The Eternal Priesthood

THE NATURE OP PRIESTHOOD.

“Forasmuch as no act can be more excellent than the consecration of the Body of Christ, there can be no order after (i.e. higher than) the priesthood.” “No act is greater than the consecration of the Body of Christ.” “The Bishop and the priest are equal in respect to the consecration of the Holy Eucharist. “S. John Chrysostom founds the sanctity of the priesthood, which, in Bishop and priest, is all one, upon the twofold jurisdiction over the natural and the mystical Body of Christ — that is, upon the power of consecration and upon the power of absolution.8

It is of divine faith that our Lord ordained the Apostles to be priests when by the words hocfacite in meam commemoratiofiem. He thereby conferred on them the power of sacrifice. It is also of divine faith that when, three days later, He breathed on them, saying, “Keceive ye the Holy Ghost,” He gave them the power of absolution. In these two powers the priesthood was complete. The pastoral authority and the world-wide commission of the Apostles were not yet given. They had received the twofold jurisdiction over His natural body and over the mystical body, together with the power of bestowing the same by ordination upon others, for their priesthood was the “sacerdotium Christi ad Ecclesiam regendam a Spiritu Sancto positum”