When people meet me and find out that I’m a Catholic theologian, it does not take long before they pop the question: “Why doesn’t the Catholic Church let women and married men be priests?”
Now the fun begins. “There must be some mistake,” I respond. “The Catholic Church has had female and married priests from the very beginning.”
That is usually met with a blank, perplexed stare.
But really, it is true. In Exodus 19:6 God promises to make the chosen people “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.” The first letter of Peter 2:5-10 echoes this. And to show how seriously the Catholic Church takes this, the sacrament of confirmation offers to all Catholics an anointing with the sacred chrism that is used to confer only one other sacrament — the ordination of bishops and priests.
This is not to blur the distinction between the ministerial priesthood and the priesthood of all believers.
The concept of priesthood implies the notion of sacrifice. And only the priest who receives the sacrament of holy orders is authorized and empowered to stand in the person of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice and repeat the words he uttered over the bread and wine the night before he died. Only the ministerial priest consecrates bread and wine and transforms them into the body and blood of Christ.
So what sacrifice does the priesthood of the laity offer? What do we lay “priests” consecrate?
St. Paul answers the first question in Romans 12:2: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.” As the Lord Jesus offered Himself totally for our sake, we are called to lay down our lives for Him and for one another. On rare occasions, this may mean the “supreme sacrifice” of martyrdom. But more commonly, it means the living sacrifice, the “white martyrdom,” of denying our own will to embrace His will, “offering up” in love the work we do and the trials we endure, as a sacrifice of praise of God and intercession for others in need. Studying for exams, changing a soiled diaper, going to work to provide for our families — these are all activities that become opportunities for Christians to exercise their sacred priesthood. In fact, during the Sunday Eucharist, as the bread and wine are carried up to the altar, we are called to consciously place ourselves and all sacrifices of the past week on the altar with the gifts to be united with Christ’s perfect sacrifice to the Father.
So what do we lay “priests” consecrate? Vatican II gives us the answer to that question in its decree on the Apostolate of the Laity. We are called to consecrate the secular, the earthly, the nitty-gritty realities of life to God. When we give thanks over a meal, we consecrate it to God’s glory and sanctify it. When we offer our work in sacrifice, and live out our Christian witness in the workplace, we consecrate our work and sanctify it. We lay priests are to be God’s secret agents in every arena of life, in places where ministerial priests and religious may never go, elevating, purifying, sanctifying, blessing.
Without the pastoral care and sacramental ministry of ordained priests and bishops, we lay “priests” would never have the spiritual wherewithal to live out this challenging call.
So yes, by all means, praying for God to send laborers to the harvest entails praying for an increase of vocations to the ministerial priesthood and religious life. And we need to put our children and teens in contact with holy priests and religious who are joyfully and fruitfully living out their vocations, so that it might be easier for the young to hear God calling should they have such a vocation.
But praying for laborers for the harvest also means to pray that more and more of those priests consecrated through baptism and confirmation would answer the awesome call that they’ve received to transform themselves and all creation through the sacrificial love of Christ poured into their hearts through the Holy Spirit.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:38 am
I must disagree with Marcellino D’Ambrosio, Ph.D. There are three (3) Sacraments that the Oil of Chrism is used, Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders (ordination of priest)..
June 14th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Digitaldeacon. Good catch.
Even so, that wouldn’t negate his point about the oil of chrism being offered in Confirmation, nor his broader point on the priesthood of the laity. Plus, while it is often used as part of the Baptismal rite, I do not think it is REQUIRED for a valid sacramental Baptism. Perhaps that is why it was not in the example he used.
By the way, why did you put the “PhD.” in your comment? Trying to take the good Dr. AD’Ambrosio down a notch were we?
“…in all things, charity.”
June 14th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Bruce, I am sure it is because he cut and pasted Marcellino’s name to be sure he spelled it correctly and the title just came with it.
See, there, that’s a charitable explanation.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:20 am
In reality the archetype of Adam is the priesthood and of Eve the laity.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
The discussion here is lively and friends I have made in the “Faith & Life” roundtable have contributed.
Is this the way of the future that discusssiopns will develop from CE articles?
However the comments soon disappear into cyber space and it is difficult to continue with them. For discussions to develop it takes time and often I have to think for a few days before I can formulate my views. I imagine older articles can be found under the columnists’ names, but there does not seem to be a tendencey to develop discussions in depth.
It would be great to get more of the former contributors back to the roundtable.
God bless,
Noelfitz.
PS: PLease remember my family in your prayers at the present time. NF.
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IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS.
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June 14th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
This is an excellent article, and a beautifully effective response to these questions, because it re-focuses the questioner to the object of the priesthood. Any talk of sacrifice may wither their interest quickly, exposing their view of the priesthood as just another office to acquire or to exercise power from, and so should be spoken of frequently as a remedy to our misshapen, cursory and impoverished modern views. The priesthood is a primordial aspect of man’s nature, associated with holiness, and death, and God’s hidden, unguessed at intention for Man. May I offer a short meditation on the subject. I apologize in advance if this is boring.
