Hi,
Hebrews states that the ideal high priest would have to be holy, innocent and uncontaminated (by sin). He would not have to offer sacrifices every day, as other (Levitical) high priests did, first for their own sins, and then for those of the people. Christ has done this once and for all by offering himself. (Heb. 7:20-28)
This is no way excludes those men he has chosen to share in his priesthood. The key to all this is the Eucharist. He deliberately shared this with his Apostles in the upper room. When the Protestants dropped the sacrificial aspect of the Eucharist, it quite logically became a symbolic meal and no more. Can you imagine what dropping the sacrificial aspect of Christ’s death would do to Christianity?
In that eternal moment when Jesus struggled to take his last breath and failed, he died and gave us life at the same time. All of humanity was redeemed by that moment of sacrifice. While that moment transcends all time, the Eucharist is that moment IN time. It brings the reality of that moment into our lives in a concrete, sacramental way. The Apostles were the first to be made privy to this and were actually given the power to “do this in remembrance of Me.” (Lk. 22:19)
The Eucharist completes his Incarnation. Through the Eucharist he not only joins us in our humanity, through it he concretely permeates our bodies as well as our souls, nourishing us with his divine life. If one can accept and grasp the reality of this most holy sacrament, then the priesthood of Jesus becomes quite necessary and understandable. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, “It (the Eucharist) was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.” (Opusculum 57, in festo Corporis Christi, lect. 1-4) How sad it is that so many Christians go without such a consolation!
Thank you for the honor of answering such a good question about the very core of our Faith.
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
