Jesus says he does nothing of his own authority. Likewise, the
apostles will do nothing on their own authority but on the same authority that
comes from God (Jn 8:28). The Father’s authority is transferred to the Son. The
Son does not speak on his own. This is a transfer of divine authority (Jn
12:49). Jesus gives his apostles what the Son has been given from the Father
(Jn 16:14-15). The authority isn’t lessened or mitigated. Jesus declares to His
apostles, “He who receives you, receives Me, and he who rejects you, rejects Me
and the One who sent Me” (Mt 10:1, 40). Jesus gives the apostles the authority
to make visible decisions on earth that will be ratified in heaven (Mt 16:19;
18:18). The power to “bind and loose” was given to the priests of the Old
Covenant. Jesus tells his apostles, “he who hears you, hears me” (Lk 10:16). When we listen to our bishop on matters of faith and morals, we listen to Christ, whom he represents.
The
Christian faith is built upon the foundation of the apostles. The word
“foundation” shows that the apostolic teaching authority does not die with the
apostles but carries on through a physical line of succession (Eph 2:20). As
soon as Jesus ascends into heaven, Peter implements apostolic succession.
Matthias is ordained with full apostolic authority (Acts 1:15-26). Only the
Catholic Church can demonstrate an unbroken apostolic lineage to the apostles
in union with Peter through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, thereby claiming to teach with Christ’s authority.
At the
outset, one had to be ordained by an apostle to witness with the apostles and
teach with the authority of Christ, which our Lord had invested in them (Acts
1:21-23). This apostolic authority is transferred through the imposition of
hands and has been extended beyond the original Twelve as the Church has grown
(Acts 6:6). Paul himself becomes an ordained minister by the laying on of hands
(Acts 9:17-19). The sacrament of ordination is necessary to invest Christ’s
authority in the ordinand. The apostles and newly-ordained men appointed elders
(Acts 14:23). Preachers of the Gospel must be sent by the bishops in union with
the Church with the authority that can be traced back to the apostles (Acts
15:22-27). Paul refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders when he writes, "God has commissioned certain men and sealed them with the Holy Spirit as
a guarantee” (2 Cor 1:21-22).
Paul and the council of elders ordain Timothy (1 Tim 4:14). Again,
apostolic authority is transferred by laying on hands. And Timothy
himself is instructed by Paul on how to properly ordain someone by the
imposition of hands (1 Tim 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6). Paul uses the word episkopēs (ἐπισκοπῆς) which
means “bishop” and thereby requires an office (1 Tim 3:1). Paul’s use of this
Greek word presupposes the office of the bishop shall carry on after his death
by those who will succeed him through the sacrament of ordination until Christ
returns.
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I wish to
explain how Catholics call ordained priests “Father.”
Dr. Scott Hahn tells us that in the Old Testament, the priesthood can be
divided into the patriarchal and the Levitical periods. The Book of Genesis covers the patriarchal period, while the Levitical period begins in
Exodus. These two periods differ significantly. “Patriarchal religion was
firmly based on the natural family order, most especially the authority handed
down from the father to the son – ideally the firstborn – often in the form of
the ‘blessing.’” (See Genesis 27.) There
is no separate priestly institution or caste as there is from the time of
Moses, as well as no temple and prescribed sacrifice. “The patriarchs build altars and present offerings at places and at times of their
own choosing (See Gen 4:3-4; 8:20-21; 12:7-8). Fathers are empowered as priests
by nature.”
Dr. Hahn
continues: “There are vestments associated with the office. When Rebekah took
the garments of Esau, her firstborn, and gave them to Jacob, she was
symbolically transferring the priestly office (Gen 27:15). We see the same
priestly significance a generation later, in the ‘long robe’ Jacob gave to his
son Joseph” (See Gen 37:3-4). Thus, fatherhood is the original basis for the
priesthood. “The very meaning of priesthood goes back to the father of the
family – his representative role, spiritual authority, and religious service…
priesthood belonged to fathers and their ‘blessed’ sons.” On the other hand,
the Levitical priesthood “became a hereditary office reserved to the cultural
elite. And the home was no longer the primary place of priesthood and sacrifice”
(Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots: Doubleday, 2009).
Still, when a Levitical priest comes knocking at Micah’s door, he pleads, “Stay
with me and be to me a father and a priest” (Jdgs. 17:10).
When Paul
said, “I became your father through the gospel,” he referred to himself as a priest. The community of believers in Corinth comprises his sons and
daughters and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. Not unlike Paul, his successors
in the Catholic Church – through the Sacrament of Holy Orders – are fathers and
priests by their role of representing Christ, their spiritual authority, and
religious service: the preaching of the gospel and ministration of the
sacraments for the family in the house of God which is the Church.
Early Sacred Tradition
“Our apostles also knew, through our
Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of
the office of the
episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect
fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and
afterward gave
instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved
men should succeed them in their
ministry.”
St. (Pope) Clement of Rome,
1st Epistle to the Corinthians, 44:1-2
(c. A.D. 96)
“See that ye all follow the bishop,
even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye
would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution
of God. Let no man do
anything connected with the Church without the bishop.
Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist,
which is [administered] either by the
bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the
bishop shall appear,
there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ
is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to
baptize or to celebrate
a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that
is also pleasing to God, so that everything
that is done may be secure and
valid.”
St. Ignatius of Antioch,
Epistle to the Smyraens, 8
(c. A.D. 110)
“Since, according to my opinion, the
grades here in the Church, of bishops,
presbyters, deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory, and of that economy
which, the Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the footsteps of the
apostles,
have lived in the perfection of righteousness according to the Gospel.”
St. Clement of Alexandria,
Stromata, 6:13
(A.D. 202)
“And before you had received the
grace of the episcopate, no one knew you; but
after you became one, the laity expected you to bring them food, namely
instruction
from the Scriptures…For
if all were of the same mind as your present advisers, how
would you have become a Christian, since there would be no bishops? Or if our
successors are to inherit the state of mind, how will the Churches be able to
hold
together?”
St. Athanasius,
To Dracontius, Epistle 49:2,4
(c. A.D. 355)
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“The Blessed Apostle Paul in laying
down the form for appointing a bishop and
creating by his instructions an entirely new type of member of the Church, has
taught us in the following words the sum total of all the virtues perfected in
him:
Holding fast the word according to the doctrine of faith that he may be able to
exhort to sound doctrine and to convict gain savers. For there are many unruly
men, vain talkers and deceivers. For in this way he points out that the
essentials of
orderliness and morals are only profitable for good service in the priesthood
if at
the same time the qualities needful for knowing how to teach and preserve the
faith
are not lacking, for a man is not straightway made a good and useful priest by
a
merely innocent life or by a mere knowledge of preaching.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers,
On the Trinity
(A.D. 359)
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“There is not, however, such
narrowness in the moral excellence of the Catholic
Church as that I should limit my praise of it to the life of those here
mentioned.
For how many bishops have I known most excellent and holy men, how many,
presbyters, how many deacons, and ministers of all kinds of the divine
sacraments,
whose virtue seems to me more admirable and more worthy of commendation on
account of the greater difficulty of preserving it amidst the manifold
varieties of
men, and in this life of turmoil!”
St. Augustine,
On the Morals of the Catholic Church, 69
(A.D. 388)
“It is you who have stood by me in my trials, and I confer a
kingdom on you,
just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my
table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.”
Luke 22, 28-30
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