Bishop Wuerl, at the time this article was published, was Auxiliary
Bishop of Seattle.
I have chosen the idea of the priest as a witness to a kingdom not
yet fully visible as the starting point for the discussion on priesthood
because in both the pages of the New Testament and the writings of the
Second Vatican Council the concept of witness is a clearly identifiable
one and essentially tied to the priesthood. The Church is depicted as
the beginning here and now of the Kingdom of God that will someday reach
its fullness as the new creation that Christ will claim and present to
his Father. The distinctive witness of the priest takes place on two
levels. He ministers to the members of the kingdom as it will be in
glory. In one sense he is a part of the struggling effort that
characterizes the pilgrim people. Yet he is also a sign of the glory of
the heavenly Jerusalem. The priesthood thus has both a practical and
eschatological dimension.
In this presentation I shall consider the priest under two aspects:
sacramental and eschatological. First, the priest carries out specific
works within the Church. These are designed to build up the Kingdom of
God. The designation of the believer to do these works is through the
Sacrament of Orders. Second, the priest, through his sacramental action,
points to and effectively witnesses the Kingdom as it will be in glory.
The priest's action moves beyond the temporal limits of the present, and
makes what is not yet complete, visible and comprehensible.
At the same time it is necessary to note that the priesthood, not in
its essential reality but in its articulation, is being redimensioned by
the present, healthy emphasis on the role of the laity, in the task of
bringing about the Kingdom of God. The increasing awareness of personal
responsibility for the spread of the Kingdom is one of the most exciting
aspects of the general renewal which was the hope, and goal of the
Second Vatican Council and so much that has happened since then. While
the role of the laity in the charge to bring about the Kingdom of God is
not the focus of this presentation it nonetheless influences the present
redimensioning of the priesthood.
CHURCH-KINGDOM: THE CONTEXT OF PRIESTHOOD
The Gospels tell us that Jesus began to preach that the Kingdom of
God is at hand. Christ came from the Father to reveal to us God's plan
and how the Kingdom of God has already begun to break into our world.
The God who lives in inaccessible light chose to send his only Son into
our world so that we might see his light and learn to walk in it unto
life everlasting.
It is the gospel vision of God's plan that we, the children of the
light, can so fully reflect God's glory in this life so as to make the
very Kingdom of God come to be in our own time and world.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Word whom the Father sent, into
the world, proclaimed the good news of reconciliation between God and
his children. His preaching, confirmed by signs and wonders, reached its
summit in the paschal mystery, the supreme word of the divine love with
which the Father spoke to us. On the cross, Jesus showed himself to the
greatest possible extent to be the good shepherd who lays down his life
for his sheep. Exercising a supreme and unique priesthood by the
offering of himself, he surpassed by fulfilling them all the ritual
priesthoods and holocausts of the Old Testament. He bore the sins of us
all on the cross. Rising from the dead and being made Lord, he
reconciled us to God and laid the foundation of the people of the new
covenant which is his Church.
When, therefore, we speak of the priesthood of Christ, we have before
our eyes a unique and incomparable reality which includes the prophetic
and royal office of the incarnate Word of God. Christ is the image of
God breaking into our world to announce that to believe is to walk in
the light. To walk in the light is to live in the Kingdom. To live in
the Kingdom is to build the Kingdom which in its fullness is God's new
creation.
To speak about the priest as the witness to the Kingdom is to talk
also about the Kingdom as it comes to be. And so I would like to review
briefly what the Council says about the Church. For the Church is the
beginning of God's Kingdom.
Of all the Councils held so far, the Second Vatican Council
concentrated most heavily on the nature and meaning of the Church. For
some, it therefore deserved to be called "The Council on the
Church". Two of its Most frequently quoted documents, the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church and the Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World are concerned with the nature and
function of the Church today. Church is the all-embracing context of
Christian life and witness. Any reflections on the priesthood must begin
with, or at least include this fact. So I have chosen the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church to form the starting point for our
brief review of the Council's teaching.
The Council takes its view of Church from the constant living
tradition of the Church. That is why the pages of Lumen Gentium ring
with words of the New Testament. We read that "when the work which
the Father gave the Son to do on earth (cf. Jn 17:4) was accomplished,
the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might
continually sanctify the Church and that, consequently those who believe
might have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father (cf. Eph
2:18)... Hence the universal Church is seen to be a people brought into
unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"
(n. 4).
