Part I, Chapter 1( 2 ): The Dignity of the Priesthood( 3 )

The Dignity of the Priesthood( 3 )

IN THE DEDICATION of this work I prostrated myself before the holy priests of the Church Triumphant to invoke their blessing. I now address myself to you, brother priests of the Church Militant, in the words that St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, addressed to all Christians: Vos autem genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus acquisitionis ut virtutes annuntietis ejus . us qui de tenebris vos vocavit in admirabile lumen suum. "You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people; that you may declare his virtues, who bath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" ( 1 Pet. 2, 9).

You are a chosen generation, for the Saint of saints has elected you to the holy office of the priesthood. To you particularly He addresses these words: "But according to him that bath called you, who i s holy, (1). Memorial: There is no exact equivalent in English for the French word "Memorial." We have decided to retain the word with the sense of reminder, which it sometimes has in English. St. John Eudes says himself: 'I wish to put this book in your hands as a reminder (memorial) of all the qualities and the merits, the obligations and the duties of your profession, as also of the method of exercising in a holy manner all the priestly functions." Cf. Oeuvres Complètes du Venerable Jean Eudes, Vol. III, p. 21. (2). The French work is divided into parts, not chapters. Chapter divisions are used in this edition. (3) In the original edition this chapter is the second dedication.

be you also in all manner of conversation holy; because it is written: 'You shall be holy, for I am holy"' ( 1 Pet. 1, 15-16).

You are clothed and adorned with a kingly priesthood. You are priests and kings as Jesus Christ Himself is the Supreme Priest and King.

You are a purchased people in a very special significance. It is true that Our Blessed Redeemer purchased all mankind at the price of His Blood and that Almighty God gave Him to all nations. Nevertheless Jesus acquired you in a particular manner and so His Heavenly Father manifests a unique love for you.

After the Blessed Virgin Mary you represent our Divine Saviour's most glorious conquest. You are the most precious of all gifts that the Eternal Father has bestowed upon His Only Son. You are the first and most excellent fruit of His work, the worthiest price of His blood, His principal portion. You embody His most noble heritage from which are derived fruits for the glory of God more acceptable than from all His other possessions.

The Son of God chose you, not only that you yourselves might serve and love Him, but also that you might make Him loved and served by others. He selected you that you might announce to the world the virtues, that is, the perfections and excellence, the mysteries and marvels of Him who "bath called you out of darkness," from the darkness of sin and hell, "into His marvellous light." Jesus Christ, speaking of Himself, says, "I am the light of the world" (John 8, 12). He says also of priests, "You are the light of the world" (Matt. 5, 14), and "to you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God" (Mark 4, 11) and to make it known to other men. To you has been opened the treasury of wisdom and grace that you may be dispensers of these gifts.

You are persons elevated by the infinite goodness of God to the highest dignity of heaven and earth, second only to the divine motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

You are the noblest personages in God's house. You are clothed with genuine nobility for, as Christians and certainly much more as priests, you may be called in the words of St. Paul "the offspring of

The Dignity of the Priesthood 3

God" (Act. 17, 29). You are children of God, His first-born sons. You are of the royal blood of Jesus, a part of His genealogy; you are His brethren and members in a degree much higher than any other Christians. You are clothed with the royal priesthood, and your priesthood is one with His. Since there is but one priesthood, unum est sacerdotium,(4) centered in Christ and extended to all other priests, so there is but one priest, Jesus Christ. All other priests are one with Him, united to Him according to His own prayer: "The glory which thou has given me, I have given to them: that they may be olle as we also are one: I i n them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one . . ." (John 17, 22-23).

You are governors, judges, princes and kings of the empire of the supreme Monarch of the World. You are governors, not tenebrarum harum (Eph. 6, 12), that is, of this world, which is darkness and nothingness, but of faithful souls purchased with the Precious Blood of Christ, one drop of which is worth more than a thousand worlds.

You are judges, not of bodies but of souls, not of earthly but of heavenly things. Your judgments are not transitory; they endure forever. They are written, not on paper nor on parchment with ink, but i n eternity with the adorable Blood of the Son of God. Thus the most eminent persons in the land recognize you as judges of their souls, divinely appointed by Providence. Humbly they kneel before you and accept your judgment as the very judgment of God Himself.

You are princes of God. Your principality is not terrestrial; it is immortal and imperishable. You are kings of His empire, the Church. It is to you that He says: Ego dispono vobis sicut disposuit mihi Pater meus regnum. "And I dispose to you. as My Father bath disposed to me, a kingdom" (Luke 22, 29). Your royalty is not temporal but eternal, a participation in the royalty of Jesus Christ.

