The Eternal Priesthood/Chapter 1

by Henry Edward Manning

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THE ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD.

 

 

CHAPTER I.

 

THE NATURE OF PRIESTHOOD.

 

"Forasmuch as no act can be more excellent than the consecration of the Body of Christ, there can be no order after (i.e. higher than) the priesthood."^[1] "No act is greater than the consecration of the Body of Christ."^[2] "The Bishop and the priest are equal in respect to the consecration of the Holy Eucharist." S. John Chrysostom founds the sanctity of the priesthood, which, in Bishop and priest, is all one, upon the twofold jurisdiction over the natural and the mystical Body of Christ—that is, upon the power of consecration and upon the power of absolution.^[3]

It is of divine faith that our Lord ordained the Apostles to be priests when by the words hoc facite in meam commemorationem. He thereby conferred on them the power of sacrifice.^[4] It is also of divine faith that when, three days later, He breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," He gave them the power of absolution.^[5] In these two powers the priesthood was complete. The pastoral authority and the world-wide commission of the Apostles were not yet given. They had received the twofold jurisdiction over His natural body and over the mystical body, together with the power of bestowing the same by ordination upon others, for their priesthood was the "sacerdotium Christi ad Ecclesiam regendam a Spiritu Sancto positum."

In conferring the same afterwards, they bestowed this sacerdotal office upon some in all its fulness—that is, with the power of bestowing it upon others; and on some, with the limitation that the priest ordained could not confer upon others the sacerdotal jurisdiction which he had received. Excepting this alone, the priesthood in the Bishop and the priesthood in the priest are one and the same, and yet the Episcopate, by the divine power of ordination, is greater than the priesthood. But this difference is divine and incommunicable. S. Jerome says; Quid enim facit, excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod presbyter non faciat.^[6]

It is of faith that the Episcopate is the state of perfection instituted by Jesus Christ. It is certain also that the priesthood is included in that state. Whatsoever is true of the priesthood in itself is true both of Bishop and of priest. And in this we see why at first the names were for a while common and interchanged. The injunctions of Christian perfection given by S. Paul to Timothy and to Titus were given to Bishop and to presbyter or priest alike.^[7] And the whole book of S. John Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio, expressly applies equally to both.

S. Thomas says that priests partake of the priesthood of our Divine Lord, and that they are configured or conformed to Him. Let us therefore weigh the words priesthood, participation, and configuration, as here used.

1. What, then, is the priesthood of the Incarnate Son?^[8] It is the office He assumed for the redemption of the world by the oblation of Himself is the vestment of our manhood. He is Altar, Victim, and Priest, by an eternal consecration of Himself. This is the priesthood for ever after the order of Melchisedech, who was "without beginning of days or end of life"^[9]—a type of the eternal priesthood of the Son of God, the only King of Peace.

2. By participation, S. Thomas means that the priesthood of Jesus Christ being the one, only, perpetual, and universal priesthood, all priests consecrated under the New Law are made one with Him, and share in His own priesthood.^[10] There are not two priesthoods, as there are not two sacrifices for sin. But one sacrifice has for ever redeemed the world, and is offered continually in heaven and on earth: in heaven by the only Priest, before the Eternal Altar; on earth by the multitude and succession of priests who are one with Him as partakers of His priesthood; not as representatives only, but in reality; as also the sacrifice they offer is not a representation only, but His true, real, and substantial Body and Blood offered by their hands.

This is the argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The priesthood of the Old Law was a shadow; the priesthood of the New Law is the substance. It is fulfilled in the one Priest and the one Sacrifice which are perpetuated by the priesthood, on earth united with Him.