While the roots of the priesthood take us back to Adam, being an essential part of Adam’s role in defining and fulfilling human nature, it was apparently integral to the marriage covenant, being appropriate to the level of human nature based both in justice and the fulfillment of the self-giving nature of his creation in God’s Image. Adam was to fulfill his call to protect man and creation first and foremost by his worship of God, to totally surrender himself and all he had been given to Him, and thus keep Man and the world free from sin, and free to develop in peace and grace the gifts God had given him, and to fulfill the task he had been given, to bring God’s image, presence and grace throughout creation. This would have been a proper preparation for Christ.
Apparently, a result of the Fall was a certain dislodging, not to say separation, of some of the elements of human nature. Not only was Adam, and now his sons, no longer adequate to fulfill the priesthood based in justice, but an element of the priesthood that was left mysterious in God’s design was entirely separated out. The original priesthood when properly exercised and fulfilled would be a preparation for, and type (or image) of the true meaning of the coming of Christ, who would reveal the meaning of self-giving in the Life of the Trinity, and His election of Man as the center of His creation, as the image of His own Interior Life. He would thereby invite Man into an un-thought of intimacy and holiness and friendship that would astound even the angels.
When Christ came He added a dimension to the priesthood which could only come from God, the manifestation of His Mercy, and the mystery of how Man was meant to be configured in his nature to God, through Christ, and the raising up of Man to the Divine Intimacy, a sharing in the life of the Trinity. Both aspects of the priesthood, of nature and of grace, as it were, were now fulfilled
in Him, in His nature, not in Adam’s, and so, while reuniting all the aspects of the priesthood by His death, the time for hiding the prophetic within the actual, the Power of God’s Intention within the limit of Man’s gifts, was passed. The higher calling of the priesthood in Christ was no longer to coincide with marriage the symbol, but was to stand alone as the sign of God’s call to the True Marriage with God forever in heaven.
The Priesthood of the First Born has been fulfilled in Him, and He has extended its fruit and power to all those confirmed in His Grace, to make a fitting and acceptable offering of self to God, and then to each other. But now He has invested the Priesthood of the First Born, transfigured it, if you will, with His Powerful Merciful Presence, and highlights the higher calling of man in the sacramental memorial of His ministers, who serve His Self-surrendered Mercy, “supreme above all His Works”. This is why the Church has never allowed in a regular fashion the sacrament of Marriage after one receives the sacrament of Holy Orders. In this last phase of His mission, Christ has come to prepare Himself a Bride, and His priests carry His invitation, that is, His image, presence and grace, throughout the dieing world. They stand with Christ at His altar in heaven, offering with the power of His Being and nature, the Sacrifice of His Life, to purify the sacrifice of life made by His saints in our day, to make them into a worthy Bride.
Christ is the Giver, we are the receiver of Life. Christ is the Groom, we are the Bride. We can deny our nature, but that doesn’t change it. His priests stand as a Great Sign in our world. Will we once and for all worship God with the True Adam, or let sin spoil our life? Only God can make a Bride who is worthy to share the Life with Christ. Like Eve, the Bride can only be a worthy mate by being fashioned from Christ Himself.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:00 am
The only thing I can added to this is that when Christ became flesh, He full filled the definition of marriage in Genesis 2:24. This ties together the Announciation, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, and the Incarnation.
At ever Mass we celbrate the Incarnation of each and every Domestic Church.
June 15th, 2008 at 7:50 am
If you need further explaination only Christ could leave His father and mother and become one flesh with His bride the church. A man can not become the flesh of a woman nor can a woman the flesh of a man, only Christ.
This means that the center of marriage is the Incarnation.
June 15th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Marcellino’s article is very sound. The Morning Offering is a good prayer for the start of the day.
I am afraid I do not really understand either Don or qhrpfu.
However I hope discussions will continue. They are beneficial for us all.
God bless,
Noelfitz.
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IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS, IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS, IN OMNIBUS CARITAS.
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June 15th, 2008 at 11:48 am
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,
35
and one of them [a scholar of the law] 20 tested him by asking,
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Matthew
Chapter 22
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
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He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
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This is the greatest and the first commandment.
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The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40
24 The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Question: How much love is left from observing the first for the second comandment?
If you answered none you are correct…
And what is true of neighbor is true of spouse…
So what is marriage?
June 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Thanks, Mary. It did occur to me (after I posted) that it very well may have been a “cut and paste” of D’Ambrosio, since it is a name which is easy to misspell.
I should have figured that, the more charitable view, was the case.
Sorry about that, digitaldeacon!
noelfitz,
I agree that the discussions here can be lively and informative. I have learned a great deal from reading the articles and postings here at Catholicexchange.com and the forum (or roundtable) especially. I hope the old crew gets back to the swing once they figure out how to get on to the new site.
Bruce (aka “Protect the Rcok”)
June 15th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I’m sorry, the meditation should not have been posted. You can remove it if you want.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:28 am
DECREE ON ECUMENISM
UNITATIS REDINTEGRATIO
INTRODUCTION
1. The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council. Christ the Lord founded one Church and one Church only. However, many Christian communions present themselves to men as the true inheritors of Jesus Christ; all indeed profess to be followers of the Lord but differ in mind and go their different ways, as if Christ Himself were divided.(1) Such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature.