What is the Mission of the Clergy?
After three years of public ministry, when Jesus came to the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, the night he would institute the New and Eternal Covenant, he had a special grace for His apostles, a grace that has remained vital to the heart of the mission to evangelize: the institution of the priesthood.
After transforming bread and wine into his own body and blood, Jesus looked at his apostles and said to them, “do this in memory of me.” At the heart of the sacrament of Holy Orders that Jesus instituted on Holy Thursday is the concept of sacred power. From his own being, Jesus, the eternal high priest gives to His Apostles a sacred power that flows from His pierced Heart. A power, most importantly, to offer the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. In this moment He ordained them to be priests, and indeed, to the highest of the three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders – the episcopacy. He made them Bishops.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the nature of the sacramental priesthood instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper this way, “It depends entirely on Christ and on his unique priesthood; it has been instituted for the good of men and the communion of the Church. The sacrament of Holy Orders communicates a “sacred power” which is none other than that of Christ.”
A moment quite similar to the Last Supper occurred on the evening of Resurrection Sunday. At that time, Jesus appeared to the apostles and told them “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jesus was equipping his priests with the mandate and sacred power he wanted them to carry out for His Church in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
Prior to His Ascension, Jesus gathered his apostles and gave them their ultimate mission: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” The Great Commission given to the apostles would forever clarify the primary reason Jesus gave us the gift of the clergy in the Church: to evangelize. To share His mission of bringing life-changing repentance, conversion, faithfulness and the fire of divine love to the world.
In line with The Great Commission that Jesus gave the Apostles, the Catholic Church teaches, “Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus, it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry.” As a Catholic priest, I absolutely love to celebrate the sacraments; there’s nothing like watching bread get transformed into Jesus! I love watching Jesus absolve people of their sins in the confessional, and seeing the beautiful countenances on faces that have been bathed in God’s grace. Some words I heard back in my early years in the seminary have come to ring true every day in my life, “the best part of being a priest is that you so often get a front row seat to watch God work.”
And yet, my heart burns to get beyond the walls of the Church building, and certainly out of the office, to go and stand outside of the grocery store in my neighborhood here in Detroit and evangelize, to be present and offer prayer and practice prophetic ministry. Most of all, I love to talk about and share Jesus with people. As a priest, I love to go on mission; if it’s to the supermarket, great! If it’s door to door awesome. If it’s to the park, hallelujah!
Since the mission of the Church, and our lives of Holiness, both run on grace, my life as a ministerial priest must be, as the Church says, “at the service of the common priesthood of the laity. It is directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians. The ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads his Church.”
Did you catch those phrases, the “common priesthood,” and the “ministerial priesthood”? All members of the Church share in the priesthood of Christ. The ministerial priesthood refers to the priesthood of the ordained clergy. The common priesthood refers to the priesthood of all believers. The analogy that comes to mind for me about the relationship between the ministerial priesthood and the baptismal priesthood is a platoon and its captain. The captain needs to spend time making sure the platoon is cared for, and has the supplies and know-how to carry out their mission.
Like captains to their platoons, clergy provide the faithful with sacraments, pastoral guidance, and teaching. My heart burns to live life in the Holy Spirit and to continue to be about the mission, off of Church property. Yet also, my heart burns for the mission of the clergy that is oriented towards the common priesthood of the baptized, that they have the grace provided by the sacraments and a growing life of prayer, study and practical training that enables them to minister powerfully in the Holy Spirit in their spheres of influence.