Showing posts with label Sacramentology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sacramentology. Show all posts

Confess Your Sins

 The Sacrament of Reconciliation

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the LORD
will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore,
confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be
healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah
was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not
rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
James 5, 15-17

The Sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Confession, involves Catholics thinking about what their sins are (examination of conscience), resolving to avoid the sins in the future (the desire for amendment), confessing their sins to a validly ordained priest, and performing the penance the priest assigns to them. The purpose of confessing their sins is to mend their broken relationship with God and receive sanctifying grace to heal their souls and repair that relationship, allowing them to enter back into communion with the Church. Faithful Catholics obtain absolution for the sins that they’ve committed against God and their neighbor upon making their confession.

During Confession, Catholics enumerate all the sins that they can remember and are manifested to their minds by the voice of conscience. In order to make a good or beneficial confession, the faithful must confess all mortal or “deadly” sins (cf. 1 Jn 5:17). These are the sins that they have committed since their last confession, including the same sins that may have been committed by habit (habitual sin). Catholics are bound to go to confession at least once a year, preferably during the Easter season. But the Magisterium of the Church strongly encourages the faithful to receive the sacrament regularly and as often as is necessary because of mortal sin.

We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that this sacrament is also called the “sacrament of conversion” since Jesus is made present to us in the sacrament calling us to the conversion of heart and return to the Father from whom we have strayed in sin. The sacrament is also called the “sacrament of penance” since it “consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction” to God (1423). The sacrament is a “sacrament of forgiveness,” since, by the priest’s absolution, God grants the penitent soul “pardon and peace.” This sacrament is essentially called the “sacrament of confession” and the “sacrament of reconciliation” since we are “called to acknowledge and confess our sins before God” in recognition of “God’s loving mercy” and be restored to friendship with him and be reconciled with our neighbor (1424).

Jesus calls us to conversion. This is an essential part of his proclamation of the kingdom of heaven. “Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life” (CCC,1427). We are “washed, sanctified, and justified” when we are baptized (1 Cor 6:11). However, the initial cleansing and regeneration of life in the Spirit haven’t eradicated the frailty and weakness of our human nature nor the inclination to sin (concupiscence) that remains in the baptized, such that they rely on the grace of final perseverance from that time on.

Catholics believe that “Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians.” This daily need for conversion or “second conversion is an interrupted task of the Church, which… is at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal. The endeavor of conversion is not just natural human work. It is the movement of a contrite heart drawn and moved by grace to the merciful love of God who loved us first” (1428).

True conversion is a conversion of the heart or interior conversion. Without this, acts of penance are sterile and serve no purpose. Exterior observances are unfruitful if unproduced by a conversion of the heart. But interior conversion calls for an “expression of visible signs, gestures, and works of penance (fasting and mortification)” since, after all, actions speak louder than words (1430). The Catholic Church has always taught since ancient times that interior repentance is a “radical reorientation of our whole life, a return to God with all our heart, and end of sin.”

Interior conversion involves the genuine desire of “turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the sins that we have committed” as baptized Christians. Simultaneously, a conversion of the heart “entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life” or continue to grow in holiness despite the occasional backsliding. What makes doing penance fruitful is the “conversion of heart that is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness” and the desire to restore equity of justice in our relationship with God (1431).

Hence, penance involves a heaviness of heart brought about by God’s cooperative grace that turns the heart of stone into a heart of flesh. It is God who takes the initiative and causes our hearts to return to him, but not without our cooperation (Lam 5:21). God gives us the strength to be renewed by the outpouring of His Spirit. Moved by the Spirit to repent, we confess our sins and make acts of reparation that are ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, whom we have initially received in Baptism. It’s by the agency of the Holy Spirit that “our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from Him” (1432). It’s our love for God that cleanses us of all sin. If we love God, we’ll demonstrate our love by doing acts of penance to restore the equity of justice in our relationship with Him.

Christ initiated the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church, especially for those who have fallen into grave sin after their baptism. We lose the sanctifying grace that we initially received in baptism by committing a mortal sin. The sacrament of Penance “offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification.” The sacrament of Reconciliation is incomplete without disciplinary acts of penance and restitution. Penitential acts are necessary for us to be fully reconciled to God (commutative justice).  So, these are the essential elements that make the sacrament one of forgiveness and reconciliation: “contrition, confession, and satisfaction” (1446-1449).

