OTHER
CHRISTS





OTHER

by

RICHARD CINDER





OTHER CHRISTS

by

Richard Ginder

I
T is hard to know whether to define the

priesthood in terms of sacrifice and the

altar, or to define the altar and sacrifice

in terms of the priesthood. The ideas are

so closely knit. Where you have a priest-

hood, there is bound to be sacrifice. The

one calls for the other and so insistently

that even our language will not hear of

a non-sacrificing priesthood; the idea

seems to be as self-contradicting as that

of, say, hot ice.

The Jews had sacrifice from the begin-

ning, but when their temple was over-

thrown and their nation dispersed, they

had nowhere and no one to offer an accept-

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able sacrifice, so to this day they have

synagogues and schools in plenty but no

altar; and they have rabbis by thousands,

but no priests. Likewise when the inno-

vators of the sixteenth century destroyed

the altar and banished the Mass, they were

logical enough to realize that their pre-

siding elders were no longer priests. "Par-

sons” they called them, "Ministers of the

Word,” "Preachers,”— anything but
priests.

But we Catholics keep a fast grip on our

ancent priesthood. Priests hid in hedges

and closets, they disguised themselves, they

worked in secret, and still they were fer-

reted out and put on the rack, yet not for

an instant would they deny that they were

priests. Preachers?—^not a bit of it. These
offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Twist the rack! kindle the torch! knot the

rope! these were priests!

Jesus was a priest—the High Priest of
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the New Testament. His whole life was

a sacrifice laid at the feet of His Heavenly

Father. Wlfat priest made the offering?

—

was it Caiphas?—Pilate—the soldier with
the lance? They did not take Christ’s life.

Any power over Him was given them from

on high. Calvary was not murder, much

less suicide; Jesus laid down His life, a

Priest, offering himself as the Victim of

His Love.

"Having therefore a great High Priest

who has passed into the heavens, Jesus

the Son of God, let us hold fast our con-

fession. . . . For Jesus, in the days of His

earthly life, with a loud cry and tears,

offered up prayers and supplications to

Him who was able to save Him from

death, and was heard because of His rev-

erent submission. And He, Son though He

was, learned obedience from the things

that He suffered, and when perfected, He

became to all who obey Him the cause of

eternal salvation, called by God a High

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Priest according to the order of Melchi-

sedech.”i

Jesus, at His coming, absorbed the

priesthood of the Old Law in Himself. He

became, and is, the Archpriest, eminently

pleasing to the Father; so perfect that

until the end of time God will consider no

priesthood, no sacrifice, no teaching other

than that of Jesus.

“Other Christs”

But our Lord, before leaving the earth,

made provision for the continuation of His

powers. He would multiply Himself as

often as necessary, entrusting His own

priesthood to the agency of men, especially

chosen for their zeal and piety; so that

when Catholics speak of their priests as

"Other Christs," it is more than pious

hyperbole.

Catholic priests share in the universal

priesthood of Jesus. They have no power

1. Heb. V. Passim.

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apart from Him. They forgive sins and

consecrate the bread and wine at Mass,

they anoint the sick and bless what is

brought before them, but they are not

using their own powers; they are acting

for Christ. They are the executors of an

inheritance, the administrators of a spirit-

ual treasury.

Do priests offer the Mass? No: say

rather that Jesus offers the sacrifice

through them. He borrows their hands to

raise Himself into the sight of His Father.

He uses their lips in changing the bread

to Himself; He acts through them, yet,

still, it is Christ who acts.

There is one priesthood of the New

Law, and one Priest. Everything goes from

us to God through Jesus and everything

comes to us from God through Him.

There is no prayer that does not end

"through Christ, Our Lord.”Mortal priests

are His vicars. His ambassadors. His min-

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isters, His representatives; but, remember,

it is Qirist at work. It is He who ratifies

the decisions made in His name.

The priesthood, then, implies a certain

power. Jesus, as a priest, was different

from other men. "And no man takes the

honor to himself.”^ It is not for every

Tom, Dick and Harry to appoint himself a

priest. In fact, a self-appointed priest is no

priest at all. The election must be made by

God, and there must be a passing on of

power.

Our Lord established St. Peter as the

head of His Church. That apostle must

have been able to pass on his powers. Sup-

pose some trouble-makers had come clam-

oring to receive the powers of the priest-

hood, and suppose St. Peter had reused

to grant them. That person could clamor

for the rest of his natural days, but his

anxiety would not make him a priest

—

no, not even if he stopped clamoring and

2 . tub. V. 4

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lied and said he had been properly or-

dained, not by St. Peter, but by some other

apostle. But suppose he did go off some-

where, and people believed his lie and

accepted him as a bishop, and he went on

and attempted to ordain priests and

bishops in his new neighborhood. Would

they have power? How could they? All

the good faith in the world will not tie

that man or his dupes in with the powers

of Qirist. Our Lord may be thought of as

a rock, fastening the apostles to Himself,

as so many great staples and they, in their

turn, putting others in touch with the

powers of Qirist by joining them to them-

selves as links in a chain. Always, of

course, there had to be that connection

with Christ, coming through election and

ordination by someone who already had

that apostolic power.