When Jesus, having died on the cross for us, rose again from the
dead, he was seen to be constituted as Lord, the Christ, and as Priest
forever (cf. Acts 2:36; Heb 5:6; 7:17-21) and he poured out on his
disciples the Spirit promised by the Father (cf. Acts 2:23). Henceforth
the Church, endowed with the gifts of her founder, is on earth the seed
and the beginning of the Kingdom of God.
This Church is described as Christ's Body. "For by communicating
his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body those brothers and
sisters of his who are gathered together from every nation" (ibid.,
7). And as all the members of the human body, though they are many, form
one body, so also are the faithful in Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:13).
As the historical Jesus took on a human body to preach the Good News,
that is, the coming of the Kingdom of God, and to overcome death though
his own death and resurrection in order to redeem us and change us into
the new creation (cf. Gal 6:15; 2 Cor 5:17), so the risen Christ has
taken unto himself a body, a mystical body, to carry on his work. The
Church is the living body of Christ in the world today. It has the same
task as its founder and head. The Church preaches the Good News and
continues the paschal mystery until the new creation is completed.
THE CHURCH AS SACRAMENT
The first chapter of Lumen Gentium speaks of, the Church as a
"kind of sacrament", as an instrument by which God reaches us.
It is the continuation of Christ's effort in his incarnation to speak to
us, and bring into our lives the glory of the Kingdom. "By her
relation with Christ, the Church is a kind of sacrament or sign of
intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind. She is also an
instrument for the achievement of such unity and union" (n. 1).
Furthermore, each of the individual sacraments is an expression, in
one way or another, of the great sacramental mystery which is the
operation of the Church. "It is through the sacraments and the
exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of
the priestly community is brought into operation" (ibid., 11)
BAPTISM: FIRST SACRAMENTAL DIFFERENTIATION
By baptism, a person is incorporated, into Christ and made a member
of his body, the Church. Thus the believer, by his or her baptism, takes
on the obligation to spread the Good News and celebrate the paschal
mystery through which salvation is accomplished. In this sense we are a
priestly people... "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God's own people" (1 Pt 2:9). The role of the believer is
to carry to the world the Good News of salvation.
The sacrament of baptism is the first great differentiation in God's
plan of re-creation and redemption. By baptism, some are called, chosen
and set apart to be his new people, his new creation. By the waters of
baptism, one is signed as an elect of God, chosen to complete what
Christ has begun. Hence, the ancient conviction that baptism need not,
in fact, cannot be repeated. The baptized person is already set apart
and signed by God. Into our world of the old creation Christ introduces
a new creation of water and the Spirit. The new creation will struggle
and groan as it tries to free itself of the old person, the world of.
darkness—the power of sin and selfishness—and emerge as a new world
of light, freedom and love.
The first sign of the presence of God's power among us is the
sacrament of baptism. This sign not only signifies that one has died to
the old creation and become a part of the new but actually brings about
this radical and foundational change. Each person who is baptized is
incorporated into Christ, not only as a sign that Christ will some day
return in glory, but as the means by which the present-day body of
Christ becomes the very power of Christ working in our world.
ORDERS: SECOND SACRAMENTAL DIFFERENTIATION
To serve this community of elect, Christ set aside those who would
devote their energies not only to the task that is shared by all the
baptized (to preach the Good News and bring about the new creation
through the celebration and living out of the paschal mystery); but also
to the specific task of serving the whole Body of Christ. This service
is rooted in a unique and profound conformation to Christ himself in
such a way that Christ, in glory, continues to be present and to
minister to his struggling pilgrim people.
Thus the Sacrament of Orders takes its place as the second great
differentiation within Christ's Church. Some are ordained by God to
participate more specifically in the priesthood of Christ so that they
might also more specifically minister to the rest of the body. The
Council points out that the Sacrament of Orders differentiates members
of the community and sets them apart for specifically
ministerial, priestly works. By baptism, one is distinguished from the
world and made a Christian; by Orders, one is set apart for the
Christian community and made a priest.
