The Sacrament of Holy Orders
ONE
Without the ordained ministry, you and I will go to Hell! How can I say such a thing? Because Bishops, priests, and deacons offer the Kingdom of Heaven to us in a couple important ways: First, their very vocation is a sign of the reality of Heaven. They have no mere earthly function, but act as an extension of Christ and His mission on Earth to save, redeem, and sanctify us so we can begin living in Heaven now. Second, the Sacraments are the primary vehicles God uses to offer us the graces Jesus won for us. So, those ordained to the holy orders signify and act as Jesus to give us the very power of Divine life (cf. #1538). Bishops and priests act in the person of Christ to sanctify, govern, and guide the baptized. So, if you complain about your priest, for every minute spent complaining, spend three praying. Double that for your Bishop and triple it for the Pope!
TWO
Why are only men ordained to the priesthood? There are several answers offered to this question, but the most basic one is because the “Church does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination” (#2 Ordinatio Sacerdotalis). In other words, Christ set it up this way: He came as a Groom to wed to Himself His bride the Church, and the ordained clergy act as Christ, the Bridegroom. The Church herself is already feminine and needs the masculine compliment in order to be supernaturally fruitful. This doesn’t mean the clergy have a leg up on the rest of us when it comes to holiness. On the contrary, “Holy Orders and Matrimony are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so" ( CCC 1534). Thus, ordination offers no added advantage to achieving our ultimate goal--holiness; rather, it offers men a way to catch up to women, who more easily accept serving others out of love compared to men. Thus, this call to ordination is a call to men to get off their duff and sacrifice!
THREE
Celibacy, the state of abstaining from sexual and marital relations, is a discipline handed down through the ages to the ordained from New Testament times. It configures the priest more closely to Christ and allows him greater freedom to serve. St. Paul teaches; “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about serving the Lord, how to please the Lord. The married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided” (1 Cor 7: 32-33). Jesus Himself instructs his disciples in celibacy in Matthew 19:12 when he talks about being a “eunuch for the sake of the kingdom.” The ordained act in the very person of Christ, who serves and who dies for the sake of His bride, the Church. Teaching, governing, and sanctifying all require those who’ve received Holy orders to die to themselves. Celibacy gives them the freedom to do this. To those who say, ‘celibacy isn’t natural,’ and try to blame the scandals on this practice, I say, ‘you’re right; it’s not natural: it's supernatural! The ordained cannot live this state of life if they don’t first give to Jesus the supernatural avenues in their souls for Him to direct and transform them into His ministers. Daily mediation and growth in virtue are the supernatural avenues.
FOUR
All the baptized are priests, prophets, and kings in Christ. We all must offer up ourselves and our actions daily to Jesus in union with His own offerings, and we all must proclaim Him to a weary and skeptical world. Venerable Fulton Sheen said of his own vocation that his daily holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament was crucial to his serving well as a priest and then as a Bishop. He further emphasized that the neglect of prayer was the first step in going astray for any disciple of our Lord, especially the priest. Perhaps this offers a better insight into the priest scandal, as many older priests have told me that praying a Holy Hour as well as the daily Rosary were never emphasized in their seminary formation. How tragic! I have encountered many men and women in vocations of various kinds who have lived their vocation joyfully; and I’ve met many priests and religious who lost their energy and desire to serve due to their lack of prayer. Thus, to all who wish to follow our Lord closely, and especially the ordained, I offer this advice based on experience: PRAY DAILY! Especially before the Blessed Sacrament. If you do not, you do more harm than good!
FIVE
What women want is stability, protection, and security from their husband. So many of the women's movements throughout history like the suffrage movement or the prohibition movement were movements started by women who were seeking different ways to find the security that weak men were not providing. Christ knows what His bride wants/needs, so when He comes, he shows just exactly what it means to be a man, how to die for his bride the Church. The temptation for our priests is to be preoccupied with clerical privilege, rather than service.
We read in Matthew, “Jesus called the 12 together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them…not so among you. Instead, whoever wants to be first must be your servant…”(Mt 20: 25-26). Therefore, the church can only work and succeed throughout history when her priests live a humble sacrificial life. Today, adopt a priest whom you know, and make the intention to pray for him for the rest of the year.