Eternally Catholic

The Sacrament of Holy Orders

And Michas said:
Stay with me, and be unto me a father and a priest,
and I will give thee every year ten pieces of silver,
and a double suit of apparel, and thy victuals.
Judges 17, 10

Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ,
you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus
I became your father through the gospel.
1 Corinthians 4, 15

The Sacrament of Holy Orders continues Jesus Christ’s priesthood, which He bestowed upon His Apostles. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to it as “the sacrament of apostolic ministry” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1536).

The priesthood of the New Covenant has its roots in the priesthood of the Old Covenant. God’s chosen people have constituted “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6; Isa 61:6). But from among the twelve tribes of Israel, God chose the tribe of Levi and set it apart to minister liturgical service (Num 1:48-53; Josh 13:33). The Levite priests were “appointed to act on behalf of men to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb 5:1; cf. Ex 29:1-30; Lev 8). This priesthood was instituted to proclaim the Word of God and restore communion with God by sacrifice and prayer (Mal 2:7-9). However, this priesthood was powerless in bringing about salvation in the Christian meaning. The sacrifices for sin had to be repeated ceaselessly. They could not achieve definitive sanctification and justification, which only Christ’s single sacrifice of himself could and would accomplish at the appointed time in salvation history (Heb 5:3; 7:27; CCC 1539, 1540).

In the New Covenant, two participations exist in the one priesthood of Christ between the laity and the clergy. Our High Priest and unique mediator between God and humanity has made his Church “be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father” (Rev 1:6). We who are baptized “like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). God’s chosen people in the New Dispensation are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special protection” (1 Pet 2:9). The entire community of believers, therefore, is as such priestly in their baptismal vocation according to their particular spiritual gifts. Christians are anointed first and foremost in the Sacrament of Baptism and then again when their baptismal grace is perfected in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

As anointed priests in the Church, Christians are united to Christ and his sacrifice in the offerings they make of themselves in their daily lives. Paul exhorted the Christians in Rome to “offer [their] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, [their] spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). The Second Vatican Council affirms, “[The laity] exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the penetrating and perfecting of the temporal order through the spirit of the Gospel. In this way, their temporal activity openly bears witness to Christ and promotes the salvation of men. Since the laity, by their state of life, live amid the world and its concerns, they are called by God to exercise their apostolate in the world like leaven, with the ardor of the spirit of Christ.” (Apostolicam actuositatem, 2).

Catholics profess Jesus Christ to be “the one (heis / εἷς) Mediator between God and man” (1 Tim 2:5), by which Paul means He is the one who has ‘universally’ redeemed the world and has reconciled all humanity (Jew and Gentile) to God by serving as a ransom for sin which was paid through the outpouring of his most precious blood (2:6). Our Lord’s principal mediation in his humanity does not preclude the mediation or intercession of the faithful in and through His merits by prayer and sacrifice “so that everyone might be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:1-4). The apostle has no intention of emphasizing that Jesus is the “one and only” (monos / μόνος) mediator in the entire economy of salvation. The Christian faithful are indeed called to participate in our Lord’s mediation as active and living members of His Mystical Body who partake of the divine life (1 Pet 2:5; 2 Pet 1:3-4). This prerogative is conferred on these members by right of adoption as sons and daughters of God, who participate in Christ’s divine nature since it is in his humanity – not divinity – that Christ as Head of His Mystical Body intercedes for us all before the Father as both eternal High Priest and sacrificial victim.

On the other hand, the ordained minister acts in the person of Christ (in persona Christi). Our Lord is present in the ecclesial service of his anointed minister as Head of his body. By the sacrament of Holy Orders, the priest acts in persona Christi Capitis, representing the person of Christ. “It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents. Now, because of the sacerdotal consecration that he has received, the minister is truly made like the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself. Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ” (CCC, 1548).

The ministerial priesthood, then, is a divine office that extends from the common priesthood of the faithful through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. This is an office that our Lord has committed to his pastors to serve as shepherds of his flock in his name and in him. It depends entirely on Christ and his unique priesthood for the good of all people and the communion of the Church. The sacred power of Christ is communicated to the ordained minister through the sacrament of Holy Orders. The exercise of this authority in the divine office “must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, who by love made himself the least and the servant of all” (CCC 1551).

