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Day 211: The One Priesthood of Christ — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) | The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Day 211: The One Priesthood of Christ — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
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This content explores the sacrament of Holy Orders, tracing the lineage of priesthood from the Old Covenant to its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the one true High Priest. It emphasizes that all baptized Christians share in Christ's priesthood, while ministerial priests act as unique participants and conduits of this singular priesthood.
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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 in God's family
as we journey together toward our
Heavenly home this is day 211 we're
reading paragraphs 15 39-1545 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 also you can
click follow or subscribe in your
podcast app for daily updates and daily
notifications today is day 211 we're
reading paragraphs 15 39 to 15 45
yesterday we started talking about these
last two sacraments the sacraments of
service sacraments of vocation
sacraments of mission you might want to
calm all of those things yet the
grounding for all of this of course is
the fact that we've been initiated into
the body of Christ we've been brought
into the family of God we've been
transformed into God's Sons and
Daughters through baptism strengthened
by confirmation and fed by the Eucharist
of course
here we are trying to live this out and
so yesterday we started talking about
these two sacraments of mission these
sacraments of service called holy orders
and matrimony and yesterday we further
talked about how holy orders is divided
into essentially three degrees the
episcopite which means Bishops the
presbyterite priests and the diaconate
deacons and here we are today we're
looking at how was that priesthood
realized in the old Covenant and how is
it fulfilled in Jesus Christ that's it's
pretty straightforward today which is
pretty amazing but also there's some
beautiful prayers here a prayer from the
ordination of Bishops a prayer from the
ordination of priests and the prayer
from the ordination of deacons that
we're going to look at and then of
course everything culminates everything
goes back to the Old Testament because
that's how God began calling his people
in the priesthood of the Levites
remember tribe of Levi but it gets
fulfilled everything gets fulfilled in
Jesus and in the establishment of his
church so we're talking about that today
as we launch into today let us throw
ourselves into the father's presence and
place ourselves in the father's Hearts
as we pray
Father in heaven we thank you and give
you praise we ask that you please send
your Holy Spirit to bless us send your
Holy Spirit to bless our local Bishop
send your Holy Spirit to bless our
Universal Bishop the pope we ask you to
send your Holy Spirit to to bless the
priest who baptized us every priest
who's ever heard our confession and fed
us with the Eucharist every priest who's
ever given us counsel every Deacon who's
ever served in our parishes and served
our families and served us individually
we ask you to please in this moment to
bless all those priests who have died
who have gone before us
bring them into your presence purify
them with your love so that they may
dwell in your presence for all eternity
and we ask you to please bless us father
in the name of your son Jesus Christ by
the power of your Holy Spirit help us to
be holy help us to be yours help us to
love the way you love in Jesus name we
pray Amen in the name of the father and
of the son and of the holy spirit amen
it is day 211 we're reading paragraphs
15 39 to 15 45.
the sacrament of holy orders in the
economy of salvation
the priesthood of the old Covenant
the chosen people was constituted by God
as a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation but within the people of Israel
God chose one of the 12 tribes that of
Levi and set it apart for liturgical service
service
God himself is its inheritance
a special right consecrated the
beginnings of the priesthood of the old
Covenant the priests are appointed to
act on behalf of men in relation to God
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins
instituted to proclaim the word of God
and to restore communion with God by
sacrifices and prayer this priesthood
nevertheless remains powerless to bring
about salvation needing to repeat its
sacrifices ceaselessly and being unable
to achieve a definitive sanctification
which only the sacrifice of Christ would accomplish
accomplish
the Liturgy of the church however sees
in the priesthood of Aaron and the
service of the Levites as in the
institution of the 70 elders a
prefiguring of the ordained Ministry of
the New Covenant thus in the Latin Rite
the church prays in the conservatory
preface of the ordination of Bishops God
the father of our Lord Jesus Christ by
your gracious word you have established
the plan of your church from the
beginning you chose the descendants of
Abraham to be your holy nation you
established rulers and Priests and did
not leave your Sanctuary without
ministers to serve you
at the ordination of priests the church
prays Lord Holy Father when you had
appointed High priests to rule your
people you chose other men next to them
in rank and dignity to be with them and
to help them in their task you extended
the spirit of Moses to 70 wise men he
shared among the sons of Aaron the
fullness of their father's power
in the consecratory prayer for
ordination of deacons the church confesses
confesses
almighty God you make the church
Christ's body grow to its full stature
as a new and greater Temple you enrich
