Catholicism is the religion of "both….and". Heresies are "either…or" positions, that is, heresies are usually the exaggeration of one truth at the expense of another. As such they are usually boring. But Catholicism is filled with the subtle balance of "both….and". It is so much wider, broader and more inclusive than any heresy.
As I have pointed out elsewhere, in Catholicism we find many "both…and" truths, such as: God is both transcendent and immanent; Jesus is both God and Man; Mary is both Virgin and Mother; the Mass is both Sacrifice and Meal; priests are both ministers of sacrament and ministers of the word; the Church teaches both Faith and Morals; we are saved both by Faith and good works; the sources of Revelation are both Scripture and tradition…and so on. "Both…and" speaks to us of healthy tensions, paradoxes, contrasts, challenges, mysteries, all the drama and excitement of authentic Catholicism.
Let us apply the "both….and" principle to the priesthood at its very heart and in the simplest terms. Priesthood is both being and doing.
Being a priest comes first, not only because essence precedes existence, but because you cannot make sense of doing without first understanding being.
The key to the mystery of being a priest is Holy Orders as a "character sacrament". This is set out in well terms of Baptism in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1272-1274, in terms of Confirmation, paras. 1304-1305, and then in terms of Holy Orders in paras. 1581-1584. Each of these sacrament imparts "an indelible character". The word "character" does not mean a personality or the quality of a person, but something more technical.
The theology of the sacramental character goes back to Saint Paul and Saint Augustine, the belief that God modifies us permanently in a supernatural way. This is described as the "seal of the Spirit" (sphragis in Greek), like a brand or permanent mark imprinted into our deepest being, or, like a new coin, we are stamped with the image of Jesus Christ. However, I like to see the "character" of Ordination also as a consecration building on the consecration of Baptism and Confirmation. That is explained in the Catechism, para. 1535.
The sacramental character, so beautifully developed in the theology of Matthias Scheeben, has direct application to the Church and the dynamic hierarchy of service and worship in the Body of Christ. Through the permanent consecration, the created grace, of the sacraments of Christian Initiation and Orders, the Church takes her form and shape. The celebration of the liturgy, the worship offered by Christ the Priest through his Church, is made possible through the permanent consecrations that site each of us in the dynamic hierarchy of worship and ministry. We are baptised, confirmed or ordained, to offer worship in different ways and to serve one another and the world, in different ways.
But at a basic level, the sacramental character rests on a principle of change, directly related to God's time. In God's plan, there is a radical before and after that is part of the sign value of each sacrament. It is obvious in Baptism, Confirmation, Orders and in Marriage because a new way of life begins at that point where God acts through a human action, another fresh understanding of sacraments which I find rather clearer than the ambiguous emphasis on "signs".
Catholicism is the religion of change. I don't mean "changes" in the sense of some unending process of instability or innovation. I mean, real change, transformation. The principle of radical change can be derived from eucharistic transubstantiation, coursing from the Eucharist, "summit and source" as Vatican II teaches us, right down through the other sacraments. All sacraments involve a change of realities, change in the lives of people. The sacraments are all transforming acts of the acting Person, Jesus Christ. They are all part of God's dynamic "before" and "after", God's re-creation, God making the cosmos new.
The oft-repeated prayer of consecration of bread and wine requires another prayer of consecration, one that is said only once over the man who will consecrate bread and wine again and again. Both consecrations, of the Eucharist and in Holy Orders, are a setting-apart that transforms realities.
A man enters the cathedral a deacon and he leaves that building as a priest. He has not received a function, like the Lord Mayor receiving his chain of office. At the end of his term the esteemed city councillor gives up that chain and he is no longer Mayor. The priest, on the other hand, can never lay aside "the gift" (St Paul's word to Timothy) he receives in Orders. He may give up what he does. He cannot give up who he is. Whatever happens to him, whatever choices he makes, he is a priest for ever. The same applies to those who have been baptized or confirmed. They are Christians for ever in an objective sense, and even if they give up the faith, that permanent divine claim is still within them.
There is a real difference between a Christian and an unbaptized person. There is a further ontological difference between a baptized person and an ordained person, as Vatican II teaches, cf. Lumen Gentium 10, CCC 1447. Closely related as they are, those who have been baptized and those who have also been ordained nevertheless differ essentially in the way they receive and exercise the one Priesthood of Christ.
But sacramental change in a person, whether it happens in Baptism, Confirmation or Orders, calls for a personal response - a spiritual change, a moral change, growing and responding to God in faith and in the life of prayer and love for one another. As the Venerable John Henry Newman said: "To grow is to change and to have grown is to have changed often…". Then, and only then, will the sacramental gift be fruitful in the lives of others, in the Church and in and through the working life of the priest.
We can all, people and priests, make a self-examination in the light of the gifts we have received: how do I live out my vocation imparted in Baptism and Confirmation? How do I live out my ordination?
Costly change involves the cross. It is not so much a matter of wondering what crosses are in store in the future, in the life of a priest. They will come in due time and they vary, as crosses always do, from person to person, in whatever calling we find ourselves. It is more a matter of trusting God our Father and of being willing to accept whatever comes.
The cross and the Eucharist are inseparable. After the bishop ordains a priest, he is vested for the first time in the chasuble, a sign of all encompassing charity. He comes and kneels before the bishop who anoints his hands with Chrism, the Oil of priests, prophets and kings. Then he receives the chalice of wine and the paten with bread brought forward by the community and the bishop says: "Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him. Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate; model you life on the mystery of the Lord's cross".
The man ordained for the Eucharist is not a cultic priest according to the old dispensation of temple functions in Jerusalem. He dare not be dispassionate about what passes through his hands. The man ordained for the Eucharist learns in the school of Christ that sacrifice calls for victimhood, for his personal identification with Christ in the service of a whole life poured out for others.