Since Christ entrusted to his apostles the ministry of reconciliation, “bishops who are their successors, and priests – the bishops’ collaborators – continue to exercise this ministry. Indeed, bishops and priests, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, have the power to forgive all sins ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit ’” (1465). The priest fulfills the ministry of the “Good Shepherd” when he performs the sacrament of Reconciliation or Penance by “seeking out the lost sheep” in the fold. He acts like the “Good Samaritan who binds up wounds,” like “the father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return (reconciliation with the Church), and like the “just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. The priest is the sign and the instrument of God’s merciful love for the sinner” (1464).

The confessor isn’t “the master of God’s forgiveness, but its servant. He must “unite himself with the intention and charity of Christ” (1466). A priest is in persona Christi because he acts as Christ and as God with an authority invested in him by Christ. Bishops and priests are given the power to act in the person of Christ when they exercise their sanctifying, teaching, and ruling functions for the sake of the members of Christ’s body, which is the Church. Through the grace of the sacrament of Holy Orders, bishops and priests are incorporated into the person of Christ, the Head of the Church.

Like all the sacraments of the Church, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is supernaturally effective. The penitent is forgiven of their sin and restored to the life of grace even though the minister of the sacrament might be depraved and sinful. The righteousness of the minister doesn’t convey the power of the sacrament, but Christ does through the Holy Spirit. The priest is a covenantal mediator just like Moses was when he pleaded with God to forgive the sin of the Israelites after they had constructed and worshiped the golden calf. A mortal sin is essentially an act of idolatry in that the sinner places their disordered desires before the will of God.

Thus, St. Paul instructs us: ‘Respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work’ (1 Thess 5:12-13). The Sacrament of Reconciliation is just as efficacious as any other sacrament, including Baptism since the true minister is always Christ our High Priest in whom and through whom our Catholic ministers work. All seven sacraments act ex opere operato by the very act of the actions being performed.

Jesus granted his apostles the authority to forgive sins. He said to them prior to his ascension into heaven, “As the Father sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). As Christ was sent by the Father to forgive sins, our Lord commissioned his apostles and their ordained successors to forgive sins in his name. We read in the gospel, that Jesus breathes on his apostles and gives them the power to “forgive and retain” sins (Jn 20:22-23). Jesus speaks of “the sins of any” meaning the personal sins of individuals. From this phrase, we can infer that the penitent must first confess their sin to an apostle or successor of his in the ministry of the priesthood before their sin can be forgiven or retained judging by the genuineness of conversion. Although he is a divine Person, Jesus forgave sins in his humanity through the power invested in him by his heavenly Father. He did this to convince the scribes and Pharisees that he had, in fact, the authority to forgive sins though he isn’t the Father (Mt 9:6; Mk 2:10; Lk 5:24). Jesus transferred this authority to his apostles, and they in turn to their appointed successors in the ministry or divine office.

St. Paul forgives sins in persona Christi as a validly ordained minister (2 Cor 2:10). The “ministry of reconciliation” or the ministering of the sacrament was given to the “ambassadors” of the Church (2 Cor 5:18). Soon after returning from Jerusalem to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas were formally invested with this new commission by the laying on of hands and receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 13:3). In Acts 14:23, St. Paul established presbyters (ordained priests) in every place on his return through Asia Minor on his first mission  (Acts 14:23). In 1 Thess 5. 12-13 he told the people to obey the religious authorities (1 Thess 5:12-13).

The apostles, and therefore their appointed successors in the priestly ministry, were given the power to “bind and loose” (Mt 18:18). The authority to bind and loose included administering and removing the temporal penalties due to sin. As Jews, the apostles would have understood this for it was the power that the priests in the Temple had until then, which included defining divine revelation. Jesus ordained the apostles as priests at the Last Supper by performing the Levitical ordination ritual of the washing of feet (Jn 13:1-20). Jesus told Peter he couldn’t have a share in his priesthood or have a part of him (in persona) unless he allowed our Lord to wash his feet after he objected to this. Peter then replied by saying, ” Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

The washing of the head and hands was included in the Levitical ordination ceremony, but Jesus focussed only on the washing of feet which symbolized humility and service in the ministry. In the midst of the “consecration” of Aaron and his sons, Moses “washed them with water” (Lev 8:6-10). We also see Aaron and his sons washing their hands and their feet (Exodus 40:30-32). Moreover, the mention of having a “part” (meros) in John 13:8 recalls the priestly Levites having their portion (meris) in the LORD or in persona (Num 18:20; Deut 10:9, LXX).