it with every kind of Grace and perfect
it with a diversity of members to serve
the whole body in a wonderful pattern of unity
unity
you established a threefold Ministry of
worship and service for the glory of
your name as Ministers of your
Tabernacle you chose the sons of Levi
and gave them your blessing at their
Everlasting inheritance
the one priesthood of Christ
everything that the priesthood of the
old Covenant prefigured Finds Its
fulfillment in Christ Jesus the one
mediator between God and Men
the Christian tradition considers
Melchizedek priest of God most high as a
prefiguration of the priesthood of
Christ the unique high priest after the
order of Melchizedek holy blameless
unstained by a single offering he has
perfected for all time those who are
Sanctified that is by the unique
sacrifice of the cross
the Redemptive sacrifice of Christ is
unique accomplished once for all yet it
is made present in the Eucharistic
sacrifice of the church
the same is true of the one priesthood
of Christ it is made present through the
ministerial priesthood without
diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's priesthood
priesthood
only Christ is the true priest the
all right there we are paragraphs 15
39-1545 we have this going all the way
back you know if you are familiar with
the Old Testament if you're familiar
with the Bible in a year or just with
the Bible itself you recognize that here
if you remember from the very beginning
where were the priests and now obviously
we have I'm in the very very beginning
we have Cain and Abel right in the first
chapters of Genesis and what are Kane
enable doing they're offering sacrifices
Cain offers a sacrifice Abel offers a
sacrifice the sacrifice of Cain is not
accepted sacrifice Abel is accepted and
so you see these people are they
themselves are offering sacrifice they
don't have a priesthood but really
quickly after this couple chapters after
this we see Abram coming back from the
defeat of the Kings he finds this
mysterious character named Melchizedek
and in the very first chapters here of
Genesis and we were talking in chapter
14 of Genesis you have Melchizedek and
he is the king of Salem and a priest of
God most high so Abram coming back from
the again from the defeat of the Kings
he meets Melchizedek and on Mount Moriah
Melchizedek this mysterious priest and
King right he's a priest king he offers
a sacrifice of bread and wine on the top
of Mount Moriah and Abram gives him a
tenth of everything He blesses Abram and
Abram gives him a tenth of everything
now later on he's mentioned in the Book
of Psalms he's also mentioned most
explicitly in the letter to the Hebrews
as being a unique kind of Praise because
we recognize that the Jewish people
understood well let's let's go to this
so here's Melchizedek King and priest
right so he as what Hebrews says his
priesthood is kind of Eternal in some ways
ways
that it's not necessarily rooted in
genealogy the way that the Hebrew
priesthood is Jewish priesthood is
rooted in genealogy
after this
it's so interesting
originally the fathers of the each
family would be kind of like the priest
of the family
so as an example at the Passover the
father of the family would be the one
who would offer the sacrifice of the Lamb
Lamb
and yet what happens after the Passover
what happens after the Passover is the
Jewish people are released from slavery
in Egypt they go through the Red Sea God
Saves them again and again and then they
get to Mount Sinai and Moses goes up to
receive the Ten Commandments from the
Lord himself comes down and here the
people are worshiping the golden calf
this false worship because of this and
because only the tribe of Levi were the
ones to fight against the people who
were doing their worship then it was
that priests would only come from the
tribe of Levi so it was rooted in you
know I would say genealogy or rooted in
genetics it was rooted in that one
family became okay that's the family
where priests come from so even if you
were of a different tribe and you really
really wanted to be a priest it didn't
matter because you're not of the tribe
of Levi that was super incredibly
important that became the new new
distinction okay keep this in mind originally
originally
the father of the family was the priest
of the family
that gets lost in some ways when it
comes to the issue with the golden calf
and now it's only the levitical
priesthood only comes from that tribe of Levi
Levi
now both of those things are important
to understand because what happens in
the New Covenant well the New Covenant
priests once again are established as
the fathers that's one of the reasons we
call them Father one of the reasons why
only men can be priests we'll talk about
that in the days to come but we
recognize that
priesthood is rooted in fatherhood
it later on again because of sin
priesthood is not just rooted in
fatherhood priesthood is rooted in this
levitical priesthood okay so they were
appointed what were they appointed to do
they were appointed to offer
to act on behalf of men in relation to
God to offer gifts and sacrifices for
sins which could never be enough in fact
paragraph 1540 goes on to talk about
this that yes they were instituted to
proclaim the word of God and restore
communion with God by sacrifices and
prayer yet this priesthood nevertheless
remains powerless to bring about salvation
salvation
only the sacrifice of Christ would
accomplish this and yet we recognize
that in the New Covenant there's this
connection between the New Covenant
priesthood and the old Covenant
priesthood with the priesthood in Jesus
Christ and the priesthood of the Levites
right the levitical priesthood and this
is all connected this is all mixed
together so originally fatherhood you
also have this levitical priesthood
that's that's consecrated for a certain