As I have pointed out elsewhere, in Catholicism we find many "both…and" truths, such as: God is both transcendent and immanent; Jesus is both God and Man; Mary is both Virgin and Mother; the Mass is both Sacrifice and Meal; priests are both ministers of sacrament and ministers of the word; the Church teaches both Faith and Morals; we are saved both by Faith and good works; the sources of Revelation are both Scripture and tradition…and so on. "Both…and" speaks to us of healthy tensions, paradoxes, contrasts, challenges, mysteries, all the drama and excitement of authentic Catholicism.
Let us apply the "both….and" principle to the priesthood at its very heart and in the simplest terms. Priesthood is both being and doing.
Being a priest comes first, not only because essence precedes existence, but because you cannot make sense of doing without first understanding being.
The key to the mystery of being a priest is Holy Orders as a "character sacrament". This is set out in well terms of Baptism in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1272-1274, in terms of Confirmation, paras. 1304-1305, and then in terms of Holy Orders in paras. 1581-1584. Each of these sacrament imparts "an indelible character". The word "character" does not mean a personality or the quality of a person, but something more technical.
The theology of the sacramental character goes back to Saint Paul and Saint Augustine, the belief that God modifies us permanently in a supernatural way. This is described as the "seal of the Spirit" (sphragis in Greek), like a brand or permanent mark imprinted into our deepest being, or, like a new coin, we are stamped with the image of Jesus Christ. However, I like to see the "character" of Ordination also as a consecration building on the consecration of Baptism and Confirmation. That is explained in the Catechism, para. 1535.
The sacramental character, so beautifully developed in the theology of Matthias Scheeben, has direct application to the Church and the dynamic hierarchy of service and worship in the Body of Christ. Through the permanent consecration, the created grace, of the sacraments of Christian Initiation and Orders, the Church takes her form and shape. The celebration of the liturgy, the worship offered by Christ the Priest through his Church, is made possible through the permanent consecrations that site each of us in the dynamic hierarchy of worship and ministry. We are baptised, confirmed or ordained, to offer worship in different ways and to serve one another and the world, in different ways.
But at a basic level, the sacramental character rests on a principle of change, directly related to God's time. In God's plan, there is a radical before and after that is part of the sign value of each sacrament. It is obvious in Baptism, Confirmation, Orders and in Marriage because a new way of life begins at that point where God acts through a human action, another fresh understanding of sacraments which I find rather clearer than the ambiguous emphasis on "signs".
Catholicism is the religion of change. I don't mean "changes" in the sense of some unending process of instability or innovation. I mean, real change, transformation. The principle of radical change can be derived from eucharistic transubstantiation, coursing from the Eucharist, "summit and source" as Vatican II teaches us, right down through the other sacraments. All sacraments involve a change of realities, change in the lives of people. The sacraments are all transforming acts of the acting Person, Jesus Christ. They are all part of God's dynamic "before" and "after", God's re-creation, God making the cosmos new.
The oft-repeated prayer of consecration of bread and wine requires another prayer of consecration, one that is said only once over the man who will consecrate bread and wine again and again. Both consecrations, of the Eucharist and in Holy Orders, are a setting-apart that transforms realities.
A man enters the cathedral a deacon and he leaves that building as a priest. He has not received a function, like the Lord Mayor receiving his chain of office. At the end of his term the esteemed city councillor gives up that chain and he is no longer Mayor. The priest, on the other hand, can never lay aside "the gift" (St Paul's word to Timothy) he receives in Orders. He may give up what he does. He cannot give up who he is. Whatever happens to him, whatever choices he makes, he is a priest for ever. The same applies to those who have been baptized or confirmed. They are Christians for ever in an objective sense, and even if they give up the faith, that permanent divine claim is still within them.
There is a real difference between a Christian and an unbaptized person. There is a further ontological difference between a baptized person and an ordained person, as Vatican II teaches, cf. Lumen Gentium 10, CCC 1447. Closely related as they are, those who have been baptized and those who have also been ordained nevertheless differ essentially in the way they receive and exercise the one Priesthood of Christ.
But sacramental change in a person, whether it happens in Baptism, Confirmation or Orders, calls for a personal response - a spiritual change, a moral change, growing and responding to God in faith and in the life of prayer and love for one another. As the Venerable John Henry Newman said: "To grow is to change and to have grown is to have changed often…". Then, and only then, will the sacramental gift be fruitful in the lives of others, in the Church and in and through the working life of the priest.
We can all, people and priests, make a self-examination in the light of the gifts we have received: how do I live out my vocation imparted in Baptism and Confirmation? How do I live out my ordination?
Costly change involves the cross. It is not so much a matter of wondering what crosses are in store in the future, in the life of a priest. They will come in due time and they vary, as crosses always do, from person to person, in whatever calling we find ourselves. It is more a matter of trusting God our Father and of being willing to accept whatever comes.
The cross and the Eucharist are inseparable. After the bishop ordains a priest, he is vested for the first time in the chasuble, a sign of all encompassing charity. He comes and kneels before the bishop who anoints his hands with Chrism, the Oil of priests, prophets and kings. Then he receives the chalice of wine and the paten with bread brought forward by the community and the bishop says: "Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him. Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate; model you life on the mystery of the Lord's cross".
The man ordained for the Eucharist is not a cultic priest according to the old dispensation of temple functions in Jerusalem. He dare not be dispassionate about what passes through his hands. The man ordained for the Eucharist learns in the school of Christ that sacrifice calls for victimhood, for his personal identification with Christ in the service of a whole life poured out for others.
© Msgr. Peter Elliott 2001