O
Orionthehunter
Guest
I agree that the call to the Priesthood is one of distinct and most significant sacrifice. Furthermore, it is a calling with special rank and dignity because they represent Christ and act in the name of the Church in unique and special ways. But, I would like to see documentation that Paul, Christ and the Church all taught it was “superior” or “higher”. If one were to read the Catechism and the encyclical I reference below, the husband, father, wife, mother, children, and family unit seperately and as a unit is also a calling of special rank, dignity called to represent themselves as Christ to the world. In fact, the encyclical talks about the unique mission of the laity/family to be a secular/non-clerical evangelists distinct from the clergy.
From the Catechism:
1534 Two other sacraments, 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. They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God.
1535 Through these sacraments those already consecrated by Baptism and Confirmation1 for the common priesthood of all the faithful can receive particular consecrations. Those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders are consecrated in Christ’s name “to feed the Church by the word and grace of God.” On their part, “Christian spouses are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament.”
1620
Both the sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of God come from the Lord himself. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them the grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his will.117 Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom118 and the Christian understanding of marriage are inseparable, and they reinforce each other:
Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of virginity. Whoever praises it makes virginity more admirable and resplendent. What appears good only in comparison with evil would not be truly good. The most excellent good is something even better than what is admitted to be good. (St. John Crysostom)
As Priests are indispensable for bringing the Sacraments, the family and parents are indispensable for preaching the Gospel and building the Kingdom on Earth.
And from Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Familiaris Consortio:
. . . .the Christian family, in fact, is the first community called to announce the Gospel to the human person during growth and to bring him or her, through a progressive education and catechesis, to full human and Christian maturity.
Willed by God in the very act of creation,(3) marriage and the family are interiorly ordained to fulfillment in Christ(4) and have need of His graces in order to be healed from the wounds of sin(5) and restored to their “beginning,”(6) that is, to full understanding and the full realization of God’s plan.
Christian revelation recognizes two specific ways of realizing the vocation of the human person in its entirety, to love: marriage and virginity or celibacy. Either one is, in its own proper form, an actuation of the most profound truth of man, of his being “created in the image of God.”
Virginity or celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of God not only does not contradict the dignity of marriage but presupposes it and confirms it. Marriage and virginity or celibacy are two ways of expressing and living the one mystery of the covenant of God with His people. When marriage is not esteemed, neither can consecrated virginity or celibacy exist; when human sexuality is not regarded as a great value given by the Creator, the renunciation of it for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven loses its meaning.
