SACERDOZIO DI CRISTO. - I. DOCU-
MENTS OF REVELATION. - The religious relationship between creatures and Creator is not exhausted by internal, external, and social communication, which translates into mediation. The priesthood is precisely a mediation between God and men exercised by a minister chosen and often consecrated with a particular rite.
Man, individually and socially, feels the need for a mediator for his relations with God. This need perhaps has its roots in the consciousness of sin, more deeply in the feeling of one's own nothingness before the Infinite. To respond adequately to such a feeling, a mere man could not suffice, even if crowned with holiness; a superhuman man was required, that is, one who transcended the conditions of simple humanity.
Here is grafted the origin and raison d'être of the priesthood of Christ, which exhausts and surpasses every other priesthood, realizing the perfect mediation between man and God in the work of reconciliation of one with the other.
That Christ is a priest is a truth explicitly revealed by God. Already in the Old Testament, the future Messiah is foreannounced as a Priest with a solemn formula: "Iuravit Dominus et non poenitebit eum: Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech" (Ps. 110).
St. Paul takes up and develops the theme of this divine oath, demonstrating its realization in Jesus, whose dignity and priestly function he outlines in that Epistle to the Hebrews which can be called the code of the priesthood of Christ the redeemer (v. EBEI, EPISTOLA AGLI).
The plot, quite evident, unfolds around three fundamental points: the transcendence of Christ as the Son of God with respect to angels and prophets; the true and proper priesthood of the Redeemer; his sacrifice. Three points dominated by the concept of mediation. Mediators are the prophets, mediators the angels, the classic mediator is Moses, but Christ surpasses them all as a mediator by virtue of his condition as Son, while the others are servants and ministers. Even in his humanity, which makes him like us and inferior to the angels, Christ transcends all creation because that humanity belongs to the Word, "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person" (Hebr. 1:3). Pre-existing, as God, in the bosom of the Father from all eternity, already the creator of the world, he comes into the world for the definitive revelation of the Father and clothes himself in flesh in order to fulfill the redeeming mission through the priesthood, which is mediation in action between heaven and earth. No priesthood, no sacrifice had succeeded in appeasing divine justice, in reconciling man with God; for this reason the Son takes a body, to immole it in homage to the divine will (ibid. 10:5 ff.). Thus Jesus Christ is born a priest, according to the eternal design of God, who manifests him as his true Son and a priest according to the order of Melchisedech (ibid. 5). The Apostle demonstrates the superiority of the priesthood of Melchisedech over that of Aaron, to conclude that Christ abolishes the Judaic priesthood, establishing his own which will be eternal, all the greater than the ancient one the greater the New Testament is of which Christ is the mediator (ibid. 9). And the mediation of Christ is perfect because of his intimate vital communion with the Father, by virtue of his divinity, and with men, by virtue of his humanity. Thirdly, St. Paul exalts the bloody sacrifice of the High Priest of the New Testament, contrasting it with the sacrifices of the Old.
The Fathers have before their eyes a rich harvest from which to draw the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ, which returns insistently and firmly throughout Tradition. The Savior is called "eternal High Priest" (sempiternus Pontifex: St. Polycarp, Phil. 12:2); "Supreme Pontiff" (St. Ignatius the Martyr, Ep. ad Philadelph., 9:1); "Our Priest and God" (St. Justin, Dial. cum Tryphone, n. 115). St. Gregory Nazianzen (Or., 38:16) underlines the singular condition of Christ on the Cross, priest and victim together: ut agnum offerri et ut sacerdotem offerre. But the question of the priesthood of Christ is agitated and deepened at the time of the Nestorian heresy (5th century) and in the other Christological struggles that dragged on until the 7th century. See, for example, St. John Chrysostom, in his commentary on the epistle to the Hebrews. But St. Cyril of Alexandria had to deal with the subject even more than him, in opposition to Nestorius and other Antiochenes, who, dividing Christ God (the Word) from Christ Man, were unwilling to recognize any priestly function in the former, but only in the latter. St. Cyril, by virtue of the profound hypostatic union and the consequent communication of idioms, vindicates the title of pontiff and priest for the Word Himself as united with human nature.