Jesus concluded this part of the Last Supper by telling his apostles that they should do as he had just done in his ministry by being as humble and loyal in their commission, and he added, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me” (Jn 13:20). Thus, Jesus did, in fact, transfer his priestly authority to his apostles, and they were to act in his name in persona Christi for the dispensation of his grace. With this authority, they could also ordain Matthias, Paul, Barnabas, and countless others who, in turn, would do the same up to our present-day in the Catholic Church by the laying on of hands in an unbroken physical chain or line of apostolic succession through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Orally confessing sins to other people and not strictly privately to God was practiced and considered necessary in the infant Church and would continue in post-apostolic time in the early Church. James explicitly teaches us to “confess our sins to one another” (Jas 5:16). This passage must be read in context with Vv. 14-15 which refers to the physical and spiritual healing power possessed by the priests to whom we should confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the grace of forgiveness. Indeed, countless people came to the apostles and their anointed associates to orally confess their sins (Acts 19:18). They didn’t go home and confess their sins directly to God in private with indifference toward the divine authority of the apostles or elders and presbyters. The faithful practiced professing their faith and orally confessing their sins before human witnesses (1 Tim 6:12).

Our Lord faithfully cleanses and forgives us our sins provided we confess our sins to one another (1 Jn 1:9). Confessing one’s sin and making public restitution to re-enter the community of faith was a practice of the ancient Jews (Num 5:7). The Israelites stood before a public assembly to confess their sins and intercede for each other (Neh. 9:2-3; Baruch 1:14). In fact, God desired that His chosen people should confess their sins and not be ashamed to do it publicly (Sirach 4:26). Many people who came to John the Baptist at the Jordan river orally confessed their sins to him in a spirit of repentance and a firm desire for amendment (Mt: 3:6; Mk 1:5). So, the Sacrament of Reconciliation has its roots in ancient Judaism.

Mortal sins lead to spiritual death and must be absolved in the sacrament if we hope to be saved. Venial sins (that don’t incur spiritual death or cost us our salvation) don’t have to be confessed to a priest, but pious Catholics include them in the confessional in order to receive graces for spiritual growth in holiness and avoid entering or spending more time in purgatory (1 Jn 5:16-17; Lk 12:47-48). Breaking the least of the commandments is a venial sin (Mt 5:19).

Finally, repentance is incomplete if the debt of sin remains in the balance. God forgave David for his mortal sins of murder and adultery after he sincerely repented and confessed his sins with a contrite heart and broken spirit. But to offset his transgressions and restore equity of justice, God took the life of the child David conceived in his act of adultery with Bathsheba for having murdered her husband Uriah: an innocent life for innocent life, or an eye for an eye. And God also permitted the rape of David’s wives for his act of adultery (2 Sam 12:9-10, 14, 18-19). Only then could David’s broken relationship with God be fully amended, provided he accepted his pain and loss as a temporal punishment for his sins to restore equity of justice in his relationship with God.

The debt of sin can be fully remitted only by having to do penance for it. Doing acts of penance, whose pain and loss counterbalances the sinful pleasure one is heartily sorry for or accepting the pain and loss that God permits because of our sins, completes the temporal redemptive process. Christ didn’t suffer and die so that we should no longer owe God what is His rightful due for having offended His sovereign dignity (Mt 5:17; Job 42:6; Lam 2:14; Ezek 18:21; Jer 31:19; Rom 2:4; Rev 2:5, etc.). This is from Jesus himself: “No, I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish”(Lk 13:3); “Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance” (Mt 3:8). True repentance for the forgiveness of sin calls for fruit worthy of our act of contrition. Our outward acts (almsgiving/fasting) must conform to our inner disposition or spiritual reality (charity/temperance) to offset our vices and sins (greed/gluttony) which have been forgiven by the act of contrition pending full temporal restitution. This is all part and parcel of our confession through the sacrament given to the Church by Christ Himself.