The ministerial priesthood acts in the name of the whole Church when offering to God the prayer of the Church, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice (CCC 1552). “The prayer and offering of the Church are inseparable from the prayer and offering of Christ, her head; it is always the case that Christ worships in and through his Church. The Church, the Body of Christ, prays and offers herself ‘through him, with him, in him,’ in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to God the Father. The whole Body, caput et membra, prays and offers itself, and therefore, those who are especially his ministers are called ministers not only of Christ but also of the Church. Because the ministerial priesthood represents Christ, it can represent the Church” (CCC, 1553).

Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, priests “share in the universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles.” The spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them for the fullest universal mission of salvation, that is, to the ends of the earth, to preach the Gospel and minister the sacraments (Mt 28:19-20; Acts 1:8). (CCC, 1565). It is in the Eucharistic assembly of the faithful (synaxis) that ordained priests exercise their divine office in the “supreme degree”… “acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass, they make present again and apply, until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that namely of Christ offering himself once and for all a spotless victim to the Father” (CCC, 1566).

Priests are called “to the service of the People of God.” Together with their bishop, they constitute a unique “sacerdotal college” (presbyterium) in which they fulfill all their duties. Priests can exercise their ministry only on “dependence on the bishop and in communion with them.” The vow of obedience priests make to the bishop at the time of ordination, and the “kiss of peace” at the end of the ordination liturgy signifies they are communing with him as his fellow workers in Christ (CCC, 1567). “The unity of the presbyterium finds liturgical expression in the custom of the presbyters’ imposing hands, after the bishop, during the Ate of ordination” (CCC, 1568).

Finally, the Sacrament of Holy Orders also includes the ordination of deacons. They are situated at a lower level of the Church hierarchy. These candidates also receive the imposition of the bishop’s hands “not unto the priesthood, but unto the ministry” to serve the Church. Like the priest, the deacon is a co-worker with the bishop and the priest (CCC, 1569). Moreover, deacons also serve in Christ’s mission in a special way apart from the common priesthood of the faithful. “Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to assist the bishop and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries of charity” (CCC, 1570).

The ordinations of bishops (selected by the pope), priests, and deacons preferably occur in a cathedral on Sunday. All three ordinations take a proper place in the Eucharistic liturgy (CCC, 1571). “The essential rite of the sacrament of Holy Orders for all three degrees consists in the bishop’s imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand and in the bishop’s specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate is being ordained” (CCC 1573).

The effects of the Sacrament of Holy Orders are the indelible character and the grace of the Holy Spirit. This sacrament “configures the recipient to Christ by a special grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ’s instrument for his Church. By ordination, one can act as a representative of Christ, Head of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and king. As with the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, the Sacrament of Holy Orders “confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily” (CCC, 1582). Although an ordained person could be discharged from his office for grave reasons, “the character imprinted by ordination is forever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him permanently” (CCC, 1583). By the grace of the Holy Spirit proper to this sacrament, the ordinand is configured to Christ as “Priest, Teacher, and Pastor, of whom the ordained is made a minister” (CCC, 1585).

The Sacrament of Holy Orders and the ministerial priesthood have a biblical basis. We find the verb form for the noun hiereus or ἱερεύς in the New Testament. The word means “priest” or one who “sacrifices to a god.” Paul writes to the church in Rome: “Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering (hierourgounta / ἱερουργοῦντα) the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” (Rom 15:15-15, KJV). What we literally have is “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God” (NASB), “the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God” (NIV), or “in the priestly service of the gospel of God” (ESV).

The Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) has this: “But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” Thus, the ministers of the New Covenant were essentially priests and had priestly tasks. Their supreme act was to offer up the Eucharistic sacrifice to God in worship (1 Cor 10:16, 18, 20; 11:26; Heb 13:10, 15). No ministerial priestly function is ascribed to deacons, but there is to apostles, bishops, and elders.

