The Fundamental
Relationship With Christ the Head and Shepherd
13. Jesus Christ has revealed in himself the perfect and
definitive features of the priesthood of the new Covenant.(26) He did this
throughout his earthly life, but especially in the central event of his
passion, death and resurrection.
As the author of the letter to the Hebrews writes, Jesus,
being a man like us and at the same time the only begotten Son of God, is in
his very being the perfect mediator between the Father and humanity (cf. Heb.
8-9). Thanks to the gift of his Holy Spirit he gives us immediate access to
God: "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba!
Father! "' (Gal. 4:6; cf. Rom.
8:15)
Jesus brought his role as mediator to complete fulfillment
when he offered himself on the cross, thereby opening to us, once and for all,
access to the heavenly sanctuary, to the Father's house (cf. Heb. 9:24-28).
Compared with Jesus, Moses and all other "mediators" between God and
his people in the Old Testament - kings, priests and prophets - are no more
than "figures" and "shadows of the good things to come"
instead of "the true form of these realities" (cf. Heb. 10:1).
Jesus is the promised good shepherd (cf. Ez. 34), who knows
each one of his sheep, who offers his life for them and who wishes to gather
them together as one flock with one shepherd (cf. Jn. 10:11-16). He is the
shepherd who has come "not to be served but to serve" (Mt. 20:28),
who in the paschal action of the washing of the feet (cf. Jn. 13:1-20) leaves
to his disciples a model of service to one another and who freely offers
himself as the "innocent lamb" sacrificed for our redemption (cf. Jn.
1:36; Rv. 5:6, 12).
With the one definitive sacrifice of the cross, Jesus
communicated to all his disciples the dignity and mission of priests of the new
and eternal covenant. And thus the promise which God had made to Israel
was fulfilled: "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation" (Ex. 19:6). According to St. Peter, the whole people of the new
covenant is established as "a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pt. 2:5).
The baptized are "living stones" who build the spiritual edifice by
keeping close to Christ, "that living stone...in God's sight chosen and
precious" (1 Pt. 2:4). The new priestly people which is the Church not
only has its authentic image in Christ, but also receives from him a real
ontological share in his one eternal priesthood, to which she must conform
every aspect of her life.
14. For the sake of this universal priesthood of the new
covenant Jesus gathered disciples during his earthly mission (cf. Lk. 10:1-12),
and with a specific and authoritative mandate he called and appointed the
Twelve "to be with him, and to be sent out to preach and have authority to
cast out demons" (Mk. 3:14-15).
For this reason, already during his public ministry (cf. Mt.
16:18 ), and then most fully after
his death and resurrection (cf. Mt. 28; Jn. 20; 21), Jesus had conferred on
Peter and the Twelve entirely special powers with regard to the future
community and the evangelization of all peoples. After having called them to
follow him, he kept them at his side and lived with them, imparting his
teaching of salvation to them through word and example, and finally he sent
them out to all mankind. To enable them to carry out this mission Jesus confers
upon the apostles, by a specific paschal outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the
same messianic authority which he had received from the Father, conferred in
its fullness in his resurrection: "All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to
the close of the age" (Mt. 28:18-20).
Jesus thus established a close relationship between the
ministry entrusted to the apostles and his own mission: "He who receives
you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me" (Mt. 10:40 ); "He who hears you hears me, and
he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent
me" (Lk. 10:16 ). Indeed, in the
light of the paschal event of the death and resurrection, the fourth Gospel
affirms this with great force and clarity: "As the Father has sent me,
even so I send you" (Jn. 20:21 ;
cf. 13:20 ; 17:18 ).
Just as Jesus has a mission which comes to him
directly from God and makes present the very authority of God (cf. Mt. 7:29;
21:23; Mk. 1:27; 11:28; Lk. 20:2; 24:19), so too the apostles have a mission
which comes to them from Jesus. And just as "the Son can do nothing of his
own accord" (Jn. 5:19 ) such that
his teaching is not his own but the teaching of the One who sent him (cf. Jn. 7:16 ), so Jesus says to the apostles:
"Apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn. 15:5). Their mission is not
theirs but is the same mission of Jesus. All this is possible not as a result
of human abilities, but only with the "gift" of Christ and his
Spirit, with the "sacrament": "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you
forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they
are retained" (Jn. 20:22 -23).
And so the apostles, not by any special merit of their own, but only through a
gratuitous participation in the grace of Christ, prolong throughout history to
the end of time the same mission of Jesus on behalf of humanity.
The sign and presupposition of the authenticity and
fruitfulness of this mission is the apostles' unity with Jesus and, in him,
with one another and with the Father - as the priestly prayer of our Lord, which
sums up his mission, bears witness (cf. Jn. 17:20-23).
15. In their turn, the apostles, appointed by the Lord,
progressively carried out their mission by calling - in various but
complementary ways - other men as bishops, as priests and as deacons in order
to fulfill the command of the risen Jesus who sent them forth to all people in
every age.
The writings of the New Testament are unanimous in stressing
that it is the same Spirit of Christ who introduces these men chosen from among
their brethren into the ministry Through the laying on of hands (cf. Acts 6:6; 1
Tm. 4:14; 5:22; 2 Tm. 1:6) which transmits the gift of the Spirit, they are
called and empowered to continue the same ministry of reconciliation, of
shepherding the flock of God and of teaching (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Pt. 5:2).
Therefore, priests are called to prolong the presence of
Christ, the one high priest, embodying his way of life and making him visible
in the midst of the flock entrusted to their care. We find this clearly and
precisely stated in the first letter of Peter: "I exhort the elders among
you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a
partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is
your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but
eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the
flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading
crown of glory" (1 Pt. 5:1-4).
In the Church and on behalf of the Church, priests are a
sacramental representation of Jesus Christ - the head and shepherd -
authoritatively proclaiming his word, repeating his acts of forgiveness and his
offer of salvation - particularly in baptism, penance and the Eucharist,
showing his loving concern to the point of a total gift of self for the flock,
which they gather into unity and lead to the Father through Christ and in the
Spirit. In a word, priests exist and act in order to proclaim the Gospel to the
world and to build up the Church in the name and person of Christ the head and
shepherd.(27)
This is the ordinary and proper way in which ordained
ministers share in the one priesthood of Christ. By the sacramental anointing
of holy orders, the Holy Spirit configures them in a new and special way to
Jesus Christ the head and shepherd; he forms and strengthens them with his
pastoral charity; and he gives them an authoritative role in the Church as
servants of the proclamation of the Gospel to every people and of the fullness
of Christian life of all the baptized.
The truth of the priest as it emerges from the Word of God,
that is, from Jesus Christ himself and from his constitutive plan for the
Church, is thus proclaimed with joyful gratitude by the Preface of the liturgy
of the Chrism Mass: "By your Holy Spirit you anointed your only Son high priest
of the new and eternal covenant. With wisdom and love you have planned that
this one priesthood should continue in the Church. Christ gives the dignity of
a royal priesthood to the people he has made his own. From these, with a
brother's love, he chooses men to share his sacred ministry by the laying on of
hands. He appointed them to renew in his name the sacrifice of redemption as
they set before your family his paschal meal. He calls them to lead your holy
people in love, nourish them by your word and strengthen them through the
sacraments. Father, they are to give their live in your service and for the
salvation of your people as they strive to grow in the likeness of Christ and
honor you by their courageous witness of faith and love."
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