EARLY SACRED TRADITION

“In church confess your sins, and do not come to your prayer with a guilt
conscience. Such is the Way of Life…On the Lord’s own day, assemble in common
to break bread and offer thanks; but first confess your sins, so that your sacrifice may be pure.”
Didache, 4:14,14:1 (c. A.D. 90)

“Moreover, it is in accordance with reason that we should return to soberness
of conduct, and, while yet we have opportunity, exercise repentance towards
God. It is well to reverence both God and the bishop.”
St.Ignatius, Epistle to the Smyraeans, 9
(c. A.D. 110)

“Such are the words and deeds by which, in our own district of the Rhone, they
have deluded many women, who have their consciences seared as with a hot
iron. Some of them, indeed, make a public confession of their sins; but others of
them are ashamed to do this, and in a tacit kind of way, despairing of
[attaining to] the life of God, have, some of them, apostatized altogether;
while others hesitate between the two courses, and incur that which is implied
in the proverb, ‘neither without nor within;’ possessing this as the fruit from
the seed of the children of knowledge.”
St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1:13
(A.D. 180)

“Father who knowest the hearts of all grant upon this Thy servant whom Thou
hast chosen for the episcopate to feed Thy holy flock and serve as Thine high
priest, that he may minister blamelessly by night and day, that he may
unceasingly behold and appropriate Thy countenance and offer to Thee the
gifts of Thy holy Church. And that by the high priestly Spirit he may have
authority to forgive sins…”
St. Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, 3
(A.D. 215)


“The Pontifex Maximus–that is, the bishop of bishops–issues an edict:
‘I remit, to such as have discharged (the requirements of) repentance, the sins
both of adultery and of fornication.’”
Tertullian, Modesty, 1
(A.D. 220)


“In addition to these there is also a seventh, albeit hard and laborious:
the remission of sins through penance…when he does not shrink
from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord.”
Origen, Homilies on Leviticus, 2:4
(A.D. 248)


“For although in smaller sins sinners may do penance for a set time, and according to the rules of
discipline come to public confession, and by the imposition of the hand of the bishop and clergy
receive the right of communion: now with their time still unfulfilled, while persecution is still
raging, while the peace of the Church itself is not vet restored, they are admitted to communion,
and their name is presented; and while the penitence is not yet performed, confession is not yet
made, the hands Of the bishop and clergy are not yet laid upon them, the eucharist is given to
them; although it is written, ‘Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord
unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.’”
St. Cyprian, To the Clergy, 9 (16):2
(A.D. 250)


“For if any one will consider how great a thing it is for one, being a man, and
compassed with flesh and blood, to be enabled to draw nigh to that blessed and
pure nature, he will then clearly see what great honor the grace of the Spirit
has vouchsafed to priests; since by their agency these rites are celebrated, and
others nowise inferior to these both in respect of our dignity and our salvation.
For they who inhabit the earth and make their abode there are entrusted with
the administration of things which are in Heaven, and have received an
authority which God has not given to angels or archangels. For it has not been
said to them, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and
whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.’ They who rule on
earth have indeed authority to bind, but only the body: whereas this binding
lays hold of the soul and penetrates the heavens; and what priests do here
below God ratifies above, and the Master confirms the sentence of his servants.
For indeed what is it but all manner of heavenly authority which He has given
them when He says, ‘Whose sins ye remit they are remitted, and whose sins ye
retain they are retained?’ What authority could be greater than this? ‘The
Father hath committed all judgment to the Son?’ But I see it all put into the
hands of these men by the Son.”
St. John Chrysostom, The Priesthood, 3:5
(A.D. 387)

“The Church holds fast its obedience on either side, by both retaining and
remitting sin; heresy is on the one side cruel, and on the other disobedient;
wishes to bind what it will not loosen, and will not loosen what it has bound,
whereby it condemns itself by its own sentence. For the Lord willed that the
power of binding and of loosing should be alike, and sanctioned each by a
similar condition…Each is allowed to the Church, neither to heresy, for this
power has been entrusted to priests alone. Rightly, therefore, does the Church
claim it, which has true priests; heresy, which has not the priests of God,
cannot claim it. And by not claiming this power heresy pronounces its own
sentence, that not possessing priests it cannot claim priestly power. And so in
their shameless obstinacy a shamefaced acknowledgment meets our view.
Consider, too, the point that he who has received the Holy Ghost has also
received the power of forgiving and of retaining sin. For thus it is written:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit: whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto
them, and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.’ So, then, he who has
not received power to forgive sins has not received the Holy Spirit. The office
of the priest is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and His right it is specially to forgive
and to retain sins. How, then, can they claim His gift who distrust His power
and His right?”
St. Ambrose, Concerning Repentance, I:7-8
(A.D. 388)


