This podcast episode explores the Catholic understanding of Holy Orders, distinguishing between the common priesthood of all baptized believers and the ministerial priesthood of bishops and priests, emphasizing that the latter is a service ordained to build up the former and act in persona Christi Capitis (in the person of Christ the Head).
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hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and
you're listening to the catechism in a
year podcast where we encounter God's
plan of sheer goodness for us revealed
in scripture and passed down to the
tradition of the Catholic faith the
catechism in a year is brought to you by
Ascension in 365 days we'll read through
the catechism of the Catholic Church
discovering our identity and God's
family as we journey together toward our
Heavenly home this is day 212. we are
reading paragraphs 1546 to 1553 as
always I'm using the Ascension edition
of the catechism which includes the
foundations of Faith approach that you
can follow along with any recent version
of the catechism of the Catholic church
you can also download your own catechism
in a year reading plan by visiting
ascensionpress.com Ciy and you can click
follow or subscribe in your podcast app
for daily updates and daily
notifications because today is day 212
reading paragraphs
1546-1553 continuing talking about this
first of the sacraments of service and
we're going to highlight this holy
orders we're going to highlight the fact
that but not only like I said yesterday
there are two participations in the one
priesthood of Jesus right there's the
kingdom priesthood baptismal priesthood
the community of Believers there's also
this ministerial or hierarchical
priesthood of Bishops and Priests and so
we're going to talk about that
distinction but also there's a unique
claim that's made about the ministerial
priests and that they act in Persona
Christie capatis which is in the person
of Christ the head right so we're gonna
talk about but what it is for the priest
to be an icon of Christ in some ways
right what it is for the priest to be a
servant and that's the whole point the
the entire point of the priesthood is at
the service of the Kingdom priesthood
right so the whole meaning of the
impetus the the derive the goal of the
ministerial priesthood is to help the
baptismal priesthood the whole goal of
being a priest in the New Covenant is to
be at the service of the lay people of
the New Covenant or the kingdom priests
of the New Covenant and so yes they're
given an authority they they're given a
power but that power is meant to be
placed at the service of others and they
act then in the name of the whole church
and so we're going to talk about that
today so all of these things about the
priesthood that hopefully well I was
gonna say hopefully you didn't know
before only because it'd be new and fun
and exciting but maybe you do know
already in which case this is an
incredible opportunity to be reminded of
the role of priests and the way in which
they are called to serve and build up
the body of Christ and also the way in
which you and I as baptized people are
called to serve and build up the body of
Christ all the all that and more today
as we launch into today we call upon the
name of our God and Father
we call Upon Jesus Christ his son
we call upon the holy spirit that's been
poured out for us and the love of God as
we pray
Father in heaven
in the name of Jesus in the power of
your Holy Spirit
we present ourselves before you and we
ask that you please bless this time
bless this time that we just hear these
words of the catechism bless this time
that we come together in this virtual
and and and somewhat divided and strange
and new way but
bless this time
that we can actually be United as a church
church
that we can be United as followers of
your son Jesus
that we can be United by our common
priesthood priesthood all believers and
be United
by the ministerial priests who have
served us
Lord God
I pray that you please bless those
ministerial priests bless them in their
weakness bless them in their need for
you bless them in their need for
forgiveness and their need for
reconciliation bless them in their struggles
struggles bless
bless
every priest this day
make them holy
make them like you
in Jesus name we pray Amen in the name
of the father and of the son and of the
holy spirit amen as we said it is day
212 we're reading paragraphs 1546 to 1553.
1553.
two participations in the one priesthood
of Christ
high priest and unique mediator has made
of the church a kingdom priests for his
God and Father
the whole community of Believers is as
such Priestly the faithful exercise
their baptismal priesthood through their
participation each according to his own
vocation in Christ's Mission as priest
prophet and King through the sacraments
of baptism and Confirmation the faithful
are consecrated to be a holy priesthood
the ministerial or hierarchical
priesthood of Bishops and Priests and
the common priesthood of all the
faithful participate each in its own
proper way in the one priesthood of
Christ while being ordered one to
another they differ essentially in what sense
sense
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
orders
in the person of Christ the head
in the ecclesial service of the ordained
minister it is Christ himself who is
present to his church as head of his
body Shepherd of his flock high priest
of the Redemptive sacrifice teacher of Truth
Truth
this is what the church means by saying
that the priest by virtue of the
sacrament of holy orders acts in Persona
Christie capitis
as Pope Pius XII wrote
it is the same priest Christ Jesus whose
sacred person his Minister truly
represents now the minister by reason of
the Sacramento consecration which he has
received is truly made like to the high
priest and possesses the authority to
act in the power and place of the person
of Christ himself Christie
St Thomas Aquinas wrote 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
through the ordained Ministry especially
that of Bishops and Priests the presence
of Christ as head of the church is made
visible in the midst of the community of believers
believers
in the beautiful expression of Saint
Ignatius of Antioch the bishop is typos
topatros he is like the living image of
God the Father
this presence of Christ in the minister
is not to be understood as if the latter
were preserved from all human weaknesses
the spirit of domination error even sin
the power of the Holy Spirit does not
guarantee all acts of the ministers in
the same way
while this guarantee extends to the
sacraments so that even The Minister's
sin cannot impede the fruit of Grace
in many other acts the minister leaves
human traces that are not always signs
of fidelity to the gospel and
consequently can harm the apostolic
fruitfulness of the church
this priesthood is ministerial
that office which the Lord committed to
the pastors of his people is in the
strict sense of the term a service
it is entirely related to Christ and to
men it depends entirely on Christ and on
his unique priesthood it has been
instituted for the good of men and the
communion of the church
the sacrament of holy orders
communicates a sacred power which is
none other than that of Christ
the exercise of this Authority must
therefore be measured against the model
of Christ who by love made himself the
least and the servant of all
the Lord said clearly that concern for
his flock was proof of love for him
in the name of the whole church
the ministerial priesthood has the task
not only of representing Christ head of
the church before the Assembly of the
faithful but also of acting in the name
of the whole church when presenting to
God the prayer of the church and above
all when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice
sacrifice
in the name of the whole church does not
mean that priests are the delegates of
the community 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 kaput at 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
okay there we have at paragraphs 15 46
to 1553 wow okay so going back we had a
little review in paragraphs 1546 and
1547 the review was about the importance
and that the vital necessity of these
two participations in the one priesthood
of Christ we have the priesthood the
kingdom priesthood to keep calling it
right the baptismal priesthood
priesthood the faithful and also the
ministerial or hierarchical priesthood
and I I love this oh just man okay so
how do the faithful exercise their
priesthood their baptismal priesthood or
as I say it Kingdom priesthood well it
says here very clearly through their
participation each according to his own
vocation in Christ's Mission as priest
prophet and King and so again we bring
that out into the world whenever you
suffer you get to unite that with the
sufferings of Jesus wherever you work
you get to unite that to the work of
Jesus whenever you rejoice you get to
reunite that to the rejoy of Jesus
as well as when you worship at the mass
you get to unite that to the
self-offering of Jesus and so that's so
important now paragraph 1547 highlights
the fact that this other participation
in the priesthood of Jesus right the
ministerial or hierarchical priesthood
that's the Bishops and Priests
is different essentially from that
baptismal priesthood different
essentially from the kingdom priesthood
and the question asks in the middle of
the paragraph in what sense is that
essentially different and it says this
it says while the common priesthood of
the Faithful Is exercised by the
unfolding of baptismal Grace right you
just continue to live a life of faith
hope and love according to the Holy Spirit
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 and so
because of that the bishop and the
priests why do they exist they exist as
a means by which Christ continues to
build up and Lead his church this is so
important why does the ministerial
priest exist it exists again for the
glory of the father to serve and worship God
God
and to build up the body of Christ on Earth
Earth
it is remember these sacraments these
two sacraments are sacraments of service
and so yes here's the priest who
receives a new power right that we talk
about the person of Christ the head
that's what that phrase in Persona
Christie capatis so the priest is an
icon of Jesus
yes and that's important and we add this
quote from Pius XII quote from Saint
Thomas Aquinas quote from Ignatius of
Antioch that the bishop is like the
living image of God the Father just
beautiful and incredible
that God is present in the priest in a
in a unique way the crisis has has
marked this priest in a unique way and
is given that priest a certain power
right that's the priesthood has a
certain power
and yet
that power is meant to be ordered
towards service
it's it's so important for us to
understand this there was a book that
came out a number of years ago it was
called boys adrift by Dr Sachs
and one of the themes of this book one
of the theories of this book is the way
in which
young men in our culture in the in the
West in United States and Canada this
whole area we are right now is we're
given this image of masculinity or this
image of manhood that we have
essentially two options seems like one
is that of the what he calls the slacker
dude and the slacker dude is just the
guy who's like whatever it says no big
deal kind of just hanging out and like
everything's fine and I'm just kind of
like just
just yeah just chilling right just just
kind of like I'm not gonna get riled up
