New Testament authors tell us that Jesus commanded (and therefore empowered) the Twelve to celebrate the Eucharist (Lk 22.19; 1 Cor 11.24f), to forgive sins (Jn 20.23), and to baptize (Mt 18.19), but they do not say that these tasks were entrusted exclusively to the apostles, or that Christ instituted a special rite by which certain individuals are to be consecrated and empowered to carry out these tasks. For these reasons, it is impossible to prove from the New Testament alone, without the Tradition of the Church, that Christ instituted the sacrament of Holy Orders.
We can say that since apostolic times, the Church, enlightened by the Holy Ghost and following the pattern received from the beginning, has set aside chosen members of the community to exercise roles of leadership and pastoral ministry in the community, by imposing hands on them and praying that they be assisted by the grace of the Holy Ghost. The Church of the patristic period firmly believed that through this gesture and prayer those ordained to the episcopacy, presbyterate, and diaconate, received gifts of the Holy Ghost to carry on their ministry, as Saint Paul's words imply. Since only Christ can make an infallible connection between sacred rite and conferral of grace, medieval theologians understood that this rite must have been instituted by Christ.
In Christ,
Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching
No comments:
Post a Comment