“All mortal sins are to be submitted to the keys of the Church and all can be
forgiven; but recourse to these keys is the only, the necessary, and the certain
way to forgiveness. Unless those who are guilty of grievous sin have recourse
to the power of the keys, they cannot hope for eternal salvation. Open your
lips, them, and confess your sins to the priest. Confession alone is the true gate
to Heaven.”
St. Augustine, Christian Combat
(A.D. 397)


“Just as in the Old Testament the priest makes the leper clean or unclean, so in
the New Testament the bishop and presbyter binds or looses not those who are
innocent or guilty, but by reason of their office, when they have heard various
kinds of sins, they know who is to be bound and who loosed.”
St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew, 3:16,19
(A.D. 398)

“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.
“Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven;
if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

John 20, 21-23

Pax vobiscum


I Became Your Father

 The Sacrament of Holy Orders

And Michas said:
Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest,
and I will give thee every year ten pieces of silver,
and a double suit of apparel, and thy victuals.
Judges 17, 10

Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ,
you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus
I became your father through the gospel.
1 Corinthians 4, 15

The Sacrament of Holy Orders is the continuation of Jesus Christ’s priesthood, which He bestowed upon His Apostles. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders as “the sacrament of apostolic ministry” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1536).

The priesthood of the New Covenant has its roots in the priesthood of the Old Covenant. God’s chosen people have constituted “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6). But from among the twelve tribes of Israel, God chose the tribe of Levi and set it apart to minister liturgical service (Num 1:48-53; Josh 13:33). The Levite priests were “appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb 5:1; cf. Ex 29:1-30; Lev 8). This priesthood was instituted to proclaim the Word of God and restore communion with God by sacrifice and prayer (Mal 2:7-9). However, this priesthood was powerless in bringing about salvation in the Christian meaning. The sacrifices for sin had to be repeated ceaselessly and were unable to achieve definitive sanctification and justification, which only Christ’s single sacrifice of himself could and would accomplish at the appointed time in salvation history (Heb 5:3; 7:27; CCC 1539, 1540).

In the New Covenant, there are two participations in the one priesthood of Christ. Our High Priest and unique mediator between God and humanity has made his Church “be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Rev 1:6). We who are baptized “like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). God’s chosen people in the New Dispensation are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special protection” (1 Pet 2:9). The entire community of believers is as such priestly in their baptismal vocation according to their particular spiritual gifts. Christians are anointed first and foremost in the Sacrament of Baptism and then again when their baptismal grace is perfected in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

As anointed priests in the Church, Christians are united to Christ and his sacrifice in the offerings they make of themselves in their daily lives. Paul exhorted the Christians in Rome to “offer [their] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, [their] spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). The Second Vatican Council affirms, “[The laity] exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the penetrating and perfecting of the temporal order through the spirit of the Gospel. In this way, their temporal activity openly bears witness to Christ and promotes the salvation of men. Since the laity, in accordance with their state of life, live in the midst of the world and its concerns, they are called by God to exercise their apostolate in the world like leaven, with the ardor of the spirit of Christ.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2).

Catholics profess Jesus Christ to be “the one (heis / εἷς) Mediator between God and man” (1 Tim 2:5), by which St. Paul means He is the one who has ‘universally’ redeemed the world and has reconciled all humanity (Jew and Gentile) to God by serving as a ransom for sin which was paid through the outpouring of his most precious blood (2:6). Our Lord’s principal mediation in his humanity does not preclude the mediation or intercession of the faithful in and through His merits by prayer and sacrifice “so that everyone might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:1-4). The apostle has no intention of emphasizing that Jesus is the “one and only” (monos / μόνος) mediator in the entire economy of salvation. The Christian faithful are indeed called to participate in our Lord’s mediation as active and living members of His Mystical Body who partake of the divine life (1 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 1:3-4). This prerogative is conferred on these members by right of adoption as sons and daughters of God, who participate in Christ’s divine nature; since it is in his humanity – not divinity – that Christ as Head of His Mystical Body intercedes for us all before the Father as both eternal High Priest and sacrificial victim.