Christ, according to divine Revelation, is certainly Priest and Pontiff who accepts the Sacrifice as God and offers it as man, being at the same time offerer and victim: "Pro nobis sibi victor et victima et ideo victor quia victima; pro nobis sibi sacerdos et sacrificium, et ideo sacerdos quia sacrificium" (St. Augustine, Confess., X, 43, 69; cf. id., De Civ. Dei, X, 20).
The reactions against this truth transmitted in the first Christian generations derive from errors concerning the person of Christ. The Church's magisterium adopts the doctrine of St. Cyril of Alexandria, who in the anathema links mediation with the priesthood and attributes both to the Word according to human nature, recalling divine Revelation: "Mediator homo Christus Jesus (I Tim. 2:5) Pontificem et Apostolum confessionis nostrae factum esse Christum divina Scriptura commemorat...". The Council of Trent reaffirms the truth of the priesthood of Christ and develops it in the Eucharistic sphere (sess. XXII, cap. 1). Pius XI in the encyclical Quas primas (AAS, 17 [1925], p. 508 ff.) unites the Kingship and the priesthood of the Redeemer in a single treatment.
II. THEOLOGY OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST
Theology, possessing this abundant testimony of written and oral Revelation, flourishes and develops, following the track of the Fathers' thought, in the scholastic era. The fruit of this theological elaboration is found in St. Thomas (v. especially: Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, q. 22).1. Perfection and characteristics of the priesthood of Christ. — The Angelic Doctor studies the nature and perfection of the priesthood of Christ in the light of the concept of mediation. The true priest is the mediator between God and men (ibid., q. 22, a. 1), inasmuch as his office consists in communicating divine things to men and human things to God. In view of original sin, priestly mediation assumes a repairing function, which is concentrated in the expiatory Sacrifice. Now Christ is a perfect mediator, as is revealed in St. Paul (I Tim. 2, 5). Indeed, a mediator is truly such if, according to the line of being, he is found between two extreme terms (ontological mediation) and if he is capable of joining them by communicating their goods to each other (moral mediation). Christ as God-Man fully actualizes these conditions in Himself: He is distinguished from the Father and from the Holy Spirit personally, and according to the assumed human nature He is distant from God; furthermore, He is distinguished and distant from men, because His human nature is united hypostatically with the Word and is full of grace and incomparable sanctity. On the other hand, consubstantiality unites Him to the Father and to the Holy Spirit in the unity of nature, and consubstantiality with us makes Him a man of our specific nature. By this double bond Christ is in a position to fulfill the conciliatory function between God and men, which is the proper end of the Incarnation. He is therefore the perfect mediator, of whom the prophets and priests of the Old Testament are but approximate images (Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, q. 26, aa. 1-2). By logical consequence Christ is constituted Priest of a singular perfection, as is the hypostatic union upon which His mediation and His priesthood rest.
The essential characteristics of this priesthood can be reduced to three. a) Christ constitutes Himself priest not by an adventitious vocation, but by virtue of the hypostatic union. So that Christ does not become, but is born a priest when the Word becomes flesh. The function of mediation and priesthood certainly does not befit the Word as such, because that function necessarily entails a certain inferiority before God. For this reason St. Paul admonishes that Christ is mediator as Man (I Tim. 2, 5) and the Fathers and theologians, with St. Thomas, declare that the subject of Christ's priesthood is His humanity (Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, q. 22, a. 3, ad 1). But it is equally true that that humanity cannot be conceived of nor subsist independently of the Word who assumed II. St. Augustine had already anticipated the difficulties when he wrote (Serm., 12, 21): «Ecce mediator: divinitas sine humanitate non est mediatrix, humanitas sine divinitate non est mediatrix, sed inter divinitatem solam et humanitatem solam mediatrix est humana divinitas et divina humanitas Christi». More concisely St. Thomas (loc. cit.): «Licet Christus non fuerit sacerdos secundum quod Deus, sed secundum quod homo, unus tamen et idem fuit Sacerdos et Deus». b) Christ is priest and victim together (Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, q. 22, a. 2). The end of the priesthood and of the sacrifice is that of elevating the soul and uniting it with God. Sin had dug an abyss between the creatures and the Creator: an abyss that no man could have bridged, because sin, having something of the infinitely moral within itself, demanded an infinite reparation. The solution to the problem is the Incarnation, whereby a mediator is constituted who is capable of suffering, through His humanity, and capable of satisfying infinitely with His sufferings, because He is a Divine Person subsisting in that human nature. Christ the mediator and priest offers the only Sacrifice worthy of God, that is, His humanity immolated on the Cross for the redemption of men. c) The priesthood of Christ is eternal, as St. Paul affirms. One must distinguish the eternity of state from the eternity of function. The priestly state of Christ, deriving from the hypostatic union itself, which is indissoluble, is evidently eternal. But the priestly function is not eternal, at least in its principal act, which is the sacrifice. Christ immolated Himself once for all and therefore in His glorious life can no longer celebrate the sacrifice of Himself.
