The priest another Christ?

[allisonP]

I saw this comment on a picture in another link (about headcoverings) and I just don’t know how to take this.
Help, again!

 

[DianJo]

Post the link and the comment so we can see it in context, please.

Thanks

 

[allisonP]

I dont know how! UGH!
It is in the thread about “Please give me a good reason for these V2 changes”.In the apologetics portion. Hope this helps.

 

[mercygate]

allisonP:

I dont know how! UGH!
It is in the thread about “Please give me a good reason for these V2 changes”.In the apologetics portion. Hope this helps.

Those head covering threads get a little off the edge of the earth. :whacky:

Perhaps you could clarify your question for us? Is it that you are thrown by the thought of applying the term “another Christ” to a human being? (I can relate to that!)

We do understand the priesthood as acting “in persona Christi” – in the person of Christ – or as ‘another Christ.’ The phrase comes from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, 2:10 “if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;” (KJV).

Hebrews 4:14 refers to Jesus as "the great high priest . . . the son of God. The Catholic understanding of ministerial priesthood is that in order to offer a sacrifice, you need priests. The sacrifice offered at Mass is the once for all Sacrifice of Calvary. The Priest does not re-sacrifice Jesus on the altar; the Sacrifice of the Mass enters mystically into the sacrifice of Calvary:

Heb 9:24-26 says:

For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

But before I start to write a book here, it would be helpful if you could target your question a little more. I don’t want to be like the dad who gives his kid the 30-minute lecture on the birds and the bees when the child asks where he came from, only to have him respond, "Really? Bobby told me **he **came from Toledo.

 

[allisonP]

Benedicite,
Your doing great. Your respones to my questions have been wonderful.
It is funny you should quote Hebrews.
I was just reading that book and about Jesus being the final priest in the order of Mecheldisec(SP?)
And OF COURSE it got me wondering about catholics having preist’s and how that works out with Jesus being the last???
About the Preist being called Christ. Is he? called it I mean? Or thought of as another one?
How can there be another one?

Allison

 

[mercygate]

allisonP:

Benedicite,
Your doing great. Your respones to my questions have been wonderful.
It is funny you should quote Hebrews.
I was just reading that book and about Jesus being the final priest in the order of Mecheldisec(SP?)
And OF COURSE it got me wondering about catholics having preist’s and how that works out with Jesus being the last???
About the Preist being called Christ. Is he? called it I mean? Or thought of as another one?
How can there be another one?

Allison

Thanks for your kind words. We converts need to stick together.

No, we don’t walk up to the pastor and say, “How’ya doin’ there, 'Nother Christ!” We think of him as “another Christ” when he exercises his priestly office – celebrating the Eucharist, hearing confessions, etc. – not when he’s playing golf. Not so much that HE is “another Christ” but that, by the grace of God, he participates in Christ’s ministry entrusted to him through his Church. The Church believes that the charism of the Holy Spirit lives in a particular way through the laying on of hands all the way back to the Apostles. This is different from the gifts of the holy spirit we all receive in Baptism and in other ways.

 

[allisonP]

"nother christ! haha
Thats funny!
Got “nother” question though!
Isn;t the definition of Christ savior?
If so, how is a man a savior? I get that he is offering the means of salvation, but he isn’t offering salvation itself.

 

[awfulthings9]

We don’t actually consider the priest to be another Christ. He in no way effects our salvation through his own merits. What we mean by “another Christ” is simply that Jesus Christ uses him as a tool and works through him to bring us the graces he merited through his death. The priest does nothing through his own power. He works through him like he might work through me to preach the gospel to an unbeliever, only with a priest it is on a sacramental level. Also, I’m not sure where you read that Christ was the “last” priest in the order of Melchizedek? Scripture tells us he “is” a priest in that order, but not that he is the last. Your question is sincere, though, and I hope my answer helped.

 

[mercygate]

"nother christ! haha
Thats funny!
Got “nother” question though!
Isn;t the definition of Christ savior?
If so, how is a man a savior? I get that he is offering the means of salvation, but he isn’t offering salvation itself.

“Christ” means ‘anointed,’ not savior. So you can relax about that one.

You bring up a great point – and I wouldn’t stretch the point too far, but part of the ordination ceremony is the anointing of the hands with sacred chrism (get it? Christ/chrism.) – oil made fragrant with herbs and spices, of which the most dominant is balsam. Chrism, along with the 2 other holy oils used by the Church (oil of the catechumens and oil of the sick) are blessed by the bishop only once a year – formerly on Holy Thursday but now more frequently earlier in Holy Week.

Chrism (which smells wonderful) is used for baptism, confirmation, for blessing churches, for ordinations of bishops and priests, and for the anointing of kings and queens. When a priest is ordained, his hands are anointed with this sacred oil and consecrated for the celebration of the Eucharist.

 

[allisonP]

Wow that is a beautiful thing to imagine.
The annointing I mean.
thank you for taking the time to explain that to me.

 

[mercygate]

allisonP:

Wow that is a beautiful thing to imagine.
The annointing I mean.
thank you for taking the time to explain that to me.

Yeah. It IS beautiful. Sometimes the anointing is so lavish (or used to be) that the oil dripped from those hands. Chrism is always associated with the Holy Spirit. I like to think that since the Holy Spirit is so closely associated with Our Lady (Nazareth, Pentecost), who brought Our Lord into the world, that when the priest’s anointed hands, in a sense, become the hands of Mary – consecrated to bring Our Lord into the world through the Sacrifice of the Altar.