about anything I'm not really going to
stand for anything I'm just like I'm
cool we're cool the other is the image
of the bully or the brute that person
who who you know gets their way all the
time the person who kind of barges into
the room the person who has you might
say hyper masculine that kind of idea
even though it's not hyper Alaskan it's
just a distorted version of masculinity
and he highlights this and says what are
the two flaws that either the slacker
dude or the brute and Bully fall into
and the flaw is that
both are given this unique thing they're
both given a unique strength they're
given a masculine strength
and the slacker dude just wastes that
strength like he doesn't use it it's
kind of like whatever just drift through life
life
the bully or the brute uses that
strength but he uses it to dominate
others he uses it to serve himself
there is a third option that Dr sax
points out that third option essentially
ultimately is the image of Jesus
here's Jesus who has all authority and
power given to him he is he is the king
of kings he's the Lord of lords there's
there's no one who can take on Christ
and yet he doesn't use that strength
that power to dominate and he also
doesn't just waste it
he puts it at the service of those
around him
and this is what it is to be ultimately
to be a man now that's not exclusive I
mean women are given their own Graces
their own special gifts but in the
context of this book if boys adrift what
it is to be a man is to place one's
strength at the service of others a good
man a true man is a place not to waste
one strength and not to use it to
dominate others or use it on one spend
it on oneself
but to place one's strength at the
service of others again this is both
male and female
if men are given a certain
characteristics and women are given
certain characteristics all of those
gifts this is for all of us all of the
gifts that God has given us are meant to
be placed at the service of those around
us so as we highlight
the gifts that are poured upon a bishop
are priests
those gifts are given for the service of
the community
and he can just kind of sit back and
kind of be a slacker priest or we can be
a brute a bully a priest just serves himself
himself
neither of those
neither of those is the ideal the ideal
is always going to be Jesus the ideal is
always going to be does this priest love
like Christ in fact you know paragraph
1550 in 1551 highlights this it says yes
even though Christ is present in the minister
minister
that does not mean that he's preserved
from all human weakness
or the spirit of domination or error or sin
sin
and the Holy Spirit power of the Holy
Spirit doesn't guarantee that all acts
of the priests or the Bishops in the
same way
and he says while this guarantee extends
the sacraments so that even The
Minister's sin cannot impede the fruit
of Grace right so even if the the priest
is in a state of mortal sin when he's
offering mass or he's giving you
Absolution that really is Jesus still
there it's not going to get in the way
of it being the mass is not going to get
in the way if you're being forgiven of
all your sins
many other acts of the minister leaves
human traces that are not always signs
of fidelity to the gospel and that is
that's absolutely true I mean anyone
who's here who has been hurt in small or
very very large and painful ways by a
priest or by a bishop
you know that that's true
that's so I think that's one of the
things that's so remarkable one of the
things that's so remarkable is that here
we have these fathers that have been
given to us
and at the same time
we have been given flawed fathers
that we we recognize that yeah the
priest is unique the the ministerial
priesthood is completely unique the the
amount of Grace that they can bring into
our lives is is it's unfathomable I
think what is it Saint John Vianney who
said if we knew the reality of the
priesthood we would die from Joy
at the same time
the failings the flaws the sins of
priests can hurt us more than maybe anything
anything
I mean isn't this true about our
families as well
to experience the love of a father is incredible
incredible
but our fathers can also be the ones who
hurt us the most
the father can be the one who builds up
the family more than any other I mean
moms in the family so incredible so amazing
and and to have a strong and loving
mother is such a gift
and and a mom who is flawed and Fallen
is so painful
and yet at the same time there's something
something
that I don't know just even
Bears out in our lives to have a father
who is there and a father who loves a
father who strengthens his children
he does it in a different way than moms
I'm not saying one's better than the
other but just we recognize there's
something so good but there's also
something so so devastating
to families when the father isn't there
when the father uses his strength for
himself or uses
makes bad decisions it hurts his children
children
and we recognize that the church is a
family it's the family of God and we've
been given fathers and some of those
fathers are amazing amazing and we've
all known priests we all know Bishops
who just you just think oh my gosh I
love Bishop so and so or or father
whoever you know he was such a gift to
our Parish that's such a gift to our
family such a gift to me like he was the
one who was there for me I saw Jesus and
him more than anyone else I mean that
happens to us so often
and yet at the same time we can also say
yeah and also here's father whoever
father so and so
and so we realized that the weight
that's placed on on priests that they
better live up to this as I've said many
many times
Dr Chris Thompson
he was one of my favorite professors
I've ever had in my life taught us in
seminary I remember he taught moral
Theology and one day I remember he said gentlemen
gentlemen
for all of you who are are going to go
all the way here in the Seminary you're
going to get ordained priests when it
comes to sin when it comes to Leading
others to sin when it comes to Bringing
sin into the lives of others he says I
have one word for you and that word is millstones
millstones
referencing how Jesus had had said if
one of you leads any of these little
ones to sin it would be better for him
if a great Millstone were placed her on
his neck and he was cast into the sea
because this is the seriousness
God has given his ministerial priests
this sacred power
but with power his Uncle Ben says with
great power comes great responsibility
and the priest must never abuse that power
power
in fact paragraph 1551 says the exercise
of this Authority or the exercise of
this power must therefore be measured
against the model of Christ who by love
made himself the least of all and the
servant of all
and that is what every priest is called
to do that's what I'm called to do and so
so
I realize man I am I'm a mess so I need
I need your prayers I'm not a I'm not as
good a spiritual father as I want to be
I need your prayers
I'll pray for you
please pray for me
my name is father Mike I cannot wait to
see you tomorrow
God bless [Music]
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