Since Christ is Priest and King, so, too, you are priests and kings. Since you share one priesthood, so, too, you participate in one kingship with Him. Since the Eternal Father has given His Divine Son a name and a power above every name and every power (Phil. 2, 9), so He has given you, His priests, a name and a power incomparably (4). Summach. Papa, Ep. i o ad Eonium, Arelat. Episc.

4 - the Priest: his Dignity and Obligations

greater than all names and all Powers in this world and in the world to Come.

Did God say to any of the angels: "Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech?" (PS. 109, 4). Did He ever pronounce to the Arcitangels, the Principalities or the Powers what His Son said to you: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven?" (Matt. 16, 19). To which of the Cherubim or Seraphim did He ever give the power to forgive sin, to bestow grace, to close hell and open the gates of heaven, to bring God into the hearts of men in the Blessed Sacrament? To whom in the universe did He grant the power of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, to immolate Him and give His Body and Soul to the faithful?

To which of the heavenly spirits did God ever speak the words He says to every priest, "As the Father hath sent me, I also send you?" (John 20, 21). In other words, I send you for the same purpose for which My Heavenly Father sent Me, to preach the gospel, to dispense grace, to administer the sacraments, to destroy the tyranny of Satan, to dispel the darkness of sin and to spread the divine light of grace throughout the world. I send you to establish the reign of God and to exercise on earth the very functions which I exercised, to continue My work of redemption, to lead the same life that I led and to practise the same virtues that I practised.

Thus, it is clear that you are not only the visible angels of the God of Armies; you are far greater than angels in power and authority. Hence, you must live a life more perfect in purity and sanctity than that of the, angels.

It is not surprising that your power surpasses that of the angels, for, as the King of the Angels has made you participants in His kingship, so He has vested you with His own power. Consequently, you may say with Him, although in a different sense, "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth and in hell;" i n heaven for you have the keys to open and close the gates of the kingdom; on earth for daily you exercise among men an infinite power which is God's alone by the remis

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sion of sins, the bestowal of grace, the formation of Christ in men's hearts and in the Blessed Eucharist; i n hell for the Master has give& you the power to crush and destroy the dragons of hell and to drive demons from the bodies and souls of the faithful.

Furthermore, you have power over the Sovereign Lord Himself in heaven and on earth. Do you not envision Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of angels and men, Who was subject to His Mother and to St.' Joseph on earth, erat subditus illis (Luke 2, 51), actually subjected to the power of His priests? Does He not - obey their commands and their words? Does He not hear their voice when they summon Him to come into their hands at the consecration of the bread and wine in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? Have they not power over His Mystical Body, which is the Church, over His Holy Spirit, over His grace and His mysteries? Is i t not through priests and their ministry that the Holy Spirit is imparted to the faithful, that the treasures of grace are distributed and that the secrets of the eternal mysteries are made manifest? For that very reason Sacred Scripture attributed to them the function of "dispensers of the mysteries of God (1 Cor. 4, 1).

Above all else, how wonderful is the power of priests over the very Body and Blood of the Saviour! That power not only gives them the right to bring Our Lord down upon the altar whenever they wish or to transport Him from one place to another; it also extends to the point of sacrificing Him every day, and of annihilating Him so far as it i's possible to annihilate Him, because sacrifice means the destruction of the object sacrificed. Whoever possesses sacrificial power likewise must have power to destroy what he sacrifices. This is indeed the greatest and most absolute power God Himself can exercise over His creatures, to destroy and annihilate them for His glory.

Thus, God has honored the sovereign Priest, His Divine Son, and all those whom He has called to this holy state of the priesthood. He who can make creatures more perfect, angels more beautiful and worlds far greater and lovelier, cannot institute a priesthood more worthy and more admirable than the Christian priesthood. The sacerdotal dignity and power are so exalted that even Our Lord Himself cannot make priests capable of exercising functions more marvelous than yours

when you form Christ in the Holy Eucharist, when you offer Him in sacrifice, or give Him to the faithful i n Holy Communion or when you forgive sins in the Sacrament of Penance.

What more shall I say? You are the first officers in the court of the great Monarch of the universe. You are the chief ministers of His state, the treasurers of His mercy, His faithful stewards. Into your hands He has committed His riches, His entire glory, the treasures of His grace, the keys of His kingdom, the sacraments of His religion, the sanctity of His divine mysteries, the virtue of His word, His Mystical Body, His very flesh and His Precious Blood.

