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The Dignity of the Catholic Priesthood

by

Bishop Alexis H. M. Lepicier, O.S.M.

Our Blessed Savior having decreed in His infinite goodness to abide with us all times in the Blessed Sacrament until the consummation of the world, imparted to His Apostles and their successors the same power which He Himself possesses of consecrating the Holy Eucharist when He said: "Do this for a commemoration of Me."  Thus Our Lord established the Catholic priesthood, which, together with the Blessed Sacrament itself, is the most beautiful creation of His Sacred Heart.

The priest of the New Covenant is made to be a partaker of the Divine Omnipotence inasmuch as he can, by using the same words instituted by Christ as He did at the Last Supper; that is, consecrate His body and blood.  Moreover, as he is also commissioned to distribute this divine gift to the faithful, he further has the power to remit sin in order that men and women may worthily approach this august Sacrament and derive from it the seeds of supernatural grace and the pledge of eternal life.

Oh! great indeed is the dignity of priests, to whom a power has been given which even angels do not possess.

As the Catholic priesthood has for its object the continuation of Christ's own mission, which is to save souls by bringing them to be made partakers of God's own nature, hence it has the same characteristics which distinguished the priesthood of our Divine Savior.

The first characteristic of Christ's priesthood consists in this, that He did not of His own accord choose this dignity, but He was appointed by God to be our High Priest.  So also the priest of the New Covenant must be called by God and not collectively only, as was the case in the Old Dispensation, when priesthood was hereditary in some special families; but individually and this on account of the high office which is entrusted to Him of consecrating the body and blood of Our Savior and reconciling men to God.

Another characteristic of Christ's priesthood is that it lasts forever.  As Christ for all eternity will retain His priestly character as an ornament that will never be cancelled, so a priest of the New Covenant will never cease to bear upon his soul this mark of God's power.

Furthermore, as the priesthood of Christ had for its primary object the immolation of Himself upon the cross, so is the Catholic priesthood closely connected with the holocaust which the priest must make to God of his own self, of his desires and affections, in order no longer to live for himself or his family, but for that God who has chosen him and lies hidden under the sacramental species. 

It is with truth, therefore, that a priest is called another Christ, "Sacerdos alter Christus."

We know that there can be no exercise of outward religion where the Catholic priesthood should be wanting, hence it is the duty of every good Catholic to promote sacerdotal vocations either by encouraging such youths who feel in themselves the seed of the divine calling or by materially helping them through the long and laborious course of preparation and schooling which they have to undergo.  See our apostolate: The Missionary Rosebushes of St. Therese.