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.
Institution of Holy Orders
After transforming bread and wine into his own body and blood he looked at his apostles and said to them, “do this in memory of me.”[1] When the Lord Jesus gave his apostles that command, I imagine in that amazing moment that some of the apostles understood that he really did just turn bread and wine into his body and blood — after all, they’d seen him work miracles before with bread and wine! But then, I can imagine one of the apostles saying something along the lines of, Jesus, I believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is your body and blood, that you have just worked another amazing miracle … But how am I supposed to do that?
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[2] gives to His Apostles a sacred power that flows from His pierced Heart. 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.”[3]
The Forgiveness of Sins
A moment quite similar to the Last Supper and Jesus’s mandate to celebrate the Eucharist 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 might retain are retained.”[4] This could have been another occasion for another how am I going to do that? moment from the apostles, but again, 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.
The Great Commission
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.”[5] The Great Commission given to the apostles would forever clarify the primary reason Jesus gave us the gift of the church: to evangelize. To share His mission of bringing life-changing repentance, conversion, faithfulness and the fire of divine love to the world.
The Diaconate
Sharing in the Priesthood of Jesus, the Apostles were the first clergy of the Church — in fact, they were its first bishops. When the mission launched full-bore after the glory of Pentecost radically empowered them, they were led by the Holy Spirit to cooperate with God’s will in instituting the third degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders, the diaconate.[6] Far more than an afterthought, the diaconate is a powerful ordained ministry capable of fueling the fire of the Church’s missionary efforts in so many ways. Back in the Acts of the Apostles, as the mission continued to unfold, we read that “they appointed presbyters for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith.”[7] We can see here in Acts that the process of passing on the gift of the priesthood was well underway in the early years of the Church.
The Apostolic Ministry
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.”[8] As a Catholic priest, I find that so refreshing to read! Yes, 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.” It’s absolutely true.
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 through the neighborhood or the park, hallelujah!
This is what I love so much about the St. Paul Evangelization Institute. It was encountering Steve Dawson years ago and listening to him, learning from him and then being blessed to attend an evangelization training with Adam Janke that helped me to take a huge step into being an active everyday evangelist as a priest! Shoot, it’s easy to preach on home turf, and that’s absolutely necessary. But I have found that I also need the stuff that takes guts, that requires risks, the willingness to have those awkward moments of rejection in the public square. As the old saying goes, no guts no glory! I need that to experience what the Church teaches, that the sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of apostolic ministry!
Since, however, 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.”[9]
Common and Ministerial Priesthoods
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. It just has to happen, the stuff that takes guts. 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 activation-based training that enables them to minister powerfully in the Holy Spirit in their spheres of influence. As the old gospel song goes, “I’m glad to be in the service!”
[1] Luke 22:19.
[2] Hebrews 4:14.
[4] John 20:23.
[5] Matthew 28:18-20.
[6] Acts 6.
[7] Acts 14:23.