Our Lord Jesus definitively chose and sent his apostles to act like priests or “mediators between God and men.” For instance, after the Resurrection, our Lord appeared to the apostles and said to them: “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so, I send you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained”(Jn 20:21-23). On this occasion, Jesus communicates or transfers the sacred power to forgive and retain sins. The apostles are to do what the Lord has done in his priestly ministry with divine authority. The power or authority Jesus invests in them is the one he has been invested in by God the Father in his humanity (Mt 5:17-26).

Ministering the Sacrament of Reconciliation is a ministerial priestly task rooted in the Old Covenant. For example, ‘ but he shall bring a guilt offering for himself to the Lord, to the door of the tent of meeting, a ram for a guilt offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed; and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him’ (Lev 19:21-22, RSVCE). Therefore, the New Covenant priests’ ordination began with Jesus and the apostles. The Sacrament of Holy Orders was instituted by Christ himself.

The Scriptures reveal that the ordained ministers of the nascent New Covenant Church had a share in Christ’s priestly ministry and authority that originated from the Father. Jesus says he does nothing of his own authority. Likewise, the apostles will do nothing on their own authority but on the same authority that comes from God (Jn 8:28). The Father’s authority is transferred to the Son. The Son does not speak on his own. This is a transfer of divine authority (Jn 12:49). Jesus gives his apostles what the Son has been given from the Father (Jn 16:14-15). The authority isn’t lessened or mitigated. Jesus declares to His apostles, “He who receives you, receives Me, and he who rejects you, rejects Me and the One who sent Me” (Mt 10:1, 40). Jesus gives the apostles the authority to make visible decisions on earth that will be ratified in heaven (Mt 16:19; 18:18). The power to “bind and loose” was given to the priests of the Old Covenant. Jesus tells his apostles that “he who hears you, hears me” (Lk 10:16). When we listen to our bishop on matters of faith and morals, we listen to Christ whom he represents.

The Christian faith is built upon the foundation of the apostles. The word “foundation” shows that the apostolic teaching authority does not die with the apostles but carries on through a physical line of succession (Eph 2:20). As soon as Jesus ascends into heaven, Peter implements apostolic succession. Matthias is ordained with full apostolic authority (Acts 1:15-26). Only the Catholic Church can demonstrate an unbroken apostolic lineage to the apostles in union with Peter through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, thereby claiming to teach with Christ’s authority.

At the outset, one had to be ordained by an apostle to witness with the apostles and teach with the authority of Christ, which our Lord had invested in them (Acts 1:21-23). This apostolic authority is transferred through the imposition of hands and has been extended beyond the original Twelve as the Church has grown (Acts 6:6). Paul himself becomes an ordained minister by the laying on of hands (Acts 9:17-19). The sacrament of ordination is necessary to invest Christ’s authority in the ordinand. The apostles and newly-ordained men appointed elders (Acts 14:23). Preachers of the Gospel must be sent by the bishops in union with the Church with the authority that can be traced back to the apostles (Acts 15:22-27). Paul refers to the Sacrament of Holy Orders when he writes, “God has commissioned certain men and sealed them with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee” (2 Cor 1:21-22).

Paul and the council of elders ordain Timothy (1 Tim 4:14). Again, apostolic authority is transferred through the laying on of hands. And Timothy himself is instructed by Paul on how to properly ordain someone by the imposition of hands (1 Tim 5:22; 2 Tim 1:6). Paul uses the word episkopēs (ἐπισκοπῆς) which means “bishop” and thereby requires an office (1 Tim 3:1). Paul’s use of this Greek word presupposes the office of the bishop shall carry on after his death by those who will succeed him through the sacrament of ordination until Christ returns (Mt 28:18-20).

In Catholic tradition, ordained priests are often referred to as “Father,” a practice that has deep roots in biblical history. Dr. Scott Hahn elaborates on this by discussing the distinction between the patriarchal and Levitical periods of the priesthood as outlined in the Old Testament. The patriarchal period, described in the Book of Genesis, is characterized by a religious framework based on the natural family order, where authority is passed from father to son, often the firstborn, typically through a blessing (as seen in Genesis 27). In contrast, the Levitical period, which begins in the Book of Exodus, introduces a structured priestly class and formalized practices, including the establishment of a temple and prescribed sacrifices. During the patriarchal era, there was no distinct priestly institution; instead, patriarchs served as priests, constructing altars and offering sacrifices at locations and times of their choosing, as referenced in Genesis 4:3-4, 8:20-21, and 12:7-8. This natural empowerment of fathers as priests continues to influence the role of the ordained priests in the Catholic Church today.

