SACRAMENT OF THE PRIESTHOOD
I want to thank Archbishop Henry D’Souza and Fr. R.H.
Lesser for their stand on the objectivity of the Sacrament of Priesthood. The
sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ, which does not mean he stood on the
mountain top and shouted “I hereby solemnly institute the sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Marriage, Priesthood....” Jesus had more wisdom than that, precisely
because he, good leader that he was, knew that his followers could be trusted to
use their developmental skills in the course of their ministry down the ages to
discover that here there is an action of Christ (sacrament) in a specific venue
of human existence. It is true that originally heads of families “broke bread”,
but as the Christian community expanded exponentially, it became necessary to
recruit personnel specially trained to break the Word before breaking the
Bread, and care for the community. Thus, they became the new “heads of
families.” Hence, arose the “order” of the priesthood. This is putting it
sketchily. The adoption of the trappings of “power” may well be reversed in the
future generations when the institutional will cede more and more to the
personal. It is happening already. Some of the readers of THE HERALD will be
surprised to learn that it took the teaching Church 12 (twelve) centuries to
realise that Marriage is a Sacrament! (And it wasn’t same-sex marriage!) So why
not let the common man’s perception of evolution and the theologians’
perception of doctrinal development (recall Bl. J.H. Newman) be allowed freedom
of the Spirit? If we didn’t believe in
human evolution, we would still be treating one another as orangutangs (I hope
I’m evolved enough to spell correctly), and in politics the divine right of
kings would not have evolved into the constitutional monarchy and elected
presidents. So why not give the Church (which is not even a million days old) a
developmental chance and steadily work towards a servant community turned
outwards as the sign of salvation to the whole world? And who knows, a simple
act of charity (“a cup of water to the least...”) may well be officially recognised
as an action of Christ (sacrament for you)?
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