purpose a dedicated purpose to act on
behalf of men in relation to God to
offer gifts and sacrifices for sins you
also have this priesthood of Melchizedek
remember here is this priest of God most
high Jesus is in some ways he he is the
Fulfillment of the fatherhood he's
fulfillment of the levitical priesthood
and he is the Fulfillment of the order
of Melchizedek or the priesthood of
Melchizedek in fact again Hebrews talks
about this and says that here is Jesus
he's a high priest after the order of
Melchizedek he is Holy blameless
unstained and by a single offering he
has perfected for all time those who are
Sanctified again that single offering
being his unique sacrifice on the cross
and so here is Jesus who fulfills all of
these prefigurements of the old Covenant
priesthood fatherhood levitical
priesthood and the priesthood of
Melchizedek in Jesus Christ he fulfills
all of it he is the one priest and this
is we're coming to an end here but this
is kind of really important I run this
camp in the summertime for junior high
and high school students and one of the
things we'll do is we have like a
three-year cycle and every third year we
talk about the mass we talk about like
everything we've been talking about
during these this whole section on the
sacraments at one point I asked the
junior high high school students how
many priests are there in the world and
of course originally some of them are
like I don't know thousands or millions
or something like that hop couple
hundred I don't know but then there's
the one kid who always says one there's
only one and there that's exactly right
how many priests are there there is one
priest and this is so important for us
to understand paragraph 1545 highlights this
this
just like how at the cross the
Redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique
it's accomplished once for all that has
happened once yet that same sacrifice
the Redemptive sacrifice of Jesus is
made present at every Mass right that
that same sacrifice once for all is made
present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of
the church every time we celebrate the
mass we're not re-sacrificing Jesus
we're merely representing that one
sacrifice once for all in the same way
Jesus is priesthood there's one
priesthood of Christ there is one priest
and yet that priesthood of Jesus is made
present through the ministerial priesthood
priesthood
so every priest you meet
that's not another priest that's someone
who is participating in and making present
present
the one priesthood of Jesus Christ and
it doesn't diminish the uniqueness of
Christ's priesthood there's a quote
Saint Thomas Aquinas building off of
Hebrews chapter 8 says only Christ is
the true priest the others being only
his ministers
so if someone were to ask you how many
priests are there in the Catholic church
or how many priests are there in the
world the answer is one there is one
priest Jesus is the one great high
priest there are many ministerial
priests those are people who again these
ministers who participate in Christ's
priesthood and then of course there is
kingdom priests all of us everyone
baptized is called to participate in
Christ's priesthood in a very unique way
as well now this is going to be
highlighted in the next couple days and
so one of the things I want us all to
keep in mind remember we said this
yesterday the day before not everyone
gets to participate in holy orders not
everyone gets to participate in the
sacrament of matrimony but all of us who
have been baptized we are participating
in the priesthood of Jesus
you get to participate if you're a
layperson you get to participate in the
priesthood of Jesus in a unique way
that's the kingdom of priests again a
nation a holy nation a royal people
people set apart for the Lord God
if you're a priest listening to this a
ministerial priest or a bishop listening
to this
incredibly you get to participate in
this priesthood of Jesus in a unique way
as well
and so the highlight of all of this is
the more and more you and I exercise
either our kingdom priesthood or the
ministerial priesthood of Jesus
the more and more we get to make present
the great High priesthood of Jesus the
more you and I say yes to Christ in this
way the more he is made present and the
more he is made known one of the reasons
I've said this before I'll say it again
though one of the reasons why
when we skip Mass we don't get the
chance to exercise that priesthood
when I show up we exercise that
priesthood and God is that much more
glorified and the world is that much
more sanctified
when we're willing as kingdom priests to
offer the Pains of our day to offer the
joys of our day to offer our loves and
our losses to offer our tears
to offer our suffering with the Lord
then we get to exercise that priesthood
in Union
with the one unique
priesthood of Jesus Christ
this is not just a thing for the past
this is a thing that is completely
present right now in this moment you are
living right now in this moment you are
a living embodiment in some ways you are
living extension
of the priesthood of Jesus
because of your baptism and if you're
against you're listening to this as a
bishop as a priest or as a deacon you
are in a unique way that living
extension of the unique priesthood of
Jesus right now in this moment
and so to be able to just pray in this
moment and say okay God use this moment
then let this moment be in a moment of
sacrifice let this moment be it a moment
of worship let this moment be a moment
where you are glorified and the world is
Sanctified because we get to participate
in the one unique priesthood of Jesus
I hope that makes sense I don't know it
makes sense to me and it's just amazing
incredible you guys I am praying 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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