We are all aware that some have another view of Church. In some
current writings by Catholic authors the faith community is
undifferentiated. The Body of Christ is amorphous. This "unisacrament"
Church is regarded as the only permanent entity of residual sacred
mission. According to this view, designation rather than consecration
enables the priest to function. Empowerment comes from the community
which can reclaim its power. A permanent office of priestly power
configuring the ordained priest to Christ is set aside in favour of a
temporary exercise of ministry mediated solely through the individual
local community. Although this concept of priesthood has attractive
egalitarian overtones, it suffers from major disagreement with the
Catholic tradition. The Church in ancient and living tradition sees
sacred powers expressed concretely in the ordination of certain members
who will thereafter act in a way singularly identified with Christ and
share in his authority.
The 1971 Synod of Bishops identified the very structure of the
Church, its skeleton, its framework, as that ministerial office
identified with the apostles. "The Church which he had declared
would be built on Peter, Christ founded on the apostles. In them are
already manifested two aspects of the Church: in the group of the twelve
apostles there are already fellowship in the Spirit and the origin of
the hierarchical ministry. For that reason, the New Testament speaks of
the Church as founded on the apostles. This was concisely expressed by
ancient tradition: 'the Church from the apostles, the apostles from
Christ, Christ from God’" (Ministerial Priesthood, I, 3).
Yet this "setting apart" or "differentiation" is
not meant to divide or establish a class system within Christ's Body. It
is meant to facilitate the life and function of the body. The priest is
no more separated from the lay person than the lay person is separated
from the world in which he or she lives. The common priesthood of the
faithful, conferred in baptism, is interrelated to the ministerial
priesthood because each, in its own special way, is a participation in
the one priesthood of Christ, and each is unintelligible without the
other.
It is clear from the New Testament writings that an apostle and a
community of faithful united with one another belong to the original,
inalienable structure of the Church. It is equally clear from other
writings of the Apostolic period that the twelve apostles not only had
helpers in their ministry but also passed on to them the duty of
perfecting and consolidating the work begun by themselves. They charged
them to attend to the whole flock over which the Holy Spirit placed
them, to shepherd the Church of God, They appointed such men and made
provision that when these men should die other appointed men should take
up their ministry.
Christ's work was to initiate the Kingdom. The Church is to complete
that task. The believer, by virtue of baptism, becomes a member of the
Church and is empowered to carry on the ministry of Christ... to the
world. The priest, by virtue of ordination is configured to Christ in a
unique way to facilitate the work of the whole Church. The priest is
empowered to nourish, mould and direct the priestly people in their
common goal of bringing about the new creation.
"Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in
degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial
hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated. Each of them in
its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ.
The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, moulds and rules
the priestly people. Acting in the person of Christ, he brings about the
Eucharistic Sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the
people" (Lumen Gentium, 10).
The Council goes on to speak of the various structures within the
Church and explains in some detail the work of those in Sacred Orders:
bishops, priests and deacons. One particularly pointed reference states:
"Although priests do not possess the highest degree of the
priesthood, and although they are dependent on the bishops in the
exercise of their power, they are nevertheless united with the bishops
in the sacerdotal dignity. By the power of the sacrament of orders, and
the image of Christ, the eternal High Priest (Heb 5:1-10; 7:24;
9:11-28), they are consecrated to preach the gospel, shepherd the
faithful and celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New
Testament. Partakers of the function of Christ the sole Mediator (1 Tim
2:5) on their level of ministry, they announce the divine word to
all" (ibid., 26).
The synod points out that "this essential structure of the
Church—consisting of a flock and of pastors (cf. 1 Pt 5:1-4)—according
to the tradition of the Church was always and remains the norm.
Precisely as a result of this structure, the Church can never remain
closed in on herself and is always subject to Christ as her origin and
head" (Ministerial Priesthood, 1, 4).
WORKS OF THE PRIEST
The priest therefore has a unique relationship to the Church. He has
a particular role in the Church because of his vocation and ordination.
He has been called to serve the people of God in it specified manner. He
has been charged and empowered to build up the entire Body of Christ. In
this sense, he is the power of Christ in glory manifesting itself in the
body of Christ in time. The purpose of this power is the goal of Christ
himself—to energize and help realize his Kingdom in time and
space.
Let us look briefly at the three specific functions listed in Lumen
Gentium as the task of the priest, specifically as ordained priest.
He is to "1. Preach the gospel; 2. shepherd the faithful;
3. celebrate divine worship" (Lumen Gentium,
28). Let us also keep in mind that each one of these functions
has an eschatological dimension. We make up what is lacking in the
suffering of Christ so that his Kingdom may come to be in our world.
