Transcript
Narrator: Priests can be found in lots of places. They show up at our baptisms, at our weddings, when we’re sick in the hospital, and at our funerals. Most often we see them on Sundays at Church. They stand out, set apart, different from everyone else around them. It’s that white collar. Even when they’re doing normal things, like playing soccer, or boarding a flight, or teaching a class of middle school students. They can also be found skateboarding, or discovering the Big Bang, like Belgian cosmologist Fr. Georges Lemaître.
As the Titanic was sinking in the north Atlantic ocean, three priests were on board ministering to the passengers. They were hearing confessions and helping people onto lifeboats in the middle of chaos.
One eyewitness account says, “We saw before us, coming down the passageway, with his hand uplifted, Father Byles. We knew him because he had visited us several times on board and celebrated Mass for us that very morning. ‘Be calm, my good people,’ he said, and then he went about the steerage giving absolution and blessings…”
What is it about priests and the way they live their lives that makes them stand out? And why does the Catholic Church have priests, anyways?
Turns out, we were all sort of meant to be Priests, in a way. Adam and Eve were established by God in the garden of Eden to serve and protect the garden. They were created as stewards of God’s creation and called to offer back offerings to God in joy. These are priestly functions. But through sin we have damaged and lost this priestly capacity.
In the Old Testament, all of God’s people are called to be a priestly people. In this way God was beginning to restore the original vocation of our first parents Adam and Eve.
The word “priest” is ultimately derived through Latin from the Greek word presbyter, the term for “elder”. The Hebrew word for priest, kohen, means ‘to stand, to be ready, established’ in the sense of “someone who stands ready before God”.
Under the Old Covenant, there exists a three-fold structure of priests. The whole people of Israel are referred to as a priestly people. When they offered sacrifice or kept the Law, they made God’s name known to the rest of the world. But, there still existed a specific ministerial priesthood. This consisted of the Levites, who were a people set apart to worship and offer sacrifices on behalf of the rest of the people of Israel. And then there was the high priest, Aaron and his successors.
There is a difference, however, between the priesthood of the Old Covenant before Jesus, and the New Covenant Jesus revealed.
Catholics believe that all who have entered the Church through baptism and the sacraments of initiation, have been baptized into Christ as “priest, prophet, and king.” All baptized Christians participate in Jesus’ priesthood as the universal priesthood. And today, there is still the ministerial priesthood — the men we know as priests. These ordained men share in the priesthood and ministry of Jesus in a special way. They celebrate Mass and the sacraments. And all of this is because Jesus is *the* high priest.
Jesus instituted the ministerial or ordained priesthood to serve the universal or common priesthood: it’s the work of those in Orders (meaning bishops, priests, deacons) to nurture the priesthood of the baptized by the sacraments and by preaching and teaching. Then, the baptized faithful are sent out to transform the world by their lives of holiness and witness to the Gospel of Jesus in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.
Today, Priests are set apart to continue Jesus’ ministry and are an important presence in our lives. They preach the Word of God, celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, offer the Sacraments, and serve “in the person of Jesus Christ”.
Father Stanley Rother was an American Roman Catholic priest from Oklahoma. In the late 1960s, he volunteered to go to Guatemala as a missionary priest. Then, the Catholic Church in Guatemala found itself caught in a civil war being waged between a militaristic government and revolutionary guerillas because the Church insisted on educating and serving the poor. Some of Father Rother’s catechists and parishioners would disappear and later be found dead with their corpses showing signs of torture. During this time, thousands of Catholics were killed and Father Rother’s name showed up on a hit list.
Father Rother knew the danger of staying in Guatemala to continue his work as a missionary priest. In a letter, he wrote, “This is one of the reasons I have for staying in the face of physical harm. The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.” Father Rother was later martyred in his rectory in Guatemala in July 1981.
Our original vocation given to Adam and Eve, and the Old Testament roots of the Priesthood are fulfilled in the New Testament. We are all part of the universal priesthood, but through the Church Jesus has established a ministerial priesthood with a special call and vocation. Through the sacrament of Holy Orders Jesus continues his ministry in the Church until he comes again.