Dr. Hahn discusses the significance of vestments in relation to priestly office in biblical history. He highlights the moment when Rebekah dressed Jacob in the garments of his brother Esau, which symbolically represented the transfer of the priestly office (Gen 27:15). This transfer is echoed in the following generation when Jacob gives a “long robe” to his son Joseph, illustrating that fatherhood serves as the foundational basis for priesthood (Gen 37:3-4). Hahn explains that the essence of priesthood is rooted in the role of the father, who embodies spiritual authority and performs religious duties, suggesting that priesthood originally belonged to fathers and their “blessed” sons.

However, as history progressed, the Levitical priesthood evolved into a hereditary office, primarily associated with the cultural elite, resulting in the diminished role of the home as the central place for priesthood and sacrifices. Interestingly, this shift is illustrated in Judges 17:10 where a travelling Levite is invited by Micah to “stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest,” indicating the enduring importance of the fatherly role in spiritual leadership, even within the context of the established priesthood (Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and Their Biblical Roots: Doubleday, 2009).

When Paul said, “I became your father through the gospel,” he referred to himself as a priest. The community of believers in Corinth comprises his sons and daughters and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. Not unlike Paul, his successors in the Catholic Church – through the Sacrament of Holy Orders – are fathers and priests by their role of representing Christ, their spiritual authority, and religious service: the preaching of the gospel and ministration of the sacraments for the family in the house of God which is the Church.

Early Sacred Tradition

St. (Pope) Clement of Rome (A.D. 98)
1st Epistle to the Corinthians, 44:1-2

“Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife
on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as
they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those
[ministers] already mentioned, and afterward gave instructions, that when these
should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry.”

St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. A.D. 110)
Epistle to the Smyraens, 8

“See that ye all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the
presbytery as ye would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the
institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the
bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by
the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall
appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus
Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to
baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also
pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.”

St. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 202)
Stromata, 6:13

“Since, according to my opinion, the grades here in the Church, of bishops,
presbyters, deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory, and of that economyz
which, the Scriptures say, awaits those who, following the footsteps of the apostles,
have lived in the perfection of righteousness according to the Gospel.”

St. Athanasius of Alexandria (c. A.D. 355)
To Dracontius, Epistle 49:2,4

“And before you had received the grace of the episcopate, no one knew you; but
after you became one, the laity expected you to bring them food, namely instruction
from the Scriptures…For if all were of the same mind as your present advisers, how
would you have become a Christian, since there would be no bishops? Or if our
successors are to inherit the state of mind, how will the Churches be able to hold
together?”

St. Hilary of Poitiers (A.D. 359)
On the Trinity

“The Blessed Apostle Paul in laying down the form for appointing a bishop and
creating by his instructions an entirely new type of member of the Church, has
taught us in the following words the sum total of all the virtues perfected in him:
Holding fast the word according to the doctrine of faith that he may be able to
exhort to sound doctrine and to convict gain savers. For there are many unruly
men, vain talkers and deceivers. For in this way he points out that the essentials of
orderliness and morals are only profitable for good service in the priesthood if at
the same time the qualities needful for knowing how to teach and preserve the faith
are not lacking, for a man is not straightway made a good and useful priest by a
merely innocent life or by a mere knowledge of preaching.”

St. Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 388)
On the Morals of the Catholic Church, 69

“There is not, however, such narrowness in the moral excellence of the Catholic
Church as that I should limit my praise of it to the life of those here mentioned.
For how many bishops have I known most excellent and holy men, how many,
presbyters, how many deacons, and ministers of all kinds of the divine sacraments,
whose virtue seems to me more admirable and more worthy of commendation on
account of the greater difficulty of preserving it amidst the manifold varieties of
men, and in this life of turmoil!”

As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you,
as a father doth his children, that ye would walk worthy of God,
who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.
1 Thessalonians 2, 12

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