Hence, the one called to be an efficacious sign of the Kingdom of God
must always be in some way the living representation of the glory that
is not yet complete in our world,
1. TO PREACH THE GOSPEL
The first task of the priest is to preach !he gospel. Surely
each believer—disciple—is obliged to preach the Gospel! What
distinguishes the priest's role is that he participates in the priestly
office of authenticating the proclamation as truly the witness and
message of the Church. The priest officially proclaims the word of God
as it is held in continuity with the apostles. He is the spokesman for
the living tradition that, guided by the Holy Spirit, presents and
applies for us today the word of God made flesh in Jesus Christ.
The priest must then testify not only to the person of Jesus but to
the content of his revelation. As a witness to the content of the faith,
his principal characteristics are two: to proclaim it in its entirety
and to testify to it as it is received. Each priest
shares a special responsibility of preaching the whole word of God and
interpreting it according to the faith of the Universal Church.
Individual personal experience of itself is not the norm for the
teaching, worship and application of the law of the Church. 'The
teaching, liturgy and law of the Universal Church is normative for the
individual believer. In this the priest reflects the action of Christ.
Jesus, speaking of his role as the incarnate witness of the Father, says
that he does nothing on his own authority but only what he has been
taught by the Father. The witness absorbs the message, the truth, but
always remains subject to it, obedient before it. The message is not his
to change, alter, or distort. The witness is to pass on the knowledge
and, therefore, the light and life of the kingdom—through his
testimony. Christ in the Incarnation, by assuming our nature, adopted a
method by which the presence of God could be made known to us. Each
witness to Christ participates in that mission and its limitations. The
official witness to the teaching of Christ shares in the authoritative
and authentic proclamation of the word of God.
The Son of God used human words, signs and institutions to reach us
with his news of the Father. Human words, signs and structures must
continue the work of Christ's revelation. Even with the limitations that
human words, signs and structures imply, they remain the vehicle by
which the message is passed on. Therefore, the official witness's
testimony must reflect the witness as given by the Church, particularly
in its teaching office. This extends even to the wording of the living
tradition or the handing on of the Good News when the wording is
specifically confirmed by the faith of the Church and its teaching
office.
Eschatological aspect of the word
The eschatological aspect of the priest's teaching witness is that he
shares in Christ's effort to have the truth of God break into this
world. The truth is what makes us free—what makes us whole—what
gives us life. To know Christ is to know God and to know God is to live
forever. The power of God's word bursts into human history as the truth—not
just one more truth. The truth of revelation is the truth that saves. No
matter how greatly it contradicts the wisdom of this world, the truth of
revelation is the truth. The priest who participates in that revealing
action brings into the world of error, doubt, confusion, opinion and
conjecture—salvific truth.
Although the pedagogy of faith demands that people be gradually
initiated into the Christian life, the Church must nevertheless always
proclaim to the world the Gospel in its entirety. The proclamation of
the word of God is the announcement in the power of the Spirit of the
wonders performed by God. It is the continued calling to share the
paschal mystery. It constantly acts as a leaven in concrete human
history. It is the action of God in which the power of the Holy Spirit
brings the Church together.
In this sense the priest is the eschatological sign of the fullness
of the revelation in Christ Jesus. What began as a revelation in the
person of Jesus Christ will be completed only as we enter into the
presence of the Lamb on the throne. It is the role of the priest to
proclaim with authority the revelation that contradicts the wisdom of
this world and opens up to the believer the kingdom of light in which we
find life eternal.
2. SHEPHERD THE FAITHFUL
The second function of the priest is to lead or shepherd the
faithful. Another way of saying this is to point out that the
priest is to facilitate the building of Christian community among those
he serves. Today this takes on a special meaning because it is precisely
in the area of building community that much of the redimensioning of
priesthood is taking place. No longer is the priest or religious the
sole person responsible for carrying out all the many tasks that
manifest, coordinate and activate parish community life. With the
emergence of numerous lay ministries and the development of lay
involvement in the life of the parish, much of the work of the parish
priest is less "hands on" and more "supervisory" and
"empowering". Where once the priest was expected to direct,
coordinate, or, at least, be present for almost every activity that was
carried out in the name of the Church, now it is increasingly recognized
that the responsibility and work of building the parish community and
helping it function is shared by many. With increased parish staff, paid
and volunteer, the work of the priest is being redirected. In many
parishes, it is assumed that the parish provides staff competent and
large enough to free the pastor from administrative duties and the
consuming concerns of financial stability. In parishes that once enjoyed
the luxury of two, three or even four priests, it is new realized that
one priest is sufficient provided the lay members of the parish assume
duties involving, for example, marriage preparation, sacramental
preparation, CCD instruction, home visitation and a host of other tasks
once the preserve only of the priest.