But this participation has another and more personal meaning. The oblation of our Lord for us binds us to offer ourselves wholly to Him. Christus … victima sacerdotii sui, et sacerdos suæ victimæ fuit. … Ipsi sunt hostiæ sacerdotes.^[11] S. Ambrose, speaking of the sacrifice of Abel, says: Hoc est sacrificium primitivum, quando unus quisque se offert hostiam, et a se incipit ut postea munus suum possit offerre.^[12] Priests offer the true Lamb and "the Blood which speaketh better things than that of Abel."^[13] Every priest, morning by morning, offers to the Father the eternal oblation of Jesus Christ; but in that action he ought to offer also himself. When he says, Hoc est corpus meum, he ought to offer his own body; when he says, Hic est calix sanguinis mei, he ought to offer his own blood; that is, he ought to offer himself as an oblation to his Divine Master, in body, soul, and spirit, with all his faculties, powers, and affections, in life and unto death. S. Paul writes to the Philippians, "If I be made a victim upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and congratulate with you all."^[14] This it may be he also said of the martyrdom which was before him; but it was spoken out of the consciousness that he had long and daily offered himself to his Divine Master, as a partaker of His sufferings for the sake of the elect.^[15] The same words might have been written by S. John, who always had a martyr's will, though he died in the way of nature; the same, too, is implied in every Mass, by every priest who offers himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar. The participation of the priest in the priesthood of Christ requires also a share in the law of self-oblation, of which the prophet writes: Oblatus est quia ipse voluit; and S. Paul, who says of our Lord that He, "by the Holy Ghost, offered Himself unspotted unto God."^[16] And, as S. John says, "in this we have known the charity of God, because He hath laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."^[17] The offering of the Body and Blood of Christ requires of the priest a spirit of self-sacrifice and of self-oblation without reserve. The obligation of charity, which binds all Christians, when the need may arise, to lay down their lives for the brethren, and pastors to give their life for the sheep, is in an especial way laid upon every priest in the self-oblation of the Holy Mass, which is the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

3. Lastly, the word configuration expresses the conformity of the priest to the great High Priest. S. Paul says that the Son is figura substantiæ ejus—that is, the figure or express image of the substance of the Father. The Greek text reads, χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ· the character of His substance.^[18] The priest, then, is the figura Christi, the express image of Christ, the χαρακτὴρ or character of Christ, because upon him is impressed the image of His priesthood, and a share in it is given to him. He is, as S. Paul says, configuratus morti ejus^[19]—configured to His death. In every Mass we set forth "the death of the Lord until He come."^[20] And we make oblation of ourselves in conformity to His oblation to the Father. Albertus Magnus and S. Thomas have said truly that no greater power or dignity, than the power and dignity of consecrating the Body of Christ, was ever bestowed on man; and no greater sanctity or perfection can be conceived than the sanctity and perfection required for so divine an action in the priest.

S. Thomas tells us that ordination impresses a character, and that the character is a spiritual and indelible sign or seal, by which the soul is marked for the exercise of the acts of divine worship, and for the teaching of the same to others.^[21] The priesthood of Christ is the source of all divine worship.^[22] All the faithful are conformed to Christ by the character impressed upon them in Baptism and Confirmation: and priests also in Ordination.^[23] But in Christ Himself there was no character, because He is the examplar and type of all characters; for Christ is the Character or Figure of the Father, and all divine perfection is in Him, of which the character in us is a partial conformity.^[24] The character we receive is impressed, not on the essence, but on the powers of the soul—that is, on the intellectual or the affective powers—and is either passive or active.^[25] The character of Baptism is a passive power for the reception of all other Sacraments, and for conformity as sons to the Son of God. The character of Confirmation is an active power for the public witness of the faith, and for the life of action and of patience as good soldiers of Christ. The character of Ordination is an active power for the exercise and ministry of divine worship.^[26] The sacerdotal character, therefore, is a participation of the Priesthood of Christ and the closest configuration to Him in His office of mediator. Finally, this character is the cause and source of sacramental grace, proper to each of the three Sacraments which impress it, and commensurate to their ends and obligations.

The word "character" means the precise outline of an engraving, as on a seal, and the impression of it signifies that a mark or reproduction of the same outline, as by a signet, is left upon the soul. This is clearly a metaphor, as also is the sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand before the four winds shall blow upon the earth. S. Thomas, in saying that the character is impressed, not on the essence of the soul, but upon its powers, means on the intellect by way of light, and on the affections by way of love.

It signifies therefore a work of the Holy Ghost the Illuminator and Sanctifier upon the soul. But it signifies not only the universal and uniform work of the Holy Ghost, as in Baptism and Confirmation; but a special and singular work wrought upon the Soul of those only who by Ordination share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. The three Sacraments which impress a character create and constitute each severally a special relation of the soul to God: Baptism that of sons, Confirmation that of soldiers, Orders that of priests; and these three spiritual relations once constituted are eternal, and therefore indelible. Whether in the light of glory or in the outer darkness, we shall be sons, soldiers, and priests, accepted or cast out eternally. And to these three relations a special and commensurate grace of the Holy Ghost is attached. Therefore, S. Thomas says that the character is the formal cause or source of sacramental grace.^[27] The character of son has in it all grace needed for the life of a son of God; the character of confirmation all grace needed for the warfare of the soldiers of Jesus Christ, even to confessorship and martyrdom; the character of priesthood has in it all graces of light, strength and sanctity needed for the sacerdotal life in all its manifold duties, trials and dangers. It was of this S. Paul reminded S. Timothy when he said, "Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with imposition of the hands of the priesthood."^[28]

Such is the priesthood of the Son of God, the consecration and oblation of Himself: and such is its communication to His priests by participation in His office, by configuration to Himself, and by the impression of the sacerdotal character upon the powers of the soul.

