THESIS 9
Ordained to act in the person of the invisible Christ, priests act and intercede for others as his visible representatives. Augustine, as we noted, understood the Church’s ministers to be visible signs of the invisible but dynamically present priesthood of Christ—sacraments of Christ, the Head of the body that is the Church. In 1964 Vatican II linked the pastoral work of priests to the Shepherd and Head (LG 28). In a subsequent document of 1965 the Council returned to this thought and portrayed priests as being ‘configured to Christ the Priest in such a way that they are able to act in the person of Christ, the Head’ (PO 2; see also 6) and as ‘servants of the Head’ (PO 12).
THESIS 10
Participation in Christ’s priesthood through ministerial ordination may be misused through evil conduct but can never be retracted or undone.
Whether we speak of an ‘indelible mark’, a ‘sacramental character’, or simply of the permanent nature of ordination, this thesis in effect states: ‘once a priest, always a priest.’ We summarized what Aquinas wanted to say about the ‘indelible mark’ brought by sharing in Christ’s priesthood through baptism and then by sharing in that priesthood through ministerial ordination. In both cases a related but different participation in Christ’s priesthood left an enduring ‘stamp’ or ‘character’ on the person baptized or ordained. Just as Christ’s priesthood is eternal, Aquinas argued, so too is the priesthood of those baptized and those ordained. One cannot be either baptized or ordained a second time.
THESIS 11
The special sharing by the ordained in the priesthood of Christ involves a further call to a life of holiness. Right from Paul (and his themes of the spiritual ‘worship’ and ‘ministry’ exercised in daily life) and 1 Peter, the royal priesthood of the baptized was understood to call them to live out a holy existence. Paul and Hebrews, in particular, extended cultic language to picture the ‘priestly’ existence of all Christians. In later centuries Chrysostom was second to none in emphasizing the priestly holiness in daily life expected of all Christians. Yet sharing in Christ’s priesthood through ministerial ordination involves a further call to holiness. Origen, the French School, and other Christian witnesses down the centuries have insisted on the spiritual, self-sacrificing qualities required of ministerial priests. The Reformers, Vincent de Paul, and others have expressed their sorrow and indignation over the unworthy lives of many priests and bishops. In particular, presiding at the celebration of the Eucharist puts priests into an intimate and self-involving role in proclaiming the Lord’s death and resurrection. At the Eucharist all the faithful, to be sure, are called to identify with Christ who gave himself for others. Yet the presiding priests are summoned in a special way to manifest a true consistency between their cultic activity and their human lives.
Their identity at the altar should be seamlessly linked to a manifestly holy identity in daily life. As we noted, Yves Congar played a major role in preparing Vatican II’s decree on the ministry and life of priests. Writing shortly after the Council closed, he firmly set out the selfgiving that the Eucharist requires from priests and people: ‘The Eucharist of the New Testament is not a rite that could exist apart from our giving ourselves to God and to one another, in order to form one body of sacrifice in Jesus Christ, who was delivered for us.’ He drew the logical conclusion: ‘However beautiful, ritually, the celebration may be, if it does not include the effective spiritual sacrifice of human beings [it] is not really and truly the sacrifice of the New Testament.’ In the same vein, Congar added: ‘we do not discharge our duty to God by offering him in sacrifice “some thing”, however precious or costly, if it is anything, or even everything, except our selves.’ For ‘the one thing God desires from us’ is ‘our heart, our selves, living persons made in his image’.12
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