In this view the priest becomes much more the supervisor of the
various ministries carried on under his direction and less the direct,
omnipresent, sole minister in the Church. This has two immediate
effects: it frees the priest to carry on his sacramental ministry in a
way and with an intensity that perhaps time did not always permit; it
challenges the priest and his parishioners to review how the priest
exercises his pastoral authority within the parish. The ministry of
supervision, if it is to be realistically discharged, involves the use
of authority. While authority is not a fashionable word today, there is
an increased recognition that it is something that has a real place in
the Church, as it has within all society, human or divine. It is more a
question of how authority is exercised than should it be used. Authority
within the Church exists to gather together and lead the Christian
community in the way of the Lord. Since the priest is to function as
Christ by gathering together, forming and leading the community, he
exercises also a share in the authority of Christ, the head of the
Church. This authority comes to the priest from Christ, through the
Church in the action of ordination as a helper to the bishop. Its
principal object is the unity and wellbeing of the whole Church.
Eschatological aspect of authority
The eschatological significance of priestly authority is found in the
power of Christ himself. He not only spoke with authority but he acted
with signs and miracles that brought into this world some of the power
of God himself. Christ did not use his power to enhance his own position
but to point to the truth of what he had to say, so that that truth
could establish a community of believers.
The authority the priest has in building community derives from
Christ's mission to make of this world a kingdom of believers. Such a
community will be a manifestation of Christ’s glory. Priestly
authority does not belong to the priest as his own; it is a
manifestation of the power of the Lord by which the priest is an
ambassador of Christ in the eschatological work of reconciliation (cf. 2
Cor 5:18-20).
"If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has passed
away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not
counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message
of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:17-19).
The priest assists the conversion of human freedom to God. The role
model for such authority is Christ himself who, while exhibiting the
power of God to bring together in faith a community of disciples, chose
to use that power to enable the disciples to carry on the task of
building the Kingdom of God. The priest's power or authority to build
the community of faith is a spiritual leadership to proclaim and
preserve the integrity of the truth, gather the faithful to worship in
spirit and in truth, and reconcile that community with God.
The eschatological dimension of this authority is the free acceptance
in this life of the will and plan of God. When the kingdom is fully
revealed in its glory, that plan will be evident. The genuflection of
the human will in this clouded world is but a sign of the full blending
of the human will with the will of Christ in the brightness of the
kingdom.
The whole priestly mission is dedicated to that new humanity which
Christ, the conqueror of death, raises up in the world through the
Spirit. This humanity takes its origin "not of blood, not of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:13).
3. TO CELEBRATE THE SACRED MYSTERIES
The third specific work of the priest is to celebrate the sacred
mysteries. He is to preside at the Eucharist through which the
believer participates in the paschal mystery. It is in this function
that the priest most clearly makes present in time and space the eternal
reality of the kingdom of Christ in glory. It is precisely as he acts in
the person of Christ that the priest breaks through the bonds that
confine this temporal order and, in a unique and transcendent way, acts
in the name, the power and the presence of Christ himself.
Eschatological aspect of Eucharist
The eschatological significance of Eucharistic celebration rests on
the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and is intimately connected
with the unique sacramental presence of Christ in the ordained priest.
Traditionally, the priest has been called "the dispenser of the
mysteries of God". Whatever else the priest is, he is the source of
sacramental contact with Christ. The framework within which the
Christian reaches God is a sacramental one. It is the priest who
"makes Christ the Saviour... sacramentally present..." (Ministerial
Priesthood, I, 4). The 1971 Synod lists two sacraments
particularly dependent on the priest. In his function of "remitting
sin and celebrating the Eucharist", (ibid.) the priest brings the
redeeming Christ into the lives of the faithful. In doing so the priest
builds the community. By bringing human life into contact with the
divine life, the priest performs the first essential function that leads
to the establishment of God's Kingdom among us.
