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."[1] 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."[2] 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."[3] 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.