 

1. Albertus M. in lib. iv. Sent. dist. xxiv. art. 30.
2. S. Thom. Summa Theol. lib. iii. in Suppl. q. 40, a. 4, 5.
3. De Sacerdotio, lib. iii. § 4, 5.
4. Conc. Trid. sess. xx. c. ix. canon 2.
5. Ibid. sess. xiv. c. iii. canon 3.
6. S. Hieron. Epist. ci. ad Evangelum, tom. iv. p. 803.
7. Theodoret in Ep. ad Phil. i. 1.
8. "Proprie officium sacerdotis est esse mediatorem inter Deum et populum, inquantum scilicet divina populo tradit."—Summa S. Thomæ, P. iii. q. xxii. a. 1.

   "Et ideo ipse Christus, inquantum homo, non solum fuit sacerdos, sed etiam hostia perfecta, simul existens hostia pro peccato, et hostia pacifica, et holocaustum."—Ibid. a. 2.

9. Heb. vii. 3.
10. P. iii. q. lxiii. 6, and q. xxii. 5, 6.
11. S. Paulinus, Ep. xi. § 8, ad Severum.
12. De Abel, lib. ii. c. vi. tom. i. p. 215.
13. Heb, xii. 24.
14. Phil. ii. 17.
15. 2 S. Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8.
16. Heb. ix. 14.
17. 1 S. John iii. 16.
18. Heb. i. 3.
19. Phil. iii. 10.
20. 1 Cor. xi. 26.
21. "Per omnia Sacramenta fit homo particeps sacerdotii Christi, utpote percipiens aliquem effectum ejus; non tamen per omnia Sacramenta aliquis deputatur ad agendum aliquid, vel recipiendum quod pertineat ad cultum sacerdotii Christi; quod quidem exigitur ad hoc quod Sacramentum characterem imprimat."—Summa S. Thomæ, P. iii. q. lxiii. a. 6.

    "Character proprie est signaculum quoddam quo aliquid insignitur, ut ordinatum in aliquem finen."—Ibid. a. 3. "Character ordinatur ad ea quæ sunt divini cultus."—Ibid, a. 4.

22. "Totus autem ritus Christiana religionis derivatur a sacerdotio Christi."—Ibid. a. 3.
23. "Pertinet autem aliquod Sacramentum ad divinum cultum tripliciter: uno modo per modum ipsius actionis; alio modo per modum agentis; tertio modo per modum recipients. … Sed ad agens in Sacramentis pertinet Sacramentum ordinis. … Sed ad recipientes pertinet Sacramentum baptismi. … Ad idem etiam ordinatur quoddammodo confirmatio. … Et ideo per hæc tria Sacramenta character imprimitur, scilicet per baptismum, confirmationem, et ordinem."—Ibid. a. 6.
24. "Et propter hoc etiam Christo non competit habere characterem; sed potestas sacerdotii ejus comparatur ad characterem sicut id quod est plenum, et perfectum ad aliquam sui participationem."—Ibid. a. 5.
25. "Character est quoddam signaculum quo anima insignitur ad suscipiendum, vel aliis tradendum ea quæ sunt divini cultus. Divinus autem cultus in quibusdam actibus consistit. Ad actus autem proprie ordinantur potentiæ animæ, sicut essentia ordinatur ad esse. Et ideo character non est sicut in subjecto in essentia animæ, sed in ejus potentia."—Ibid. a. 4.
26. "Divinus autem cultus consistit vel in recipiendo aliqua divini vel in tradendo aliis. Ad utrumque autem horum requiritur quædam potentia: nam ad tradendum aliquid aliis requiritur quædam potentia activa; ad accipiendum autem requiritur potentia passiva. Et ideo character importat quamdam potentiam spiritualem ordinatam ad ea quæ sunt divini cultus."—Ibid. a. 3, and q. lxxii. a. 5.
27. P. iii. lxix. 10.
28. 1 S. Tim. iv. 14.