2. The priestly acts of Jesus Christ. — Mediator between God and men, the priest exercises his mission, as has been said, by offering human things to God and divine things to men. Two gestures: one ascending, the other descending. The former is expressed especially by sacrifice accompanied by prayer; the latter by the distribution of divine gifts (graces). a) The priestly sacrifice (v.). It is of faith that Jesus Christ with His death on the Cross offered the Father a true and perfect sacrifice (Council of Ephesus, anatham., 10; Council of Trent, sess. XXII, cann. 3-4). Most of all St. Paul insists on the sacrificial character of the Savior's death: Christ, our passover, has immolated Himself (ἐνύθη, a technical term proper to sacrificial language: I Cor. 5, 7); Christ has given Himself for us oblationem et hostiam (προσφόρῳ καὶ θυσίαν = offering and bloody victim; Eph., 5, 2); Christ is victima pro peccato (ἀμαρτία: II Cor. 5, 21), He is a propitiatory victim (ὑπατήριον: Rom. 3, 24). In the letter to the Hebrews (9-10) the Sacrifice of Jesus is exalted above all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. St. Peter too (I, 1, 18-19) speaks of Jesus as an immaculate lamb who redeemed us with His precious blood. The thought of the Fathers is unanimous. Origen, In Num., 24, 1: «In his omnibus hostis unus est agnus, qui totius mundi potuit auferre peccatum et ideo cessaverunt ceterae hostiae, quia talis haec fuit hostia, ut una sola sufficeret pro totius mundi salute». St. Augustine, De Trin., 4, 13: «Morte sua quippe uno verissimo sacrificio oblato...». St. Cyril of Alexandria, Adv. Nestor., 3, 1: «Seipsum Patri pro nobis tanquam odoratissimam victimam obtulit»; and in the tenth anathematism: «Obtulit autem semetipsum pro nobis in odorem suavitatis Deo et Patri». St. Thomas makes the death of Christ the object of profound theological meditation (Sum. Theol., 3ᵃ, qq. 46-48). The free obedience and above all the love with which Christ goes toward the death predefined by the Father are the formal reason for the Sacrifice of the Cross. The gibbet is transformed into an altar and death takes on a sacrificial character of infinite value because of the love with which Christ accompanies His immolation (ibid., q. 48, a. 13). In vain Faustus Socinus in the work De Jesu Christo Salvatore, II, and Auguste Sabatier in the work La doctrine de l'expiation et son évolution historique (Paris 1903) have attempted to strip the death of Christ of its sacrificial value. Their theory, fundamentally heretical, remains refuted by what has been set forth above concerning the doctrine revealed by God in the Old and New Testaments and defined by the infallible magisterium of the Church.
But even among Catholics the question of the sacrifice of Christ has been variously agitated in the modern age. It is especially the French school of the Oratory (Card. De Bérulle, Condren, Olier) that deals with the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ with mystical fervor, speaking insistently of a heavenly, eternal sacrifice of Christ.