The ministerial priesthood of bishops and priests and the common priesthood of believers participate each in their own way in the one priesthood of Christ (CCC 1546, 1547). While the common priesthood of the faithful “is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace –a life of faith, hope, and charity, a life according to the Spirit, the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. It is directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians. The ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church. For this reason, it is transmitted by its own sacrament, the sacrament of Holy Orders” (CCC, 1547).

The ordained minister acts in the person of Christ. Our Lord is present in the ecclesial service of his anointed minister as Head of his body. The priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis, representing the person of Christ. “It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself. Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ” (CCC, 1548).

The ministerial priesthood is a divine office that extends from the common priesthood of the faithful through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. This is an office that our Lord has committed to his pastors to serve as shepherds of his flock in his name and in him. It depends entirely on Christ and on his unique priesthood for the good of all people and the communion of the Church. The sacred power of Christ is communicated to the ordained minister through the sacrament of Holy Orders. The exercise of this authority in the divine office “must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, who by love made himself the least and the servant of all” (CCC 1551). The ministerial priesthood acts in the name of the whole Church when offering to God the prayer of the Church, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice (CCC 1552). “The prayer and offering of the Church are inseparable from the prayer and offering of Christ, her head; it is always the case that Christ worships in and through his Church. The whole Church, the Body of Christ, prays and offers herself ‘through him, with him, in him,’ in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to God the Father. The whole Body, caput et membra, prays and offers itself, and therefore those who in the Body are especially his ministers are called ministers not only of Christ but also of the Church. It is because the ministerial priesthood represents Christ that it can represent the Church” (CCC, 1553).

Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders priests “share in the universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles.” The spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them for the fullest universal mission of salvation, that is to the ends of the earth, to preach the Gospel and minister the sacraments (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). (CCC, 1565) It is in the Eucharistic assembly of the faithful (synaxis) that ordained priests exercise their divine office in the “supreme degree”… “acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass, they make present again and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once and for all a spotless victim to the Father” (CCC, 1566).

Priests are called “to the service of the People of God.” Together with their bishop, they constitute a unique “sacerdotal college” (presbyterium) in which they fulfill all their duties. Priests can exercise their ministry only on “dependence on the bishop and in communion with them.” The vow of obedience priests make to the bishop at the time of ordination and the “kiss of peace” at the end of the ordination liturgy signifies they are in communion with him as his fellow workers in Christ (CCC, 1567). “The unity of the presbyterium finds liturgical expression in the custom of the presbyters’ imposing hands, after the bishop, during the Ate of ordination” (CCC, 1568).

Finally, the Sacrament of Holy Orders also includes the ordination of deacons. They are situated at a lower level of the Church hierarchy. These candidates also receive the imposition of the bishop’s hands “not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry” to serve the Church. Not unlike the priest, the deacon is a co-worker with the bishop together with the priest (CCC, 1569). Moreover, deacons also serve in Christ’s mission in a special way apart from the common priesthood of the faithful. “Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity” (CCC, 1570).

The ordinations of bishops, (selected by the pope), priests, and deacons preferably take place in a cathedral on Sunday. All three ordinations take a proper place in the Eucharistic liturgy (CCC, 1571). “The essential rite of the sacrament of Holy Orders for all three degrees consists in the bishop’s imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand and in the bishop’s specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate is being ordained” (CCC 1573).

The effects of the Sacrament of Holy Orders are the indelible character and the grace of the Holy Spirit. This sacrament “configures the recipient to Christ by a special grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ’s instrument for his Church. By ordination one is enabled to act as a representative of Christ, Head of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and king. As with the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, the Sacrament of Holy Orders “confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily” (CCC, 1582). Although an ordained person could be discharged from his office for grave reasons, “the character imprinted by ordination is forever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him permanently” (CCC, 1583). It is by the grace of the Holy Spirit proper to this sacrament that the ordinand is configured to Christ as “Priest, Teacher, and Pastor, of whom the ordained is made a minister” (CCC, 1585).

The Sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministerial priesthood have a biblical basis. We find the verb form for the noun hiereus or ἱερεύς in the New Testament. The word means “priest” or one who “sacrifices to a god.” Paul writes to the church in Rome: “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering (hierourgounta / ἱερουργοῦντα) the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Rom 15:15-15, KJV). What we literally have is “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God” (NASB), “the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God” (NIV), or “in the priestly service of the gospel of God” (ESV).

The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) has this: “But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” Thus, the ministers of the New Covenant were essentially priests and had priestly tasks. The supreme act of theirs was to offer up the Eucharistic sacrifice to God in worship (1 Cor 10:16, 18, 20; 11:26; Heb 13:10, 15). There is no ministerial priestly function ascribed to deacons, but there is to apostles, bishops, and elders.

Our Lord Jesus definitively chose and sent his apostles to act like priests, or “mediators between God and men.” For instance, after the Resurrection, our Lord appeared to the apostles and said to them: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so, I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”(Jn 20:21-23). On this occasion, Jesus communicates or transfers the sacred power to forgive and retain sins. The apostles are to do what the Lord has done in his priestly ministry with divine authority. The power or authority Jesus invests in them is the one he has been invested in by God the Father in his humanity (Mt 5:17-26).

Ministering the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a ministerial priestly task that is rooted in the Old Covenant. For example, ‘ but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him’ (Lev 19:21-22, RSVCE). The ordination of the New Covenant priests, therefore, began with Jesus and the apostles. The Sacrament of Holy Orders was instituted by Christ himself.

The Scriptures reveal that the ordained ministers of the nascent New Covenant Church had a share in Christ’s priestly ministry and authority that originated from the Father. Jesus says he does nothing of his own authority. Likewise, the apostles will do nothing on their own authority but on the same authority that comes from God (Jn 8:28). The father’s authority is transferred to the Son. The Son does not speak on his own. This is a transfer of divine authority (Jn 12:49). Jesus gives to his apostles what the Son has been given from the Father (Jn 16:14-15). The authority isn’t lessened or mitigated. Jesus declares to His apostles, “He who receives you, receives Me, and he who rejects you, rejects Me and the One who sent Me” (Mt 10:1, 40). Jesus gives the apostles the authority to make visible decisions on earth that will be ratified in heaven (Mt 16:19; 18:18). The power to “bind and loose” was given to the priests of the Old Covenant. Jesus tells his apostles that “he who hears you, hears me” (Lk 10:16). When we listen to our bishop on matters of faith and morals, we listen to Christ whom he represents.

The Christian faith is built upon the foundation of the apostles. The word “foundation” shows that the apostolic teaching authority does not die with the apostles but carries on through a physical line of succession (Eph 2:20). As soon as Jesus ascends into heaven Peter implements apostolic succession. Matthias is ordained with full apostolic authority (Acts 1:15-26). Only the Catholic Church can demonstrate an unbroken apostolic lineage to the apostles in union with Peter through the Sacrament of Holy Orders and thereby claim to teach with Christ’s own authority.

At the outset, one had to be ordained by an apostle to witness with the apostles and teach with the authority of Christ which our Lord had invested in them (Acts 1:21-23). This apostolic authority is transferred through the imposition of hands and has been extended beyond the original Twelve as the Church has grown (Acts 6:6). Paul himself becomes an ordained minister by the laying on of hands (Acts 9:17-19). The sacrament of ordination is necessary to invest Christ’s authority in the ordinand. The apostles and newly-ordained men appointed elders (Acts 14:23). Preachers of the Gospel must be sent by the bishops in union with the Church with the authority that can be traced back to the apostles (Acts 15:22-27). Paul is referring to the Sacrament of Holy Orders when he writes that “God has commissioned certain men and sealed them with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Cor 1:21-22).

It is Paul and the council of elders that ordain Timothy (1 Tim 4:14). Again, apostolic authority is transferred through the laying on of hands. And Timothy himself is instructed by Paul on how to properly ordain someone by the imposition of hands (1 Tim 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6). Paul uses the word episkopēs (ἐπισκοπῆς) which means “bishop” and thereby requires an office (1 Tim 3:1). Paul’s use of this Greek word presupposes the office of the bishop shall carry on after his death by those who will succeed him through the sacrament of ordination until Christ returns.

