Priesthood

 

The Old Testament records three ranks of priesthood:

 

 

These three ranks are all carried over into the New Testament and thus, into the Church. Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say about the priesthood.

 

High Priesthood

 

The High Priest of the Old Testament is Melchizedek. He is a mysterious figure who appears before Abraham following the latter’s defeat of four kings who had taken members of his family captive.

 

Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High. He pronounced this blessing:

 

Blessed be Abram by God Most high,

Creator of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God Most High

For putting your enemies into your clutches

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

(Genesis 14:18-20)

 

This is Melchizedek’s one and only appearance in the Bible; but what a significant one it is! Coming from an unknown country called Salem, he is a priest of God before the priesthood had been instituted. And he gives Abraham gifts of ‘bread and wine’. Does that sound familiar? If not, next time you go to Mass, pay particular attention to what is brought to your priest just as the collection is taken.

 

How does Melchizedek’s priesthood stretch from the age of Abraham through to the New Testament? This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says,

 

Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured finds its fulfilment 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.

(CCC 1544)   

 

Ministerial Priesthood

 

The origin of the Ministerial Priesthood can be traced back to at least the time of Aaron, Moses’ brother. In the book of Exodus, God commands Moses to,

 

… anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them to be priests in my service.

(Exo 30:30)

 

However, although this may have been the moment when God formally instituted the Ministerial Priesthood, it was in existence before then. For example, God gives Moses the above command after giving him the Ten Commandments. Just prior to their meeting on Mount Sinai, God warns Moses to tell the Israelites not to look upon Him as He descends upon the mountain,

 

…or many of them will perish. Even the priests, who do have access to Yahweh, must sanctify themselves, or Yahweh may burst out against them’.

(Exodus 19:21-22)

 

God repeats this warning a few verses later in Exodus 19:22. I think it would be fair to say, however, that the exact origin of the Ministerial Priesthood is not so important as the fact that it existed. Later in Exodus, God gives Moses instructions on how it is to be exercised – read Exodus 28 – 30.

 

Having established the existence of the Ministerial Priesthood in the Old Testament we now turn to the question of its existence in the New Testament. The above quotation from the Catechism would seem to indicate that, in a sense, the whole priesthood of the Old Testament was a prefiguring of Christ’s High Priesthood. Does this mean that the Ministerial Priesthood ended with Jesus? No, not at all. Let’s look at the Last Supper. Holding up the bread and wine, Jesus says,

 

“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me… This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you.”

 

Note that Jesus did not tell all His followers to celebrate His death and Resurrection in this fashion. It was only the Apostles who were given the order. This was not a coincidence, but Jesus renewing the Ministerial Priesthood for His Church.

The New Testament contains numerous references to priests and the kind of work that they did. Here are a few:

 

The reason I left you behind in Crete was for you to organise everything that still had to be done and appoint elders in every town, in the way I taught you...

(Titus 1:5)

 

Anyone of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him.

(James 5:14)

 

My brothers, I am quite sure that you, in particular, are full of goodness, fully instructed and capable of correcting each other. But I have special confidence in writing on some points to you, to refresh your memories, because of the grace that was given me by God. I was given grace to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles, dedicated to offer them the gospel of God, so that gentiles might become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

(Romans 15:15-16)

 

The Lamb came forward to take the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne, and when he took it, the four living creatures prostrated themselves before him and with them the twenty-four elders; each one of them was holding a harp and had a golden bowl full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.

(Revelation 5:7-8 [cf. Num. 7:84-86])

 

Reading the above quotations, you may have noticed something – none of them mention priests! Each of them (except Paul’s letter to the Romans) refers to elders, but no priests are in sight. Well, in the English translation, anyway. You see, the word ‘elder’ is actually a translation of the Greek word presbuteros, from which the word ‘priest’ is derived. As for St. Paul, well, when he says he has been ‘dedicated’ to offer the gentiles the gospel, he literally means he has been given the ‘priestly work’ to offer the gospel.

 

Why did Jesus restrict membership of the Ministerial Priesthood? The answer lies in the Church as the Body of Christ. As His Body, we all have different roles to play. As St. Paul says,

 

There are many different gifts, but it is always the same Spirit; there are many different ways of serving, but it is always the same Lord. There are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all. The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to be used for the general good. To one is given from the Spirit the gift of utterance expressing wisdom; to another the gift of utterance expressing knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit; to another, faith, from the same Spirit; and to another, the gifts of healing, through this one Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the power of distinguishing spirits; to one, the gift of different tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues. But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each individual.

(1 Cor 12:1-11)

 

Universal Priesthood

 

Despite the fact that only a select number of Catholics are called to the Ministerial Priesthood, every Catholic Christian is part of the universal priesthood. This belief is very firmly rooted in Scripture. In Exodus 19:6, God declares to Israel that it,

 

…shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

 

And in his letter, Peter declares to the Christian community to which he is writing that,

 

[Jesus] is the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you, too, may be living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

 

and again,

 

… you are a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people to be a personal possession to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were a non-people and now you are the People of God.

(2 Pet 9-10)

 

What does it mean to be a member of this priesthood? As Peter says, we are called to offer spiritual sacrifices and to sing the praises of God. But there is more, for we may also include the gifts mentioned by St. Paul in the quotation above. Fundamentally, to be part of the universal priesthood means to order our lives towards God, to offer up to Him all that we do (as a 'spiritual sacrifice'), to imitate Christ in word and deed, to live His life in our own.

 

 

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