That is only common sense. "Do not lay

hands hastily upon anyone.”^ Why not?

5. I Tim. v. 22

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Because an irresponsible person in the

community with power to forgive sins

could do harm rather than good. And his

power to convert bread into the body of

the Lord might be the occasion of sacri-

lege. But notice that there must be a lay-

ing on of hands by someone in good

standing.

A Self-Sacrificing Priesthood

Catholic priests do not take their divine

commission lightly. They keep the ideal of

sacrifice constantly before their eyes, and

before a man may even touch the body of

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the Church

calls on him to make the great personal

sacrifice of family life in perpetuity. He is

to keep a spotless purity. He is to renounce

pleasures of the flesh, however legitimate,

and the consolations of married life. He

is to vow an everlasting devotion to his

ministry. He is to live henceforth for

Christ. The altar is to occupy the center of

his life, the Church is to be his home.

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“Whosoever offers the sacrifice, must be-

come a sharer in that sacrifice,” says St.

Thomas Aquinas, “because the external

sacrifice which is offered, is the sign of an

interior sacrifice by which one offers him-

self to God.”

Priests are men of gravity. They dress

in black. The Church allows them just

enough salary to keep them in the simple

dignity which becomes their state. Like

their Master, they sanctify themselves that

their people also may be sanctified in

truth.4 Seated in the confessional, they are

living arguments on behalf of virtue, for

no one can sincerely protest the impos-

sibility of continence and sobriety to a

priest.

There is a great difference between the

attitude of the Catholic to his priest and

the non-Catholic to his minister. The non-

Catholic has ordinarily a much more per-

sonalized relationship with the preacher.

4. Jn. XVII, 19

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He tries to know the man personally and

his family. He advises and offers sugges-

tions and criticisms on sermons and the

conduct of the parish. Ask him what

church he goes to and he will probably

answer, "To the Rev. Mr. So-and-so’s

church.” He may have had a voice in the

choosing of his present pastor and the dis-

missal of the previous incumbent.

A Githolic sees the priest first and the

man afterward. To him it does not much

matter whether his pastor or the curate

be a good speaker, or whether he choose

to talk on the Creed or the Command-

ments. The important thing is: "Here is

a priest of God, with the Christ-like power

of offering the Mass and forgiving sins.

That is what matters essentially. This man

has devoted his life to the priesthood. He

has been called by the Lord and has made

personal sacrifices which I, perhaps, would

find most difficult. He has been endued

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with other-worldly power and placed in

charge of this congregation by our bishop.

He is a priest. I raise my hat to him.”

As a man, the priest may not have a

powerful personality; he may not be much

of an administrator. But those things enter

in only casually.

Ruling the Church of God

Can we not summarize this diflFerence in

viewpoints by saying that a priest—and
the whole Catholic Church, for all that

matters—governs with authority?
The Catholic conceives of priestly power

as coming from the top downward. He

believes heart and soul in what he affec-

tionately calls his Holy Mother, the

Church. In that name, he recognizes her

love for him and her deep-rooted concern

in his well being. He concedes that she

gave him spiritual birth and that she will,

in the ordinary course of events, usher him

into eternity. But a mother rules her house-

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hold. She must, if she is to educate and

develop the best in her children. We

know, though, that a mother’s directions

are not despotic. She is not harsh. She does

not expect the impossible, and she gives

far more than she asks.

Catholics love their priests, not so much

this priest or that one, but all priests. They

are proud of them. The priest is their wise

and devoted friend: wise because the

Church sent him through four years of

college and then spent four more years

grounding him in the only true wisdom,

teaching him to evaluate everything in the

light of eternity, giving him facility in

habits of self-sacrifice; devoted—^well, the
Catholic thinks of century after century

during which the priests stayed with their

people, fighting for their rights, guarding

their homes and families, resisting every

aggression. The Catholic thinks of the

catacombs, of the hedge-priests in seven-

14



teenth-century Ireland, of the priests in

disguise, working among their people in

revolutionary Spain and anti-clerical Mex-

ico. The priest fears no one but God, He

is not over awed by wealth or prestige. His

speech will be sincere to the face of a

dictator or grave-digger. And best of all,

the Catholic remembers how, time after

time, he has fallen; and how some priest

has raised him up again and dried his

tears, and dusted his clothes, and given

him fresh hope and strength in the sacra-

ment of forgiveness.

Naturally, a priest with such ideals and

such exalted powers, needs heavenly help.

He could not hope to lead his congrega-

tion in holiness if he had not the special

assistance of our Lord—a help which is
given and pledged forever in the sacra-

ment of holy orders. In the laying on of

hands by a bishop, the aspirant is anchored

fast to Christ. He becomes a link in that

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chain stretching from the apostles across

the ages to our own day. "As the Father

has sent Me, I also send you.”®

He has received his commission; he is

afire with the Gospel of Christ; he is

mighty with the powers of Christ; now he

is able to consecrate and watch over the

body of his Lord, and to fashion and

shape his charges after the pattern of the

great Priest, Jesus Christ.

5. Jn. XX, 22

Published by

THE CATHOLIC INFORMATION SOCIETY

214 West 31st St., New York 1, N. Y.

(opposite PENN TERMINAL)

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