I wish to conclude by explaining how it is that Catholics call ordained priests “Father.” Dr. Scott Hahn tells us that in the Old Testament the priesthood can be divided into two periods: the patriarchal and the Levitical. The patriarchal period is covered in the Book of Genesis while the Levitical period begins in Exodus. These two periods differ significantly. “Patriarchal religion was firmly based on the natural family order, most especially the authority handed down from the father to the son – ideally the firstborn – often in the form of the ‘blessing’.” (See Genesis 27.)  There is no separate priestly institution or caste as there is from the time of Moses, as well as no temple and prescribed sacrifice. “The patriarchs themselves build altars and present offerings at places and at times of their own choosing (See Gen 4:3-4; 8:20-21; 12:7-8). Fathers are empowered as priests by nature.”

Dr. Hahn continues: “There are vestments associated with the office. When Rebekah took the garments of Esau, her firstborn, and gave them to Jacob, she was symbolically transferring the priestly office (Gen 27:15). We see the same priestly significance, a generation later, in the ‘long robe,’ Jacob gave to his son Joseph” (See Gen 37:3-4). Thus, fatherhood is the original basis for the priesthood. “The very meaning of priesthood goes back to the father of the family – his representative role, spiritual authority, and religious service… priesthood belonged to fathers and their ‘blessed’ sons.” On the other hand, the Levitical priesthood “became a hereditary office reserved to the cultural elite. And the home was no longer the primary place of priesthood and sacrifice” (Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots: Doubleday, 2009). Still, when a Levitical priest comes knocking at Micah’s door, he pleads, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest” (Jdgs. 17:10).

When Paul said, “I became your father through the gospel,” he was referring to himself as being a priest. The community of believers in Corinth comprises his sons and daughters and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. Not unlike Paul, his successors in the Catholic Church – through the Sacrament of Holy Orders – are fathers and priests by their role of representing Christ, their spiritual authority, and religious service: the preaching of the gospel and ministration of the sacraments for the family in the house of God which is the Church.

EARLY SACRED TRADITION

“Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of
the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect
foreknowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterward gave
instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their
ministry.”
St. (Pope) Clement of Rome,
1st Epistle to the Corinthians, 44:1-2
(c. A.D. 96)

“See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as ye
would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do
anything connected with the Church without the
bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist,
which is [administered] either by the
bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the
bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ
is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate
a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything
that is done may be secure and valid.”
St. Ignatius of Antioch,
Epistle to the Smyraens, 8
(c. A.D. 110)

“Since, according to my opinion, the grades here in the Church, of bishops,
presbyters, deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory, and of that economyz
which, the Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the footsteps of the apostles,
have lived in the perfection of righteousness according to the Gospel.”
St. Clement of Alexandria,
Stromata, 6:13
(A.D. 202)

“And before you had received the grace of the episcopate, no one knew you; but after
you became one, the laity expected you to bring them food, namely instruction from
the Scriptures…For if all were of the same mind as your present advisers, how would
you have become a Christian, since there would be no bishops? Or if our successors
are to inherit the state of mind, how will the Churches be able to hold together?”
St. Athanasius,
To Dracontius, Epistle 49:2,4
(c. A.D. 355)

“The Blessed Apostle Paul in laying down the form for appointing a bishop and creating by his
instructions an entirely new type of member of the Church, has taught us in the following words the
sum total of all the virtues perfected in him:–Holding fast the word according to the doctrine of faith
that he may be able to exhort to sound doctrine and to convict gain savers. For there are many
unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers. For in this way he points out that the essentials of
orderliness and morals are only profitable for good service in the priesthood if at the same time the
qualities needful for knowing how to teach and preserve the faith are not lacking, for a man is not
straightway made a good and useful priest by a merely innocent life or by a mere knowledge of
preaching.”
St. Hilary of Poitiers,
On the Trinity
(A.D. 359)

“There is not, however, such narrowness in the moral excellence of the Catholic Church as that I
should limit my praise of it to the life of those here mentioned. For how many bishops have I known
most excellent and holy men, how many, presbyters, how many deacons, and ministers of all kinds of
the divine sacraments, whose virtue seems to me more admirable and more worthy of commendation
on account of the greater difficulty of preserving it amidst the manifold varieties of men, and in this
life of turmoil!”
St. Augustine,
On the Morals of the Catholic Church, 69
(A.D. 388)

“It is you who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer a kingdom on you,
just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my
table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.”

Luke 22, 28-30


Pax vobiscum