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2. The Lord Jesus, "whom the Father has sent into the world"
(Jn 10:36) has made his whole Mystical Body a sharer in the
anointing of the Spirit with which he himself is anointed.[2] In
him all the faithful are made a holy and royal priesthood; they offer
spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ, and they proclaim
the perfections of him who has called them out of darkness into his
marvelous light.[3] Therefore, there is no member who does not
have a part in the mission of the whole Body; but each one ought to
hallow Jesus in his heart,[4] and in the spirit of prophecy bear
witness to Jesus.[5]
The same Lord, however, has established ministers among his faithful
to unite them together in one body in which, "not all the members have
the same function" (Rom 12:4). These ministers in the society
of the faithful are able by the sacred power of orders to offer
sacrifice and to forgive sins,[6] and they perform their priestly
office publicly for men in the name of Christ. Therefore, having
sent the apostles just as he himself been sent by the Father,[7]
Christ, through the apostles themselves, made their successors, the
bishops,[8] sharers in his consecration and mission. The office of
their ministry has been handed down, in a lesser degree indeed, to the
priests.[9] Established in the order of the priesthood they can be
co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the
apostolic mission entrusted to priests by Christ.[10]
The office of priests, since it is connected with the episcopal
order, also, in its own degree, shares the authority by which Christ
builds up, sanctifies and rules his Body. Wherefore the priesthood,
while indeed it presupposes the sacraments of Christian initiation, is
conferred by that special sacrament; through it priests, by the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, are signed with a special character and
are conformed to Christ the Priest in such a way that they can act in
the person of Christ the Head.[11]
In the measure in which they participate in the office of the
apostles, God gives priests a special grace to be ministers of Christ
among the people. They perform the sacred duty of preaching the
Gospel, so that the offering of the people can be made acceptable and
sanctified by the Holy Spirit.[12] Through the apostolic
proclamation of the Gospel, the People of God are called together
and assembled. All belonging to this people, since they have been
sanctified by the Holy Spirit, can offer themselves as "a
sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God" (Rom 12:1).
Through the ministry of the priests, the spiritual sacrifice of the
faithful is made perfect in union with the sacrifice of Christ. He is
the only mediator who in the name of the whole Church is offered
sacramentally in the Eucharist and in an unbloody manner until the
Lord himself comes.[13] The ministry of priests is directed to
this goal and is perfected in it. Their ministry, which begins with
the evangelical proclamation, derives its power and force from the
sacrifice of Christ. Its aim is that "the entire commonwealth of the
redeemed and the society of the saints be offered to God through the
High Priest who offered himself also for us in his passion that we
might be the body of so great a Head."[14]
The purpose, therefore, which priests pursue in their ministry and by
their life is to procure the glory of God the Father in Christ.
That glory consists in this-that men working freely and with a
grateful spirit receive the work of God made perfect in Christ and
then manifest it in their whole lives. Hence, priests, while
engaging in prayer and adoration, or preaching the word, or offering
the Eucharistic Sacrifice and administering the other sacraments, or
performing other works of the ministry for men, devote all this energy
to the increase of the glory of God and to man's progress in the
divine life. All of this, since it comes from the Pasch of Christ,
will be crowned by the glorious coming of the same Lord, when he hands
over the Kingdom to God the Father.[15]
3. Priests, who are taken from among men and ordained for men in the
things that belong to God in order to offer gifts and sacrifices for
sins,[16] nevertheless live on earth with other men as brothers.
The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, a Man sent by the Father to
men, dwelt among us and willed to become like his brethren in all
things except sin.[17] The holy apostles imitated him. Blessed
Paul, the doctor of the Gentiles, "set apart for the Gospel of
God" (Rom 1:1) declares that he became all things to all men
that he might save all.[18] Priests of the New Testament, by
their vocation and ordination, are in a certain sense set apart in the
bosom of the People of God. However, they are not to be separated
from the People of God or from any person; but they are to be totally
dedicated to the work for which the Lord has chosen them.[19]
They cannot be ministers of Christ unless they be witnesses and
dispensers of a life other than earthly life. But they cannot be of
service to men if they remain strangers to the life and conditions of
men.[20] Their ministry itself, by a special title, forbids that
they be conformed to this world;[21] yet at the same time it
requires that they live in this world among men. They are to live as
good shepherds that know their sheep, and they are to seek to lead
those who are not of this sheepfold that they, too, may hear the voice
of Christ, so that there might be one fold and one shepherd.[22]
To achieve this aim, certain virtues, which in human affairs are
deservedly esteemed, contribute a great deal: such as goodness of
heart, sincerity, strength and constancy of mind, zealous pursuit of
justice, affability, and others. The Apostle Paul commends them
saying: "Whatever things are true, whatever honorable, whatever
just, whatever holy, whatever loving, whatever of good repute, if
there be any virtue, if anything is worthy of praise, think upon these
things" (Phil 4:8).[23]
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