With the best theology, under the guidance of St. Thomas, one can conclude with these firm points: a) Christ the Priest celebrated no other true and proper sacrifice than that of the Cross, of which the Eucharistic sacrifice is an anticipation and a continuation. That sacrifice is essentially oblation and immolation. b) Christ the Priest enters heaven with His glorified and therefore impassible humanity, incapable of undergoing further sacrificial treatment, indeed now definitively stripped of any character of a victim. c) Therefore Christ in heaven, while remaining in His priestly being, does not formally continue His sacrifice either as oblation or as immolation, but applies its fruits to souls who thereby attain eternal life. This is the consummatio sacrifici, admitted in heaven also by St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 3ª, q. 22, a. 5), who thus explains the eternity of Christ's Priesthood inasmuch as "the power of that host (Christ crucified) once offered remains forever" (ibid., ad 2). d) The priestly function of Christ in heaven is exercised, according to the text of Hebr. 7, 25, by means of interpellatio, which theologians interpret in various senses. St. Thomas, In Ep. ad Hebr. comments thus: "He intercedes for us firstly by representing the humanity He assumed for us. Likewise by expressing the desire of His most holy soul which He had for our salvation, with which He intercedes for us." Therefore the application of the fruits of the Redemption, which is a priestly function, takes place in heaven by virtue of the humanity assumed by the Word and immolated on the Cross for the redemption of men. A humanity that speaks for itself, with its glorious scars and with the ardent desire of the soul for our salvation.
For the Eucharistic Sacrifice and its connection with that of the Cross V. MESSA.
3. The second priestly act of Christ is prayer
The Gospel attests that Jesus frequently prayed in public and apart; indeed, it lets us know that Jesus often spent the entire night in prayer. As a seal to this life of intimate conversation with the Father, St. John has preserved in his Gospel the sublime prayer of the Last Supper, a priestly prayer and a testament of love. And St. Paul in Hebr. recalls the fervent supplications of Jesus the Priest to the Father: "Who in the days of his flesh, offering up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, was heard in that he feared" (Hebr. 5, 7). St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 3ª, q. 21) treats this delicate subject with his habitual perspicacity. Prayer, he says, is a manifestation of the will made to God for the purpose that it be fulfilled. Which is possible only in a creature, who is not capable of realizing by himself all that he wants.Christ therefore prays inasmuch as He is Man. But by virtue of the hypostatic union, the prayer of Christ's soul belongs properly to the Person of the Word, and therefore it must be said that the Word prays according to the assumed humanity, analogously to what has been said of Christ as mediator and priest.
Jesus the Priest throughout His entire earthly life prayed for us men, but the efficacy of His prayer, like that of His redemptive work, does not save everyone. His prayer, however efficacious it may be, is connected with the mystery of predestination and the reconciliation of Grace with free will.
4. The third priestly act of Christ is the distribution of Grace and glory
Active mediation is at the same time Redemption and the s. of C. Now Redemption is the production of Grace through the satisfaction and merit of Christ crucified, Grace ordered toward the conquest of eternal life.Here returns the question of the causality of Grace. It is known that the principal cause of Grace is God alone and therefore Christ inasmuch as He is the Son of God; but the instrumental cause is the humanity assumed as the instrument of the Word. And since Christ is a Priest according to His human nature, which He offered in a bloody Sacrifice on the cross, it is evident that the distribution of Grace is an act proper to Christ the Priest. Every soul that is sanctified and saved passes through Calvary and enters heaven through the merits and action of Christ Priest and Victim. The Sacraments are a prolongation of the Redeemer's priestly humanity; it is Christ who baptizes, who absolves, who repeats the gesture of His immolation at the Altar. The sacramental character is a configuration of the Christian to Christ the priest.
III. CONCLUSION
Rightly does St. Paul reduce Christianity to a soteriology and concentrate this soteriology in the mystery of the Cross. Christ God-Man, Mediator, Priest, and Victim for the redemption of the human race: this is the Christian religion.The Sacrifice of Christ, the Priest, is an itinerary from God to man and from man to God, an itinerary that traverses the cycle of creation whereby God, under the impulse of infinite love, in a certain sense goes out of Himself in order to return into Himself. This itinerary is Christ Himself, who called Himself "the Way." He stretches between the world and God to reconcile them and unite them in love with His priestly gesture.