You are the most noble part of the Mystical Body of Christ. You are the eyes, the mouth, the tongue, the heart of the Church, in other words, of Jesus Christ Himself.

You are His eyes for through you the Good Shepherd watches over His flock. Through you He enlightens and guides His sheep. Through you He weeps over the transgressions of those who fall by the wayside, or become prey of the wolves. Through you He weeps over the death of His dear Lazarus, that is, of the souls of those who are dead through sin.

You are His mouth and His tongue. Through you He speaks to His people, continuing to preach the gospel that He Himself preached during His public life.

You are His heart. Through you He imparts true life, the life of grace on earth and the life of glory in heaven to all the members of His Mystical Body. What marvels, what favors, what greatness in the sacerdotal dignity! Yet there is still more!

You are the associates of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, in most sublime and mysterious intimacy. I hear the great Apostle Paul announce to all Christians that they have been called by God to be members of the society of His Divine Son. Vocati estis in societatem Filii ejus Jesu Christi. "You are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (i Cor. i, g). With truth I say that priests are called unto the fellowship of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Vocati estis in societatem Patris, et F ilii , et Spiritus Sancti.

God the Father associates you with Himself in the highest of all

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functions, the generation of His Divine Son. He embraces you in His divine paternity, making you fathers of that very Son since yours is the power to form and generate Him in the souls of the faithful. He has chosen you to be fathers of His people, real fathers in word and action. you bear within you the living image of the divine paternity. "0 Priest," cries St. Augustine, "thou are the vicar and father of Christ»' God the Son associates you with Himself in His noble perfections and His divine operations. He makes you participants in His role as mediator between God and man, in the dignity of judge of the universe, in His name and office as Saviour of the world. He gives you power to offer with Him to His Eternal Father the sacrifice of Redemption which He renews daily on the altars of the world, the most sublime action that He ever performed and ever will perform.

God,the Holy Ghost associates you with Him in His divine actions. Why did the Holy Spirit come into the world? Was it not to dispel the darkness of ignorance and sin? Was it not to enlighten men's minds witha celestial light, to fire their hearts with divine love, to reconcile sinners to God, to destroy sin, to communicate grace, to sanctify souls, and to establish the Church? Was it not to apply to mankind the fruits of the passion and death of the Redeemer, to destroy the old man and bring to life within us Jesus Christ Our Lord?

Is not your daily duty to concern yourselves with all these miraculous functions? Are you not sent by God to bring Christ into all hearts? Is it not true that all the offices of the priesthood are designed for the sole purpose of forming and causing God to live in the souls of His people?

Truly then, you have an intimate alliance with the Three Eternal Persons of the Blessed Trinity. You are their associates and their Coadjutors. You are cooperators with the Most High in all His works. Dei adjutores, cooperatores veritatis (i Cor. 3, g). You are co-laborers with the Almighty, sanctifiers of souls, mediators between God and man, judges of nations, saviours of the world. The Divine Redeemer has appointed you here on earth to serve in His place, to continue and complete His own work, the redemption of the universe.

In Sacred Scripture, Almighty God has given you the name of

saviour, for of priests He says, by the mouth of the Prophet Abdias (Abdias 13, 2 1 ) , Ascendent salvatores in montem Sion. Clement of Alexandria attributes to priests the role of redeemers.(5)

It may even be said of you that you are other Christs, living and walking among men for you bear the exalted name of the Son of God, the name of Jesus and Saviour. You represent His authority and His divine perfections. You act in His name, are employed in His service, continuing to live on earth the very life He led here below.

You are visible gods in this world, children of God, fathers of God. In his work, The Celestial Hierarchy, St. Dionysius invests you with these three attributes: You are gods because you take the place of God in this world and are clothed with His qualities, His prerogatives and powers. You are children of gods because you are the children of your bishops who in turn are gods in yet a higher degree than you. You are fathers of gods, because you are fathers of Christians who likewise are gods, though in a lower degree than you. Ego dixi dii estis (Ps. 81, 6). "A priest," says St. Gregory Nazianzen, "is a god who produces gods." Deus deos efficiens. ( 6 )

0 incomparable excellence! 0 incomprehensible dignity of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, shared with all His priests! How indebted we should be to Him who has raised us to so elevated a state, and has showered upon us such extraordinary gifts! 0 noble vocation! What a grace, what a privilege, what an inestimable blessing to have been called to an order so divine and so exalted! (5). Clem. AI. in Oseam. (6). Orat. Apolog.

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