THE PRIEST, HIS IDENTITY AND MISSION

 

Theological Reflections

on the recent Instruction of

The Congregation for the Clergy

 

 

 

Introduction

For several decades, there has been a deepening in the awareness of the identity and mission of the Priest, which has increasingly become an issue that concerns not just a particular ministry among many ministries, but also of concern for the identity of the Church itself, in its essence of "communion and mission”, in its relationship to Christ, in the mystery of the Trinity, and in its relationship to humanity and to the world.

 

The ways of thinking which arise within today’s democratic societies are often «automatically transferred into the mentality and the praxis within the Church itself, in the various socio-political cultural currents of our time», to suppress «any differences in the roles between the members of the Mystical Body of Christ which is the Church, effectively negating its definite doctrine regarding the distinction between the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood», as well as forms of participation in the Church that «tend to confuse the distinction between the duties of ministerial Priests with the duties of the lay faithful». Today, in particular, as affirmed in the recent Instruction of the Congregation for the Clergy The Priest: the pastor and the leader of the parish community, presented by Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos: «in a society marked by cultural, religious and ethnic pluralism, and partially characterised by relativism, irenicism and syncretism,  it seems that some Christians have adopted the attitude and the type of Christianity deprived of real reference to Christ and to the Church, and as such, they tend to reduce the pastoral project to an exclusively anthropological social issue, within a generic reference to pacifism, universalism and a loose reference to «values».

 

As such, we can find «a culture largely secularised, that tends to approve of a Priest within its own way of thinking, stripping away the fundamental mystical-sacramental dimension, is significantly responsible for the phenomenon that gives birth to this stripping away which can bring isolation, and a sort of depressive fatalism or a dispersive activism. «Nonetheless, the vast majority of Priests in the whole Church, by the solicitude of their bishops, have successfully dealt with the difficult challenges of this historical juncture and have been able to live out their identity fully and joyfully, with a generous pastoral commitment».

 

Also, today in particular, there are those situations that arise in which the Instruction openly alludes to, as a result of the problems that arise due to the great scarcity of Priests (n. 23) and those  bring forth the scenario, «how it happens in those places, that the Bishop, having taken all things into consideration with prudence, entrusts in a canonically consistent way, in a collaboration ad tempus, the exercise of the pastoral care of the parish to one of some people who are not marked with the priestly character». Now, in these cases, there must be a recognition and a preservation of the organic structure by which Christ chose to order the Church, between the essential elements of diversity and complementarity in the gifts and functions of ordained ministers and those of the lay faithful. Also if there are objectively extraordinary situations that justify such collaboration, it is not entirely possible to legitimately surpass the confines of the specificity between the ministry of Priests and the ministry of the laity. In accordance with this requirement, says John Paul II, is the reservation of the expressions that indicate the sense of «leadership» - how these “pastors”, “chaplains”, “directors”, “coordinators” or their equivalents – are exclusively priestly in character. In this field, most evident today, the inter-dicasterial Exhortation Ecclesiae de mysterio, officially approved by the Holy Father on the 15th of August 1997, is the sure path to follow.

 

1.   The Priest: a point that lies between the mystery of Christ and of the Church

Of importance is the personhood and the mission of the Priest, who today constantly becomes more clearly delineated as a «focal point» of the relationship between the mystery of Christ and the Church, and is charged with bringing together these two essential aspects. The Instruction to which I am referring, speaks of a proposition to Priests, being «a three dimensional identity: pneumatological, Christological and ecclesiological» that must be kept in view, and is constituted in such a way that «the primary theological architecture of the mystery of the Priest», called to be ministers of salvation, and desires to clarify, in a growing way, the meaning of the concrete pastoral ministry in the parish. It is clear that the priority is the Christological reference, affirmed in many church documents starting from Optatam Totius, up to the final document of the Synod of Bishops of 1971 and the post-synodal Exhortation Pastores dabo Vobis. The «Christological reference» for the presbyteral mystery drives the relationship of the mystery of the Trinity, of fundamental importance for ecclesiological development.

 

The fundamental importance of this foundation emerges in Pastores dabo Vobis (1992), also in the Directory (1994), in the Instruction Ecclesiae de mysterio (1997), and in the final Instruction The Priest: the pastor and the leader of the parish community (2002). It repeats the «theological principle of the ordained minister» in consistency with «configuration to Christ», as the ordained Priest is able to act in the person of Christ the Head, for «a specifically ontological link that enjoins the Priest to Christ the High Priest and the Good Shepherd». From this link the Priest becomes, in the Church and for the Church, a living and transparent image, a «sacramental representation of Christ the Head and Shepherd» (PDV, 15).

 

Also the recent Instruction on the Priest continues along the same line, affirming the principle that «the sacrament of Ordination, that configures one to Christ the Priest, in a way that he is able to act in the Person of Christ the Head with sacred power, for the offering of Sacrifice and for the remission of sins», conferred sacramentally at baptism, and that they received, afterwards, through the gift of the ministerial priesthood, «a new and specific mission: that of embodying in the hearts of the people of God the threefold office – prophet, priest and king – of the same Christ who is Head and Shepherd of the Church».

The Directory, following Pastores dabo Vobis, also clearly affirms the Trinitarian foundation of priestly consecration: «under the consecration received with the sacrament of Ordination, the Priest is placed in a particular and specific relationship with the Father, with the Son and with the Holy Spirit». In fact «our identity ultimately has its source in the love of the Father. At the command of the Son, both High Priest and Good Shepherd, we are united sacramentally with His priestly ministry for the action of the Holy Spirit. The life and the ministry of the Priest are the continuation of the life and the action of the same Christ. That is the reason for our dignity, the foundation of our joy, the certainty of our life». The Instruction on the Priest follows the same line, starting from a Christological-Trinitarian foundation, which is source of this unique and irreplaceable ministry in the Church (nn. 7-8).

 

But, in consistency with Presbyterorum Ordinis 2 and Lumen Gentium 28 of the Second Vatican Council, recent documents have developed the Christological-Trinitarian prospect of Lumen Gentium 28, in the light of Presbyterorum Ordinis 2, following the gospel of Christ consecrated and sent into the world from the Father (Jn 10:36), «that has allowed for all to participate in the mystical Body in union with the Spirit with which he was anointed: in essence, in fact, all the faithful form a holy and royal priesthood» and so that all the faithful have been united in one unique body, but within which not all the members have the same function (Rm 12,4), the apostles were the first to be instituted as ministers, as He himself had been sent by the Father, and then «their successors were made to participate in their consecration and mission, that is the Bishops, whose ministerial function was also handed to a lesser degree to Priests...».

 

In the research of the foundation of the New Testament of the Christological-Trinitarian basis of the sacrament of Ordination, from an ecclesiological point of view, we find then of particular importance the «missionary-pastoral model» derived from the figure of Christ sent from the Father, consecrated by the action of the Holy Spirit in Him, to announce the good news to the poor (Lk 4:18). This is the starting point of the theology of the ordained priesthood and is joined, itself from a Christological foundation, to be missionary, and by which the fundamental goal is «consecration and sanctification». The fundamental gospel of Christ brings us closer to the mystery of the essence and the mission of the Priest, and so then, to Jesus’ comprehension of being sent by the Father, and so in His time He sent the apostles (Jn 13:20; 17:18; 20:21).

 

A «Christology of mission», therefore, that deepens the Trinitarian foundation in the relationship between Christ and the Father and the mission of the Spirit from the Father and from the Son: it is this perspective that gives a more immediate understanding of the mystery of the identity of the Priest with the mystery of the Church. «The mission constitutes the nature of the ministry and locates itself as being a vicar of Jesus: it is always Christ who, present in the ministry, continues in him the mission. In the light of the mission and in being a vicar of Christ they can review their ordination, the character and the sacramentality in the end so that they surpass the choice between ontology and functionality».

 

For this, the recently given pontifical documents have a particular resonance with the biblical figure of Jesus «the Good Shepherd», and they integrate the priority of the mission to proclaim the Gospel with the celebration of the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist and with the service of charity. As we have already seen in Presbyterorum Ordinis 2, it retakes the affirmation that the ministry of Priests «begins with the proclamation of the Gospel», but «derives its own power from the efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ» and within the understanding that «in any given place, one can offer that one universal sacrifice which is offered by the Saints, as done by the High Priest, the same of which has also been offered for us in the Passion, to make us become the Body of that almighty Head».

