catholicism 101 -- part 3/8

CATHOLICISM 101

Church of the Holy Cross

February 3, 2008

Part 3

Further Considerations on the Christian Ministry

• The Ministry of the Catholic Church is from God.

  • John 15.16: Jesus says to the Apostles: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”

    • The Church’s ministry is chosen and appointed by God. The hierarchy is not merely an expediency – a provisional structure deriving from men to effect the proclamation of the Gospel – rather it is given by God himself, a fundamental component of his self-disclosure and the work of redemption ongoing in the world.

    • The word “appointed” is translated in the Authorized Version (“King James” Version) “ordained” (Greek = ETHEKA – “place” “appoint” etc.).

  • As it was under the Old Covenant, is now: “I give your priesthood as a gift” (Numbers 18.7).

  • So the ministerial priesthood of the Church comes from above, not from below. While priests stand as representatives of the people before God, they are primarily sent by God as His ambassadors to the people.

    • So St. Paul, writing as an Apostle / Bishop / Priest says: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you ON BEHALF OF CHRIST, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5.20).

      • (In 1 Peter 5.1 St. Paul calls himself a “fellow-priest” (Greek = “sum-presbuteros”).

    • And 2 Cor. 2.10 Paul refers to forgiving sins “in the person of Christ” (Greek = “en prosopo christos”).

    • This is a critical point to emphasize, because of our cultural situation (as Americans), we are prone to allow our thinking about civil polity to color our beliefs about Christianity. So we might tend to think of the clergy merely as elected representatives of the people. And while voting and so forth is a PART of ecclesial polity, that process does not endow the ordained ministry with its most fundamental character.

    • And while we make think of this teaching as a kind of exaltation of the clergy, it is actually the opposite. The fact that the priest ministers “in the person of Christ” and with Christ’s authority and power, is a safeguard against pride. The Christian priest, as priest, loses his own identity in Christ.

    • So St. Paul says “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4.7).

  • Apostles / Bishops / Priests / Deacons

    • Each of these words (in Greek of course) is used in reference to our Lord himself.

      • Hebrews 3.1: “Therefore, holy brethren, who share in a heavenly call, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.”

        • Compare John 20.21: “Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you."

      • 1 Peter 2.25: “For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian [Greek = “Episkopon” = “bishop”] of your souls.”

      • Hebrews 5.6: “…as he says also in another place [about Jesus], "Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchiz'edek."”

      • Luke 22.27: “But I am among you as one who serves…” (“one who serves” = “diakonon” in Greek = “deacon”).

    • After the Resurrection of the Lord, he sent out the Apostles to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28.19). The Apostles in turn appointed “bishops / elders” (i.e. priests) and deacons (Acts 6 explains the deacons) to minister on their behalf in the places to which they were sent (cf. Philippians 1.1).

      • “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed” (Acts 14.23).

    • As the Apostles began to die, they appointed men from the order of bishop-elders (episkopoi-presbyteroi) to succeed to their place of primacy in the nascent Church.

      • So, for example at Antioch, Saint Peter was the first leader of the local church, then Saint Evodius, then Saint Ignatius, and so on. We know this because writings from some of these people have come down to us.

        • We have a number of letters from Saint Ignatius, who wrote while on his way to be martyred in Rome about the year 110, to the Christians in a town called Tralle, in what is now the west coast of Turkey, saying “In like manner, let all reverence the deacons as an appointment of Jesus Christ, and the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Father, and the presbyters as the sanhedrim of God, and assembly of the apostles. Apart from these, there is no Church.”

      • At Rome there were Peter and Paul, then St. Linus, St. Anacletus, St. Clement, etc. etc.

      • So Saint Irenaeus of Lyons writing about the year 180 says: “It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about” (“Adversus Haereses” Book IV chapt. 26).

      • If you’re industrious enough, you can find out the succession of Bishop Stanton, all the way back to Jesus himself. It’s a matter of public record.

    • So when the Apostles were all dead, toward the end of the 1^st century, the Bishops became the buck-stopping authorities in the Catholic Church. Under them the elders (presbyteroi) and deacons ministered – the quote from St. Ignatius of Antioch, above, is representative of this transition and time period.

    • The next stage of transition was during the course of the 3^rd – 4^th century, as Christianity grew and came to be tolerated by the secular authorities throughout the known world. It spread from the metropolitan centers where it had been planted (big cities like Alexandria, Antioch, Rome, Ephesus, Lyons, etc.) to smaller cities in the vicinities of the metropolitan centers.

    • So the bishops of the large cities (“Metropolitans”) appointed “suffragan” (assistant) bishops to minister in the outlying cities and towns. And as the faith spread further and increased yet more, and as distinct parishes (from Greek “para oikos” = subsidiary house, i.e. subsidiary to the diocese) grew up in within Episcopal sees (the place where the bishop has his chair or “sedes” in Latin), the bishops appointed men from the order of presbyters to minister, by the leave and under the authority of the bishop, within local churches. This took place generally during the 4^th and 5^th centuries. (These transitions and dates are fluid.) It hasn’t changed appreciably since.

  • We’ve seen that the bishops are the successors of the Apostles. Let’s consider four implications of this (fount of the ministry, bond of unity, guardian of the truth, instrument and pledge of grace):

    • The episcopate is the fount of the Ministry

      • All bishops are also priests and deacons.

      • All priests and deacons are made by bishops (as are bishops themselves – i.e. made by other bishops (at least three others, since very ancient times)).

    • The episcopate is the bond of unity

      • To separate oneself from communion with one’s bishop is to separate oneself from the Church of which the bishops are the rulers. It is to become a “schismatic”.

        • Moreover, as the bishops minister in the place of Jesus, to separate oneself from one’s bishop is an act of disloyalty to Jesus himself (2 Cor. 2.10 (above) and Matt. 28.18ff: “And Jesus came and said to them (the Apostles), "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"”).