THE ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD.
CHAPTER I.
THE NATURE OF PRIESTHOOD.
"Forasmuch as no act can be more excellent than the consecration of the Body of Christ, there can be no order after (i.e. higher than) the priesthood."[1] "No act is greater than the consecration of the Body of Christ."[2] "The Bishop and the priest are equal in respect to the consecration of the Holy Eucharist." S. John Chrysostom founds the sanctity of the priesthood, which, in Bishop and priest, is all one, upon the twofold jurisdiction over the natural and the mystical Body of Christ—that is, upon the power of consecration and upon the power of absolution.[3]
It is of divine faith that our Lord ordained the Apostles to be priests when by the words hoc facite
- ↑ Albertus M. in lib. iv. Sent. dist. xxiv. art. 30.
- ↑ S Thom. Summa Theol. lib. iii. in Suppl. q. 40, a. 4, 5.
- ↑ De Sacerdotio, lib. iii. 4, 5.
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