Video Transcript

Edmund: Hey, so I just got back from Mass and we have a new seminarian who’s gonna be hanging out at our parish for the next year, and a new deacon. And it made me realize, you know, it’s kind of confusing. We have bishops, priests, and deacons, like how do they all fit into the Church, and most especially the sacrament of holy orders? So today I wanna answer that question. So part of the answer is in the word itself: Holy Orders, the Catechism reminds us in paragraph 1537, that the word comes from the Roman times, and it meant a governing or civil body. Ordination at that time would mean being incorporated into a specific governing body. Today, ordination means a sacramental act that integrates a man into the order of deacons, priests, and bishops. This act confers a gift of the Holy Spirit and comes with the ability to exercise a sacred authority that is given by Jesus himself through the Church. The right of ordination includes a laying on of hands by a bishop and a prayer of consecration. So what can we learn from this? Well, we can learn that the Church, the family of God has a structure to it. The Church is the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head. There’s the common priesthood of all baptized Christians, including you and me, not just ordained priest, but there’s also the ministerial priesthood. And this ministerial priesthood comes through the sacrament of Holy Orders. Those who are called to the ministerial priesthood. They represent Christ in the Church to the rest of the members, just as Jesus is the head and we are the body. Jesus wants to be present to us, here on earth, through the sacrament of Holy Orders, and this same structure of the bishops, priests, and deacons. Okay, so this is an important point. There are three degrees to the sacrament of Holy Orders. The first two, bishop and priest, participate in what we just talked about, the ministerial priesthood. The third deacons are what we call the diaconate, they participate in a different way because they’re intended to serve the other two degrees of Ooly orders. Okay, so we’ll start with the first one, bishops. So bishops receive the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders. They specifically can confer all of the sacraments, even the sacrament of Holy Orders itself. And this is what’s really cool. Bishops participate in the unbroken line of succession of bishops going all the way back to the apostles. Bishops are called to confer the sacraments to celebrate the liturgy, but they also have a specific role in teaching and governing the Church. Now, bishops are normally the ordinary ministers of the sacrament of confirmation, but in special cases, priests can actually confer the sacrament as well. And bishops are usually entrusted with a specific portion of the family of God, the Church, which means they’re often assigned to lead a diocese, which is a large area made up of smaller parish areas. Just as Jesus entrusted his mission to the apostles, the bishops are called to lead this mission in the world today in a specific area. They’re entrusted with the mission of God and a specific and special authority to teach and govern the Church in union with all the bishops and the the Pope. Okay, next are priests. Now these are the people you probably come in the most contact with if you go to Church. Now, the bishops share this mission with priests who are coworkers of the bishop. Priests are able to confer all the sacraments with the exception of Holy Orders. Now, in a local parish that’s part of a larger diocese, the represents his bishop. And all the priests in that diocese are bound together with a promise of obedience to that bishop, and the priest represents Jesus, the head of the Church to his people in the parish. In persona Christi is the Latin phrase that describes that the priest is called to stand in the person of Christ and represent Christ to his flock. And Jesus dispenses the mysteries of the sacraments to his people through the priests. Priests are called to proclaim the Word of God, to celebrate the sacraments, but also to pastor and govern their flock in service to the bishop’s mission that was given to him by Jesus Christ. Priests celebrate the Mass, they hear Confessions and can forgive sins, and they baptize the faithful. Okay, and lastly, we have deacons, and a lot of us might not be familiar with the role of deacons in the Church. From the time of the early Church, the apostles commissioned deacons in a special way to serve the ministry and mission of the Church. The Catechism actually reminds us in paragraph 1569 that deacons are not ordained to the priesthood, but to ministry. All bishops are first ordained priests, and not all priests ever become bishops, but deacons are never ordained into the priesthood of Jesus Christ. The word deacon actually comes from a Greek word, which means a special kind of service to the poor and the oppressed. In medieval Rome, a diaconia was a building near a church, which distributed help and and food and service to the poor. Deacons assist the bishop in his mission, but they also assist the bishop and priests at the altar. A deacon can only confer the sacrament of baptism and they can be a witness at the sacrament of matrimony. You’ll also see deacons assisting in proclaiming the gospel and presiding over funerals. Bishops, priests and deacons all receive a character or imprint in the sacrament of Holy Orders that can never be removed. They all form a hierarchy and a structure that serves the body of Christ and participates in the mission of Jesus. We are all baptized into Jesus’ priesthood. We’re baptized into him as priest, prophet, and king. But the sacrament of holy Orders is a special way that Jesus continues his ministry and mission here on earth through men who are set apart or consecrated for this service to the Church. And in this way, through the sacrament of Holy Orders, bishops, priests and deacons continue Jesus’s ministry until he comes again.