In an analogy that might be drawn up between the life of the soul and social life, Holy Orders would correspond to the various grades of government that are necessary for the well-being of the nation. This sacrament is simply to constitute the hierarchy of priests and bishops, by which Christ our Lord desired His Church to be ruled. Since, then, these were to receive certain powers that were proper to them alone, it was obvious that some sort of cere monious consecration had to be adopted that this special and exclusive gift might be recognized as accurately bestowed. Below the priests are a whole series of lesser ecclesiastical persons deacons, subdeacons, the four minor orders, and the tonsured clerk; but it is the traditional teaching of the Church that those only receive the grace of the sacrament who have been ordained to the diaconate, the priesthood, or the episcopate. Here, again, we have, as in Baptism and Confirmation, the conferring on the soul of a special character, which cannot be repeated for the simple reason that it has no need to be repeated, for the power once conferred remains efficacious for life. Once ordained there is no need for the service to be repeated, but, morning by morning, Mass can be offered, sins forgiven, the living strengthened for their long last journey. Once a priest, then a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec. However unworthy or unideal, a consecrated minister of God must remain sacred in his office to my eyes. Nothing can ever remove him from his position which he holds in the sight of all heaven, a priest for ever.
My attitude to the priest must therefore always exhibit a consciousness that he stands for something more than merely the official representative of the Church. He has received in an especial way the anointing that, in the words of Saint Paul, makes him the mediator (because the continuator of the work of Christ through the power of Christ) between God and man. He offers to God the things of the people, and to the people the things of God. I have, therefore, to put out of my mind his particular personality or want of it, to forget his social position and my own, and to consider him as the repre sentative of God in the things that appertain to the altar. Obviously there will be many things that I shall dislike in his methods and ideals, but where the altar is considered he is to be treated with the respect that is due to his sacred office. It does not matter who he is, it should be enough for me that he is a priest. In this way it is obvious that the Catholic places the priest on a higher post of advantage than do other religious worshippers; yet, on the other hand. Catholics value less than any other the particular gifts of the individual. For them it hardly matters who is saying Mass, for it is the Mass itself that they go to hear. At the Benediction service it is again our Lord, not His minister, that concerns those present. Hence for us less than in any religion, the priest does not stand between the soul and God, but is an instrument; as water is the instrument of Baptism, whereby the union of God and man is made effective. Respect, then, for the office of the priesthood is the first lesson that we learn from the sacrament of Holy Orders.
But not respect only should be shown to him, but a willing ness to help him in any way that seems to offer. Of course, there are members of the laity who are already too inclined to interfere in the priestly work, just as there are priests who seem determined to stifle every effort of the laity, and who look upon lay-work in a parish as though it was something heterodox. Apart, however, from these extreme cases, it will obviously be of the utmost importance for a priest to have members of his congregation on whom he can rely for the more effective administration of it. There are sure to be clubs for boys, or clubs for working girls, which need the constant attendance of their secretaries and helpers; there are the altar societies, etc.: above all, there is the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, which may have an untold effect in any congregation. It supple ments the work of the priest by being more regular in its visits than he can well afford time to give; it can continue cases which he has once begun, or even begin the visiting of families or individuals where the priest might at first have a difficulty in finding an entrance. Zeal, then, is the other requirement that the priest has a right to look for from us. Says Lacordaire: "The priest is a man anointed by tradition to shed blood, not as the soldier through carnage, not as the magistrate through justice, but as Jesus Christ through love. The priest is a man of sacrifice; by it each day announcing to every soul the primordial truths of life, of death, and resurrection, and by it each day reconciling heaven and earth." It is the Mass that makes the priest possible, the confessional that makes him necessary; but without a laity who have at heart the welfare of their fellow Catholics, who are filled with reverence for his office and zeal for his better accomplishing of it, his time may be reduced to utter distraction. I must realize my duties, examine my past, and make a resolution to offer my services.
- text taken from Meditations for Layfolk by Father Bede Jarrett, O.P.