The contribution of the 1971 Synod to this matter is its reminder
that the liturgy, the centre of priestly function, is a part of the
overall witness of the priest—just as Calvary, though the apex of
Christ's redeeming, was part of his overall saving mission. No priest
can claim his witness to be complete if his priestly ministration
consists only in celebrating liturgy, just as no priest can claim to be
faithfully extending Christ's Kingdom without celebrating the
Eucharistic liturgy.
By connecting his sacramental powers with his community-building, the
Synod places an emphasis on the priest's particular quality as the
bearer of divine life which makes human community possible. It is in the
powerful yet mysterious conversion of human life into divine life that
the new citizens of God's Kingdom are created, nourished and brought to
maturity.
PERMANENCE OF PRIESTHOOD
One of the corollaries that follows on the Council's doctrine on the
priesthood as a participation in the ministry of Christ is its view on
the permanence of the priesthood. This is reiterated in the 1971 Synod
which sees in the "laying on of hands" the communication of a
"gift of the Holy Spirit that cannot be lost" (Ministerial
Priesthood, 1, 4). The priest through Orders is
"configured" to Christ. The priest is made one with Christ and
his mission. As the mission is ongoing, the priest's part in the
eschatological work of reconciliation is continuous. As that mission is
yet to be completed, the priest's commission must be permanent.
Ordination is an eschatological sign of the finality of Christ's
Kingdom. It is the Church's conviction that all are actively to bring
about the triumph of God's Kingdom through their own conversion. This
conversion includes the will and the mind. The priest's free giving of
himself prefigures the day when in Christ's Kingdom all will freely give
themselves to Christ in a manner that will admit of no reversal. In his
acceptance of priestly order, the priest assists the conversion of human
freedom to God by stepping forward into the world of union with Christ
in grace and faith. This world mirrored faintly now will one day burst
out in full glory when Christ's reconciliation is complete.
A NEW BEING
Since the priest is configured to Christ in order sacramentally to
make present in a unique manner the Christ of glory, the priesthood is a
permanent part of the priest's being. How this comes to pass is not
explained. But the traditional manner of expressing the lifelong
permanence of the reality is repeated and confirmed. A priestly
character is in some way introduced into the life and being of the
priest.
The priesthood is not just for this stage of the development of the
Kingdom. It exists also to reflect the permanent and transcendent union
of Christ with his Kingdom. It is a sign of the fulfilment of the
Kingdom. In this sense, the eschatological nature of the priesthood
touches every aspect of the priest's life and work. When the Church
speaks of permanence in the priesthood under this eschatological aspect,
it sees the priest as both an ontological and functional reality. The
priest is configured to Christ in a manner that affects his very being.
The unique union of the priest with Christ exists for the specific
purpose of relating the fullness of the Kingdom to the present pilgrim
Church. Through it, the permanent salvific presence of Christ is
prefigured and made present.
SUMMARY
The above is a brief sketch of an important element of the Church's
teaching on the priesthood, both as a sign and a means of the presence
of God's Kingdom among us. In outline, those points are:
1) The Church is the sacrament of God's presence among us. That
presence is only in its initial stages. The Kingdom of God will not be
fully realized until the Church, the Body of Christ, is fully united to
Christ in glory.
2) The Church, the beginning of the Kingdom of God among us, is
intimately related to the Christ of glory in such a way that the glory
of the risen Lord is manifested in this pilgrim Church.
3) It is the task of the priest not only to be a sign that points to
that Kingdom and its fulfilment in glory but also an effective agent of
the transformation of this world into that Kingdom.
4) Certain actions of the priest are specifically directed to this
eschatological, sacramental function. These include:
5) To preach with authority the revealed Word of God in such a way as
to make present the revelation that is Jesus Christ;
6) To build up the community of believers by exercising a leadership
role in such a way that the power of Christ to unify, heal and sanctify
is made present;
7) To celebrate the sacred mysteries through which the Christ of the
Passion and Resurrection is made really and truly present in our time
and world. It is precisely in the effecting of the paschal mystery that
the priesthood touches its greatest eschatological challenge. For
somehow through that saving action effected by the priest, we are
brought into union with the risen Christ in a life that will be changed
but never taken away.
If all of this seems at times difficult to comprehend, I think it is
true to say that it is so precisely because we still see with human eyes
and therefore with very limited vision—with the eyes of faith—something
that will become completely visible only when we have passed from this
world to the life where we shall see with the eyes of presence.
|
