The Eternal Priesthood/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI.
THE END OF THE PRIEST.
The end of man is the glory of God. The end of a Christian is the greater glory of God. The end of a priest is the greatest glory of God.
1. The greatest work of God in the six days of Creation was man. S. Paul says that "the woman is the glory of the man but that "man is the image and glory of God."[1] The works of God arose in an ascending scale from the creation of the light to the inorganic and inanimate creatures, and from these to the organic and animate, and from these again to the rational. There was nothing higher than man under God except the holy Angels, pure, spiritual intelligences, simple and immortal, sinless and resplendent, sanctified and illuminated by the Holy Ghost. Man was made a little lower than the angels, because his spiritual nature was clothed in a body taken from the slime and dust of the earth, and subject, therefore, to the sinless imperfections of an earthly nature. Nevertheless, he was the image of God. His memory, intelligence, and will are an image of the three co-equal and indivisible Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity. He was, therefore, the glory of God, in a sense beyond all other creatures, for no other could render to God the λογικὴν λατρείαν, the obsequium rationabile, the obedience of reason and of faith, and serve Him as a son and as a friend.
And man, when created, was crowned with glory and honour. His nature was itself his glory, for it reflected the perfections of God. The light of his reason was his crown, radiant with the knowledge of God and of himself. And God set him over all the works of His hands. He gave him sovereignty and lordship—a dominion of use and of enjoyment held by divine grant, and limited by the law of the divine perfections. This warrants no excess beyond the intentions and conditions of the dominion which God delegated to man.
Man was, then, the first-fruits of the old creation.
2. But what the first Adam was among creatures the second Adam is among men. The first man was only man in stature and perfection, united indeed with God by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost; but in no way above or beyond the dimensions of manhood. The second Man is God Incarnate, and our manhood in Him is deified. It was humanity in all things such as ours, yet without sin, taken of the substance of a sinless Mother, pure and blessed as the virgin earth before sin entered. The Incarnation was the new creation of God. S. Paul so writes: "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ."[2] He was, in a twofold fulness, the image of God. He was the eternal Image of the Father as God; and the reflected Image of God as man. The original and the likeness in Him were united; and the glory of His countenance is the Light of the World. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the Fathers, by the Prophets, last of all, in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the world."[3] All the lights of nature and of reason, and of continual revelation by prophets and seers ascended into the full and final revelation of God by Jesus Christ, "the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance."[4] All holiness, justice, wisdom, mercy, humility, charity, sympathy, and tenderness were revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, therefore, is the first-fruits of the new creation.
8. S. James writes: "Of His own will hath He begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of His creatures;"[5] that is to say, those who are born again of water and the Holy Ghost are the first-fruits among the nations. The word ἀπαρχή is as the beginning of the harvest, when the first sheaf, reaped and bound, was lifted up before the Lord as the first-fruits of the field.[6] So among the nations is the Body of Christ the fellowship of the regenerate, who, by a new birth, have risen from spiritual death to spiritual life, and are thereby partakers of immortality. They are members of a Divine Head, who is "the first-fruits of them that slept;"[7] and in Him also they are risen, and have become partakers of the powers of the world to come.[8] S. Paul says that we have "the first-fruits of the spirit."[9] S. Peter describes the Christian people as "a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people," whose office in the world is "to declare His virtues who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light."[10] And again we are made "the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb"[11]—that is, for the greater glory of God.
If, then, the regenerate are the first-fruits of the world, the priests of Jesus Christ are the first-fruits of the regenerate. If the first-fruits are for the greater glory of God, the first-fruits of the first-fruits must be for His greatest glory. To be chosen out from the chosen people, the elect of the elect; to be partakers of the priesthood of the Incarnate Son, of His character and of His powers; to be the visible witnesses of His mind and of His perfection; to be aliorum perfectores; to be set to make others perfect; to be consecrated to offer Him continually as the Victim for the sins of the world; and to offer ourselves in union with Him to God; and, moreover, to offer ourselves to Him for the work He has laid upon us; beyond this, what is there revealed for the glory of God except the eternal service and perfection of the heavenly court? A priest is set to continue the work of his Master. But the work of his Master was to save and to sanctify mankind. He is chosen and called and consecrated to make visible and sensible the life, the mind, the Word, and the will of Jesus Christ. S. Bernard says: "Feed (the flock) by thy mind, by thy lips, by thy works, by thy spirit of prayer, by the exhortation of thy words, by the example of all thine actions." When our Lord said, "As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you," He meant that His priests should perpetuate in the world not only His truth and His Holy Sacraments, but His own mind, and likeness, and life. And for this He has given us all the necessary means. He chose and taught and trained and assimilated His Apostles to Himself by direct and immediate action. He chooses, calls, and conforms His priests to Himself now no less than in the beginning, though His action be mediate by the divine tradition, and by the action of His mystical Body edifying itself in charity. Dionysius the Areopagite, whosoever he be, says: "He who speaks of a priest speaks of a man most august, and altogether divine, and most skilled in the whole sacred science,"[12] that is, of God. S. Ignatius calls the priest "the culminating point of all goodness among men."[13]
This, then, is an axiom in the law and spirit of the sacerdotal life: that a priest is predestined for the greatest glory of God.
