Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 92 No. 3, 2022.
Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.92.3.2
The Office of Priest in the Priestly Nation. From the Old Testament to the New Testament Understanding of the Office of Priest
Taras Barščevski
orcid.org/0000-0003-2132-1105
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
To discuss today the office of priest in the priestly nation and, more generally, the priesthood, means to touch upon the very soul of the people of God and to feel the pulse of its heart. The priesthood is not on the margins of the people of God, nor is it just one of the issues that the Church faces today. Within the people of God that Christ our Lord, the High Priest taken from among people, made »a kingdom and priests to God the Father« so that all who are baptised might be consecrated and be able to offer spiritual sacrifices, »the ministerial priest teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people« (LG 10). The issue of priesthood is, in fact, the issue of the identity of the Church, since, in order to carry out the office of kingly priesthood, all baptised need priestly mediation of Christ, who is present and effective through the ministerial priesthood. Consequently, understanding the identity of priest leads to understanding the identity of the Church, and understanding the Church as the Body of Christ and the community of those who are holy is decisive for understanding the New Testament priesthood. The same could be said about the office of priest, which cannot be defined, let alone carried out, outside or without the people in whom and for whom the priest carries out his office. On the basis of the Sinai covenant, the article is, first, analysing privileges of the Chosen People as the »kingdom of priests«, which give it the right to approach God in the name of all peoples; as well as the role of the Old Testament priests whose main role was to »guard« God’s holiness, which presupposes keeping a distance between God and people. In the New Testament, the common priesthood of the faithful is born out of the new covenant in the blood of Christ at the last supper. By giving his body and his blood to his disciples, Christ made them participants in his own life and by commanding them to »do this in memory of him«, he entrusted them with his priesthood, i.e., the power to consecrate and mediate. Priests who receive this office today by laying of hands of a bishop, continue not only the apostolic office of proclaiming the Gospel, the teaching of the Word, and governing of and caring for communities, but also Christ’s priestly sacrifice that they carry out by offering themselves, primarily through their mediating office of unity and consecration of the people of God.
Keywords
Priest; Baptismal priesthood; Ministerial priesthood
Hrčak ID:
295704
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2023.
Visits: 1.277 *