 

2.     From the Christological mystery to the Ecclesiological Mystery

The «Christological-Trinitarian» foundation of the identity of the Priest, essentially, like Christ «a missionary of the Father», develops his mission before the Church, not as an appendix, but as a structural element of the same entity, as it says in Pastores dabo Vobis, «Head, Shepherd, Spouse of the Church» and how it is presented once again in the Instruction is the actual identity of the Priest: «The being and the action of the Priest – his consecrated personhood and his ministry –are inseparable theological realities and have the service of the development of the mission of the Church as their end»: eternal salvation of all men. In the mystery of the Church – revealed in the Mystical Body of Christ and the People of God that walk throughout history, established as the universal sacrament of salvation, one finds and one discovers the profound reason of priestly ministry. For this, in fact, «the ecclesial community has the absolute need of the ministerial priesthood in order to have Christ the Head and Shepherd present in his very being». One may well say, then, that «without the presence of Christ, represented in the Priest, sacramentally leading the community, there could not be an ecclesial community in its fullness».

 

Regarding the missionary dynamic, being Shepherd, Head and Spouse, these come together in this dimension so that from a single imprint in every minister in the Church comes an expression of that dimension of service that stems from the pastoral mode itself, being spousal, of being missionary and possessing the power of Christ the Servant, as it is expressed in the Gospels Mk 10:45; Lk 22:26-27. When Paul affirms that «you are diverse in “service”, but one in the Lord» (1 Co 12:5), he expresses that Christ is made Servant (Phm 2:7) and has come “to serve” (Mk 10:45). The principal functions pertaining to the exercising of the priestly ministry in the way of service of Christ are summed up in the proclamation of the evangelisers of the Word, in the work of liturgical action, especially in presiding over the Eucharist, in the pastoral leadership of the community, and in the coordination of the charisms of all the baptised for their exercise of charity.

 

3.     The Priest in the Church and before the Church

In the context of the Christological-Trinitarian perspective, the post-synodal exhortation Pastores dabo Vobis (1992), following from the Directory (1994: nn. 1-11) and from recent Instructions, there is the tendency to more clearly define the relationship of the sacramental configuration of the Priest with «Christ Who is Sent, Servant, Head, Shepherd and Spouse of the Church», repeating the assertion of the synod, in which it is said that «the Priest is raised non only in the Church, but also before the Church» (Pastores dabo Vobis, 16; 22). From this we can delineate two essential aspects of the Priestly-Ecclesial relationship:

 

a.   On one side, in fact, it is affirmed that «the relationship of communion» in which the ordained Priest finds himself in the Church, and is «the man of communion» that must make him an «image» of Christ «in the midst of the flock» which he is given. The Instruction describes this work of leadership and service for all, exercising the same pastoral function as Christ (ibid). This fundamental first aspect is seen in the pneumatological perspective with particular regard for the «mission of the Spirit» that is already operating in the Christ event, sent from the Father, to give His «paschal event», to the Church, the fruit of His redemptive work (LG 4 and 12), sustained in charisms and ministries for communal edification, itself through the sacrament of ordination (1 Co 12:28), especially in the celebration of the eucharist and in the pastoral life (Ac 20:28). For this animated action of communion, in the Spirit, the Priest exercises not only the ministry of representing Christ, but also representing the Church, and is also founded on Christ the Head, in His relationship with the Body. As such the ordained Priest, exercises his ministry with the strength of the Spirit, given from the Father for the Risen Christ, who is the principal animator of the life of the ecclesial community. It remains «essential», then, for the ordained Priest to be included within the Church. This exercise of ministry requires, for its success, to be formed, as stated by the Instruction (n. 9), following Pastores dabo Vobis, from that «characteristic spirituality» that defines the «spirituality of communion», a theme to which has been returned to often recently, recalling the teaching of the pontificate of John Paul II. Under the Ecclesial Representation the Priest does not tend to a sanctity that is merely personal: he must live in the manner whereby he exhibits the sense of the ecclesial and thus sanctifies in his pastoral duties so that he promotes the sense of the ecclesial in the faithful.