From this, again, it follows that the words of S. Paul ought to be in the heart of every priest: "I count all things loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung that I may gain Christ;" "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death: if by any means I may attain to the resurrection which is from the dead. Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before, I press toward the mark to the prize of the supernal vocation in Christ Jesus."[14] These words of the Holy Ghost express the aim, aspiration, and effort of a faithful priest, always pressing upwards, and always ascending higher and higher in the life of God—the heavenly life of knowledge and power, of the Cross, and of conformity to the Son of God. No words can be added to these without lessening their constraining force. There is no degree of sanctity or perfection to which a priest ought not to aspire. To aim at any mark or measure below the highest is to fall short of our vocation. "Not to advance in virtue, nor out of our old selves to be made new, but to linger in the same state, we account to be a vice."[15] S. Gregory of Nyssa says: "Let no one complain at seeing the liability of nature to change, but let him be always changing himself for the better, and being transformed from glory to glory, becoming better by daily growth, never thinking that he has attained the bounds of perfection. For this is truly perfection: never to stand still in the growth towards what is more perfect, nor to fix any limit to perfection."[16] S. Bernard also says: "Jacob saw angels on the ladder ascending and descending. Did he see any standing still or sitting? It is not possible to stand hanging on a frail ladder, nor in the uncertainty of this mortal life can anything abide. We have not here an abiding city, but we are seeking one to come. Ascend or descend you must. No man is certain that he is good who does not desire to be better; and where you begin to be unwilling to become better, there you begin to cease to be good." And if this warning be true of all Christians, how peremptory is the warning to all priests. He says again, Solus Deus melior se ipso esse non vult, quia non valet.[17]
If such be our predestination, what is our state?
1. Of a sinful priest no words are needed. Since the fall of the angels there was nothing ever so hideous as the fall of Judas, and since the fall of Judas nothing so full of dread as the fall of a priest. Mane eras stella rutilans: vespere conversus es in carbonem. In the morning, like a star in the brightness of purity: at evening, black and dead as a coal. And this may be not only by sins of the flesh—which to the angels were impossible—but of the spirit, such as the sins against charity, piety, and humility. The sin of Judas was, so far as is written, a spiritual sin, ending in the sale and the betrayal of His Divine Lord. We are not safe from mortal sin by being only chaste and pure. S. Jerome says: Perfidus Judæus, perfidus Christianus, ille de latere, iste de calice sanguinem Christi fundit.
2. Of a worldly priest little need be said. If the love of the Father cannot be in him who loves the world, then chastity and purity will not save us; for if the "concupiscence of the eyes" or "the pride of life" be in us, we are dead already: nondum apparuit judicium et jam factum est judicium."[18] The character of the last days is that men shall be "lovers of their own selves," and "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God."[19] Such priests may be blameless to the eye, but they may love "the things that are their own, and not the things that are Jesus Christ's."[20]
8. Of a lax priest what can be said? The chief signs of laxity are to live without a rule of life; to say the Holy Mass by custom, with little preparation, and little thanksgiving; to be weary of the confessional; to escape it when possible; to be unpunctual and irregular in attendance. Such a priest soon finds himself more at ease in the world than among priests. The habits, tone, talk, and pleasant ways of the world are more to his taste. He lives in a mission-house or a presbytery, but it is not his home. His home is where his heart is, and his heart is in the world. He is ready for any recreation among people of the world or among women, but not always ready for a sick-bed, or a sorrowful tale, or for the Divine Office. In laughter he is unchastened, and in sorrow he is cast down. In prudence and circumspection he is unwary and often blind to what all about him see, but he alone cannot or will not perceive. He is fond of money, and glad when oblations and gifts come in.[21] He can give any length of time to the world, and can always find leisure for what he likes. He is a ready talker, and has a turn for satire. He sees the ludicrous in men and things, and is an amusing companion much sought after. This state is not far from lukewarmness, which S. Bernard defines as "brief and rare compunction, sensuous thoughts, obedience without devotion, talk without circumspection." Of these sins he says again, "Let no man say in his heart these things are light. It is no great matter if I should go on in these venial and lesser sins. This is impenitence: this is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and without remission."[22] Once more he says: "Do not despise these things because they are little, but fear them because they are many." And the Council of Trent says: "Let priests avoid light faults, which in them are great." A blot upon a layman's coat is hardly seen, but a spot upon a priest's alb is an eyesore to all men.
It would be well for us to renew every day and wheresoever we are the consciousness that we are predestined and consecrated to the greatest glory of God. The life and the measures allowable to the faithful are not allowable to priests. To all men S. Paul says: "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God." If such be the law of duty for the layman, what is the obligation of the priest?
- ↑ 1 Cor. xi. 7.
- ↑ 2 Cor. iv. 6.
- ↑ Heb. i. 1, 2.
- ↑ Ibid. i. 3.
- ↑ S. James i. 18.
- ↑ Levit. xxiii. 10, 11.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 20.
- ↑ Heb. vi. 5.
- ↑ Rom. viii. 23.
- ↑ 1 S. Pet. ii. 9.
- ↑ Apoc. xiv. 4.
- ↑ De Cœlest. Hier. cap. i.
- ↑ Ep. ad Smyrn. recensio longior, c. ix.
- ↑ Philip. iii. 8-14.
- ↑ S. Greg. Naz. Orat. iv. § 124, tom. i. p. 147.
- ↑ S. Greg. Nyss. Orat. de Perfect. Christ. tom. i. p. 298.
- ↑ S. Bernard, Epist. xci. 2, 3, tom. i. p. 265.
- ↑ S. Aug. Tract. xii. in Joan.
- ↑ 2 S. Tim. iii. 2-4.
- ↑ Philip. ii. 21.
- ↑ "Quia est in vobis, qui claudat ostia, et incendat altare meum gratuito?"—Malachias i. 10.
- ↑ "Nemo dicat in corde suo, Levia sunt ista, non curo corrigere non est magnum si in his maneam venialibus minimisque peccatis. Hoc est enim dilectissimi, impœnitentia, hæc blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum, blasphemia irremissibilis."—Serm. i. De Sanctis, tom. iii. p. 2066.