Maybe that’s too “Catholick” for you at this point – but it kind of knocked me out when I thought of it. It was right after I had been stopped dead in my tracks reciting the Creed: “Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.” Jesus is always "conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, wherever he is found. On the altar, in our hearts . . .

OK. It’s late and I haven’t eaten much today . . . :whacky:

 

[thistle]

The priest is Christ’s representative on earth so when you go to Confession, for example, the priest is both representative of the Chucrh and representative of Christ.

 

[gryskull]

allisonP:

I saw this comment on a picture in another link (about headcoverings) and I just don’t know how to take this.
Help, again! http://forum.catholic.com/images/smilies/redface.gif

Although you got a lot of good answers already I think Fr. Ergo does a pretty good job in explaining the relationship of a priest to christ in conferring the sacraments. Here the [link](中国白胖肥熟妇bbw_无限资源精彩日本_江苏极品身材白嫩少妇自拍(name removed by moderator)erson.htm) but I thought it nice to post his explanation.

“IN PERSONA CHRISTI”

We read in the Letter to the Hebrews that a “priest stands daily at his ministry.” The Apostle Paul tells us, moreover, that a priest is one who, “offers sacrifice day after day, first for his own sins and then for those of the people.” What does this mean? What is this ministry of a priest?

On that first Holy Thursday night our Divine Savior offered, sacramentally, the first Mass. In an un-bloody manner, He offered the same Sacrifice of Himself that He would offer the next day on the Cross of Calvary in a Bloody manner. Then He ordained the Apostles to be Priests of the New and Eternal Covenant, the Catholic Church. Since that sacred night, the most respected of men have been the Priests of Jesus Christ.

I remember my days as an altar boy in Philadelphia. The Priest was larger than life. Men tipped their hats as they passed him on the streets. Just as the women of the Gospels ministered to Our Lord, so too, good Catholic women, always anxious to care for their priests, didn’t know what to do next for “Father.” He baptized us, heard our Confessions, gave us Holy Communion and offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each day. He was there with the holy oils when we were sick, buried our dead, had an ever eager ear to hear our problems and always presented himself as a man of God. Never would he utter a word that was contrary to the teachings of the Church. He dressed like a Priest, looked like a Priest and acted like a Priest. Truly, he was, as Paul proclaimed, an " Ambassador of Christ" (2Cor. 5: 20).

In its document on the Ministry of Priests, the Second Vatican Council, confirming the ancient doctrine of the Church, taught: “The priest receives a special sacrament by which, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he is conformed to Christ the Priest in such a way that he can act, in Persona Christi, that is, in the very Person of Jesus Christ.”

Being “conformed to Christ” means that the Priest must identify with Jesus Christ and not with the pagan world. He must be an alter Christus - - - another Christ, as the Council emphatically insisted. When the People of God see the Priest, they must see a reflection of the Lord. They must see our divine Savior’s charity, His mercy and forgiveness, His patience, His love and, of course, His profound purity.

Being conformed to Christ and acting in the very Person of Christ, signifies a sacramental identification with Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest. What a profundity! What a trembling thought! When the Priest of Jesus Christ says, “This is my Body,” or “I absolve you,” or “May Almighty God Bless you,” he is not acting in the place of Jesus Christ, or as a representative of Jesus Christ. No! Far more accurately, he is acting “in the very Person of Jesus Christ, the Head of the Mystical Body.” What a profound privilege it is, indeed, to be a Priest!

…cont’d

 

[gryskull]

…cont’d

Pope Pius XII expressed it beautifully in his magnificent encyclical letter, Mediator Dei: “The indelible mark on the souls of Priests comes with the power of the Priesthood and it conforms them to Christ. Their hands have been consecrated so that whatever they bless may be blessed, whatever they consecrate may become holy and sacred in the name of the Lord Jesus. Only the priest can offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Let all who would live in Christ, flock to their Priests. By them they will be supplied with the comfort and food of the spiritual life. From them they will obtain the medicine of salvation assuring their care and happy recovery from the fatal sickness of their sins. The Priest finally, will bless their homes, consecrate their families and help them as they breathe their last across the threshold of eternal happiness.” This is the Priest of Jesus Christ! This is who he must be! May God grant that we never forget it!

Our Lord, in His inscrutable designs, calls whom He wills to the priesthood. Often, His choices seem to contradict human wisdom as He invites ordinary men to do extra-ordinary things. Do not the scriptures tell us that God chooses the weak to confound the strong? Thus, the Priest, sharing the same fallen human nature common to all, must strive all the more earnestly to imitate the Divine Master. Christ faithful, must pray therefore, not only that the Lord sends laborers into His vineyard, but that our priests grow in holiness “before God and men.”

May the Virgin Mother of God, the Queen of the Clergy, protect and guide the Priests of Jesus Christ as we perpetuate her Divine Son’s mission of the salvation and the sanctification of souls until, “He comes again in glory.”

Father Richard J. Rego

Immaculate Conception Church

Ajo, Az

Submitted to Catholic Vision, February 12, 2001

 

[allisonP]

Oh thank you so much!
I get it! (no small task for me either!)

In my non-catholic mind, I can relate it to the fact that all of us should be representatives of christ to unbelievers, and as Preist even more so should they, and they are.

Do I get it???