 

He must then accomplish in this work ecclesial consciousness and responsibility, as described in the Instruction, in relationship with the intention to continue to «do what the Church does», not intending to do so only from a juridic sense for the validity of his ministerial acts, but, more so, having a constant regard for the faith «that illuminates the spiritual life of the sacred minister,  inviting him to reacquaint his personal instrumentality to the service of Christ and in the Church». (p. 12, n. 13). This lies at the level of spiritual formation, «the constant growth of his will, in the consciousness that his ministerial acts are instrumental to the operation of Christ in the Church, His body». We do not find, for the major part, only one attitude of obedience and ecclesiastical obedience, assimilated on the level of spiritual formation: we find more: the Instruction expressly states that this spirituality of communion «requires a level of closeness to the Lord Jesus, one of friendship and of personal encounter, of «shared» ministerial mission, of love and service to the Person in the «person» of the Church, His Body, His Spouse». (n.13).

 

This love within the Church, this «pastoral charity, stemming overall from the Eucharistic sacrifice», constitutes «the centre and the source of all the life of the Priest, so that the priestly spirit strives to reflect what is offered on the altar» (ibid 12, cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis n. 14). This sentiment translates «in a constant and sincere attitude to listen with the Church» (Directory, n. 56) which signifies to work always in connection to and in communion with the Pope, the Bishops, and brother Priests, the consecrated faithful, and the lay faithful (ibid).

 

b.   Then there is a second fundamental relationship of Priests in relation to the Church, developed from recent ecclesial documents, that represent the synodal affirmations: the relationship of the Priest «before or in front of the Church». Pastores dabo Vobis in two places (16 and 22) recalls this aspect. This underlining is to repeat with insistence, not to have a mere structural value, but a value which is profoundly theological: it is repeated, in fact, in the structure of the Church, in the value of the ordained priesthood as «a sign of the absolute priority of grace, freely given, that the Church comes to give from the Risen Christ. For this view of the ministerial priesthood, the Church operates in the consciousness, in faith, that it is not alone, but is in the presence of the grace of Christ in the Holy Spirit. The apostles and their successors, who hold an authority which comes to them from Christ the Head and Shepherd, are placed – in their ministry – in front of the Church seen as a visible extension and a sacramental sign of Christ in the same way He is placed in front of the Church and the world, the permanent ever new source of salvation, “He who is saviour of His Body” (Ep 5:23)» (ibid n.16).

 

So in this twofold relation, the Priest essentially appears in reference to the church, in the sense that if he does not exist in this defined mode, he is «outside the Church» (ibid, 16), he must never be defined in such a way as to be «after the ecclesial community», «as if it could be conceived as though it is already established without the priesthood» (ibid). In reality the Church can be seen to have three dimensions: «mystery», because it possesses sacramental signs in its very being (especially the Eucharist) of the presence of Christ Risen, «communion», the place of unity within the harmony of diverse vocations, charisms and services, and «mission», how «the community announces and bears witness to the Gospel» it cannot fully realise the same without the service of the priesthood that intimately and sacramentally participates in the union and the mission of Christ for the same Church and for the world.

 

This essential and multiplied reference to the Church is defined in relationship not only to the universal Church, but also in relationship to the local Church. In Pastores Dabo Vobis this emphasis is found instead on the level of spiritual formation of the Priest for which his «being in a particular Church» constitutes a qualifying element for the living of a Christian spirituality (n. 31). From «the ecclesiological point of view» today one tends to affirm that if the identity of the Priest had become essentially defined in relationship to only a “personal dignity”, an aspect which will in any case be revealed, it could remain defined in its completeness, in a local manner; but if, following on from the Council and successive research, the priesthood is to be defined as essentially “ministerial”, because it intrinsically refers to ministry itself of the being of Christ, sent by the Father to serve, then the reference to a local Church, with its bishop and presbyterate, appears essentially and it is from this theological depth of the local Church that it gains value when it is opened up to the universal Church.

 

So one cannot define the identity of the Priest as first ordained and then inserted into the local Church and within its presbyterate, but rather, ordained into the local Church and within its presbyterate. There is the need, then, to have absolute clarity that if the concrete level of the membership of the local Church constitutes a necessary mediation, then the ministry must always be aware that the universal Church «is an ontological reality and is temporally before any single particular Church». For which «the sum of particular Churches do not constitute the universal Church». Particular Churches, recognising the Instruction (n.17), in and a part of the universal Church, must always be open to the reality of being a true communion of persons, of charisms, of spiritual traditions, without geographical, intellectual or psychological borders (LG 23). «The Priest must have absolute clarity that there is only the Church! Universality, or truth, catholicity, must fill the particularity of self» (ibid, 17).

