and fight more heroically than those who have never wavered. But the innocent and the penitent must both attain interior spiritual perfection before they kneel for the laying on of the hands which impress on them the character of the Eternal Priesthood.
It is moreover to be always borne in mind that a priest is ordained ad exercendam perfectionem—that is, not only to be perfect, but by his own life, and by the action and influence of his life in word and deed on others, to exhibit and to impress on them the perfection of our Divine Lord. The priesthood was ordained to perpetuate three things: the witness for the truths of faith, the administration of the Sacraments of grace, and the mind of Jesus Christ. The mind of Jesus Christ is not to be manifested in words only, but in the living power of a mind conformed to His. "Ye are the light of the world" signifies that, as light manifests itself by its own radiance, so the priest must shine by the light of a holy life revealing a holy mind. "Ye are the salt of the earth" signifies the personal possession of the sanctity which resists corruption, and the communicating of the same resistance to others by contact and influence. To exercise perfection, then, is to act according to the rule and spirit of perfection: to act, to speak, to judge, to think as the perfect man would. To exercise
