The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-10-18
THE PRIESTHOOD AND ITS FUNCTIONS

and authority. "All power is given
Me in heaven and on earth" Now
the sacred helps that Jesus Christ
knew to be necessary for the saliva
tion of souls were equally required for
all men until the end of time. Hence,
| it was necessary that either He Him.
self should stay on earth to apply
these helps to the souls of men, or
that He should appoint others to
apply them for Him, in His name and
by His authority He chose the latter
course, and from among His disciples
He selected twelve whom He called
Apostles, and to them He gave the
self-same sacred powers which He had
received from His Eternal Father for
| the salvation of the souls of men. In
a word, He instituted His priesthood
The Priest is Another Christ.
A priest, as the word has been un-
derstood from the beginning by all
people, is a mysterious, sacred, in
violable being, separated from the
rest of mankind by the sublime char
acter of his functions, consecrated by
a heavenly amounting, offering salu-
tary sacrifice to God for the expiation
of sin, and drawing from his function
of offering sacrifice, supreme au-
thority over the rest of mankind,
whom he teaches and guides in the
way of salvation. Such was the priest
before the coming of Christ. And as
Christ was represented in His priest
hood before His coming, so also is
He represented in His priesthood after
His coming. AS the human paternity
reminds us of the Divine paternity !;
as the office of king among men shad-
ows forth the sovereignty of God;
as the idea of sacrifice is explained
by sin and expiation; so does the
priesthood of the Catholic Church, in
a far more perfect manner, represent
Jesus Christ, the Goldman, as He is
known and adored by the whole OF
Christendom. The priest is in truth
and in deed an "Alter Christus'
another Christ He is priest of the
priesthood of Jesus. The sacrifice he
offers is the Lord of Hosts. The vic
tim He immolates is the Immaculate
: God. Christ, as priest, offered Him
self upon the Cross for the salvation
of the souls of men, and His desire
is that He be offered by His Apostles
and their lawful successors in the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Power to Consecrate.
: In sorder ito give His priests the
power of saying Mass our Lord Jesus
Christ died. To redeem the world i
: was not necessary that He shoulC
die. A single drop of His sacret
g blood, single tear, a single prayel
5 of His would have suff1ced; but il
!. order to establish His priesthood, al
e He established it, our blessed Lore
2 must die. He wished to leave to th'
priests of His holy religion a fittin!
S sacrifice; He wished to leave them ;
: victim pure, holy, undef1led, worthy 0
God and in the entire universe NJ
victim could be found so worthy a.
Himself On the night before Hi
r dreadful passion, He instituted th
sacrifice Ol HIS OWu DOuy dhu DAOON
e and also His priesthood when HI
said, do this in commemoration o
l Me-" All earthly works taken to
: gether are not equal in value to on
S Sacrifice of the Mass, because the,
e are the works of men, whereas, tn
}. Holy Mass is the work of God. Evel
: martyrdom is nothing compared to il
d for martyrdom is only the sacriflc
a that man makes of his life to God
t but the Mass is the sacrifice that Co
!, makes of His Body and Blood TO
t man. In this Sacrifice there is notf
d ing to be seen but the Infinite. TIL
t High-Priest is God, the victim is Goo
The Eternal, Omnipotent God, il
l. Whose presence the pillars of heave
|, tremble; that God before Whom tn
n world and all that dwells thereon
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