 

4.     The Marian dimension of the identity and the mission of the Priest

One of the particular aspects revealed within recent Instructions on «the identity and mission of the Priest» is the «Marian dimension». Not that Marian references are missing in the preceding documents that have been released over the past years and that have followed an age-old and continuous ecclesiastical tradition that promotes «Marian devotion» as an essential point when referring to priestly formation, concretely expressed also in the beautiful prayers which end these documents. One must then attempt to reclaim the corresponding devotions and their theological contents, also these, in being a «Marian Priest» always reclaim great insights, that demonstrate how the Marian dimension brings with it an understanding of not only how it is an important affective spiritual component of the presbyteral conscience, but, how it is a constitutive element «in the being itself and in the action» of the Priest from which the devotional elements stem in a spontaneous way. This Marian emphasis of the Instruction is most relevant, itself considering the problem of the identity of the priesthood, that, as was seen before, is delineated today within the frame of a certain tension between Christology and ecclesiology. Now, it is within this Marian perspective itself that this tension can find both light and equilibrium. In fact, as was observed by Paul VI: «The understanding of the true catholic doctrine on Mary will always be a key to understanding the mystery of Christ and of the Church». It constitutes, also, an indispensable key for the exact comprehension of the identity and the mission of the Priest.

The discussion could be of assistance in providing a broad insight, but I must here, to be concise, limit myself to consider only some of the aspects that review the constituitive Mariological elements in being a Priest and of his actions, of more immediacy, recalling the Document in question. The Instruction of the Congregation of the Clergy on the identity and mission of the Priest offers, in reality, a precise contribution based upon two points regarding the relationship of salvific communication between the Priest and Mary in reference to the mystery of the Church and his relationship with Her, in the cooperation in the mystery of the redemption of Christ. They speak, in fact, of the ministry of the Priest who possesses the capacity to «announce the Gospel with authority, where sacramental pardon is victorious over the evil of sin» (n. 8) acting «in the person of Christ the Head...» (ibid), affirming that «in Mary, Mother of the Eternal and High Priest, the Priest becomes conscious of being with Her, «an instrument of salvific communication between God and men», also put differently: «as the Holy Virgin mediates the Incarnation, the Priest mediates the power of Orders».

 

Then, «the relation of the Priest with Mary», the Instruction continues, «is not only a need of protection and of help; it is primarily of the consciousness of an objective fact: “the closeness of the Madonna” whose “active presence, together with which, the Church wants to live the mystery of Christ”». Developing this important reference, it can be seen to deepen the relationship which, even with due distinction, intimately unites the work of salvific communication in the Church, with the maternal role of Mary from which the power of Orders of the Priest is derived from. In fact, «there exists an «essential relationship... between the Mother of Jesus and the ministry of the priesthood of the Son», which derives from that which is within the divine motherhood of Mary and the priesthood of Christ».

The first important aspect of communion, in the Marian-priestly relationship, is that which is founded upon the “Motherhood of Mary” before the Head and the mystical Body, for which, in the Incarnation, Mary the Mother of the High Priest becomes also the Mother of all the Body of Christ, the Church, and the Mother of all “priestly ministers”, a spiritual motherhood which proclaims Christ Crucified (Jn 19:25-27). Mary’s participation in the action of the communication of grace, the gift of the Spirit, is accomplished, then, according to the characteristic of the «maternal mediation» itself, that can describe mediation «in Christ», or better yet, «participation in the unique mediation of the Redeemer» (LG 62). This expression, as has been said in the recent document of FAMI: is «in higher conformance with the sensus fidelium, and less subject to dispute». In the strength of the Incarnation, and of its presence in the redemption event of the cross and the event of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, the action of the «life-giving motherhood of Mary» is exercised in the Church, against that Spirit of grace, for which, the sacramental action of the ordained minister, working as the «representation of the Person of Christ, Head and Shepherd», can more intimately penetrate the heart, increase the communion of grace with Christ and with the members of His Body. The Church cannot properly be called a life-giving Mother, mediating from its maternal heart, if it is not in Mary.

