facit, excepta ordinatione Episcopus quod presbyter non faciat.[1]
It is of faith that the Episcopate is the state of perfection instituted by Jesus Christ. It is certain also that the priesthood is included in that state. Whatsoever is true of the priesthood in itself is true both of Bishop and of priest. And in this we see why at first the names were for a while common and interchanged. The injunctions of Christian perfection given by S. Paul to Timothy and to Titus were given to Bishop and to presbyter or priest alike.[2] And the whole book of S. John Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio, expressly applies equally to both.
S. Thomas says that priests partake of the priesthood of our Divine Lord, and that they are configured or conformed to Him. Let us therefore weigh the words priesthood, participation, and configuration, as here used.
1. What, then, is the priesthood of the Incarnate Son?[3] It is the office He assumed for the redemption of the world by the oblation of Himself in the vestment of our manhood. He
- ↑ S. Hieron. Epist. ci. ad Evangelum, tom. iv. p. 803.
- ↑ Theodoret in Ep. ad Phil. i. 1.
- ↑ "Proprie officium sacerdotis est esse mediatorem inter Deum et populum, iuquantuni scilicet divina populo tradit.—Summa S. Thomæ, P. iii. q. xxii. a. 1.
"Et ideo ipse Christus, inquantum homo, non solum fuit sacerdos, sed etiam hostia perfecta, simul existens hostia pro peccato, et hostia pacifica, et holocaustum."—Ibid. a. 2.
