Holy Orders

one

The most important thing to know about the Sacraments is that Jesus is made present through them so that He can continue His saving mission in us and we may encounter Him. When we go to the Sacraments, we encounter Jesus under the appearance of a physical sign. In the Eucharist we receive the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained – even though what appears to our senses is the physical sign of bread and wine. Likewise, Jesus uses the physical sign of the priest to make himself present to us so that it is Jesus who says in the Mass, “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given up for you.” Likewise, it is Jesus Himself whom we meet in Confession through the physical sign of the priest and it is Jesus Himself who says to us, “I absolve you from your sins…”

Think about this, when Jesus walked the earth, he was limited to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. After his Resurrection he created a way to be with his people, one on one, everywhere on the planet at the same time – through the sacraments and the Sacrament of Holy Orders – the priesthood. The only difference is the appearance. But it is the same Jesus Christ with the same saving power and healing mercy.

two

A sacrament is a sign instituted by Christ that makes present what it signifies. A Catholic Priest is a sacrament, meaning a sign of Christ the Priest and Christ the Bridegroom that makes Jesus sacramentally present to the Church – His Bride.

CCC 1548 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

This is what the Church means by saying that the priest,

·       By virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders

·       Acts in persona Christi Capitis

Through the sacrament of Holy Orders, Jesus is present to His people that He might continue to

1.  Teach us

2.  Shepherd and Govern us

3.  Make us holy through the sacraments

a.  By giving us His life in Baptism

b.  By feeding us with His Body in the Eucharist

c.   By Healing us in the sacrament of Reconciliation

three

The Bible bears witness to this plan

All you have to do is Read Matthew chapter 10 – it’s all right there. Jesus calls the Twelve Apostles and He gives them His own authority. Then He sends them out. That is what it means to be an Apostle, it means to be sent. Jesus sends them out to do everything He has been doing: to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal. This is the Plan of God. Jesus is going to Ascend to Heaven, but before He goes, He gives His mission and His Power to the Apostles. Why? Because Jesus will continue His mission through them.

At the Last Supper Jesus made the Apostles priests of the New Covenant. With the command to “Do this in memory of me.” Jesus shared with them His power to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and consecrate the Eucharist. Then on the night of the Resurrection, John chapter 20 Jesus said to the Apostles: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The Saving Mission entrusted by the Father to His Son was then committed to the Apostles and through them to their successors: the Bishops and Priests. They receive the Spirit of Jesus to act in his name and in his person to carry out His mission.

The Sacrament of Holy Orders means that Jesus continues His mission

1.  To teach

2.  To make us holy through the sacraments

3.  To govern the Church

o   through the Apostles and their successors

§  888-896

four

St. Thomas Aquinas said: Only Jesus Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers.  

There is only One True Priest in the Universe - Jesus Christ. By the sacrament of Holy Orders Jesus, the Priest is made present to the Church and the world. Why is This Sacrament Called “Holy Orders”? Because it  confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that permits the exercise of a “sacred power” which can come only from Christ himself through his Church.

What is this “sacred power”?

Holy Orders is the sacred power

·       that makes Jesus present to His people

·       so that He might continue to:

2.  Teach them

3.  Shepherd or Govern them

4.  Make them holy through the sacraments

a.  By giving them His life in Baptism

b.  By feeding them with His life in the Eucharist

c.   By healing them in the sacrament of Reconciliation

Holy Orders is the POWER that makes JESUS and His ministry present to us

CCC 1550 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 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.

five

I was in the Upper Room in Jerusalem with Archbishop Naumann of Kansas City

I was teaching about all the things that took place in the Upper Room

·       Jesus celebrating the Last Supper

·       Giving the Apostles the power to consecrate the Eucharist

·       The Power to Forgive Sins on the Night of the Resurrection

It was moving to realize that Archbishop Naumann is

·       A successor to the Apostles

He has the same sacred power as the Apostles

·       He shares that power with his priests

·       So that I can receive the Eucharist

·       So that I may have my sins forgiven

And it all BEGAN right there in the Upper Room