 

If in fact the Church «is the sign and instrument of intimate union with God, it is a motive of its maternity: because the life-giving Spirit, “generates” sons and daughters of the human family with a new life in Christ. Because, just as Mary is at the service of the mystery of the Incarnation, so too the Church remains at the service of the mystery of the adoption as sons by grace». In this work, then, that the Church undertakes before its priestly ministers, is one where «Mary is not only a model and figure of the Church, but much more». In fact, it is one «with the love of the Mother and the cooperation with the regeneration and formation» of the sons and daughters of Mother Church. The motherhood of the Church is actually, not only according to the model and the figure of the Mother of God, but also of Her “cooperation”. The Church draws an enormous amount from this cooperation, that is from the maternal mediation, that is characteristic of Mary... ».

 

One can say, overall that «in the economy of grace, actually under the action of the Holy Spirit, there is a single correspondence between the moment of the incarnation of the Word and that of the birth of the Church. The person who unites these two moments is Mary: Mary of Nazareth and Mary in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. In both cases, Her presence is discreet but essential, indicating the way of “birth from the Spirit”. Like that, with She who is present in the mystery of Christ as Mother, one becomes – for the will of the Son and for the action of the Holy Spirit – present in the mystery of the Church. Also in the Church there continues to be a maternal presence, as is indicated in the words pronounced on the Cross: “Woman, this is your son”; “this is your Mother”».

 

But there is another aspect in the Marian-priestly relationship that is also realised, in a particular way, as the Instruction says, in the «presence and participation» of Mary in the action of the ordained Priest: it is that in the liturgical-sacramental life of the Church. The Document to which I refer (n. 13), emphasises quite rightly, the culminating moment of this ecclesial life which is the celebration of the Eucharist, affirming, recalling the words of John Paul II, that «when we celebrate the Holy Mass, in the Mother of the Son of God is in our midst, who offers us the mystery of the offer of redemption: in this way She becomes the mediatrix of grace that springs from the Church for all the faithful from this offering». In fact: «Mary was associated in a unique way with the priestly sacrifice of Christ, sharing His will of salvation for the world mediated on the Cross. She was the first and most perfect spiritual participant in this offering of Priest and Victim. As such, she can receive and give to all who participate on the ministerial level in the priesthood of Her Son, the grace to respond all the more to the needs of the spiritual offering that the priesthood requires: in a particular way, the grace of faith, of hope and of perseverance in trials, recognising what stimulates a greater participation in the generous offer of redemption».

 

Following this track, one can say that in the sending forth (parédoken) of the Spirit from the time Jesus died on the Cross (Jn 19:30) the hour of consummation of His redemptive work is anticipated and announced, which awaits the coming of the Resurrection and Pentecost, and that consummation is fulfilled in the offering of the “Mother Mary-Church”, united as a spouse to Christ, in His redemptive action. It is not, in fact, a consummation of the priestly action of Jesus, that follows, in history, in a “Sacramental Church”, without the active participation of “Mother Mary”, and in Her, of the Mother Church and within the priestly people (1 P 2:9-10).  The active participation, personally, of Mary in the event of the cross of Christ, personalises and anticipates the existence of the offering of the ministerial priesthood, but it is exercised in communion with it (LG 10-11), in a unique act of oblation, in the unique priestly offering of Jesus, lifted high, in the Spirit, for the praise and glory of the Father.

 

And so then, just as the otherness of the ordained minister before the Church keeps the consciousness alive so that we, by the gift of grace, the new creation, are not the origin of ourselves, so the maternal mediation of Mary reminds us that we are always, also in the reception of grace, «given to ourselves to be responsible persons», because the grace Christ offers us is made the grace that allows and drives us to respond. In Mary are united, together, both aspects of the mission of the spousal motherhood of the Church. Therefore, «Mary, the first of the disciples and the Mother of the Lord, “remains” at the foot of the cross. She (...) is at the same time the icon of the Trinitarian Love and the first fruits of the new humanity dressed in the wedding garment of charity. In Her are joined the ’yes’ of the love of God and the ‘yes’ of humanity redeemed in Christ».

                                  

Marcello Bordoni