August 20, 2013    Martin Mallon  (Ireland)     Martin's previous articles          

(Comments welcome here)

 

THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

 

Chris Mc Donnell’s article of August 14 asks the topical question will there be a priest shortage in the western world with Mass becoming difficult to attend? One means of insuring that such a situation never arises would be for the Church to see sense and rely on the royal priesthood of the laity as being sufficient to consecrate the host and say Mass as in the first three centuries of the Church.

After all, when Matthias was chosen to replace Judas as an Apostle it was by drawing lots, not ordination. Although he was one of the disciples who qualified as he was

'Out of the men who have been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was living with us, from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us, one must be appointed to serve with us as a witness to his resurrection.' (Acts 1:21-22)

Note that Matthias was with the Apostles the "whole" time that Jesus was living with them; this must surely include the Last Supper, which suggests all disciples were meant by Jesus to be able to celebrate Mass. Of course this is the situation or why else would priests say, at the consecration "he gave it to his DISCIPLES"; if he only gave it to his apostles why did and do they give it to anyone else.

Acts goes on to say that, regarding the first community "Now all the believers lived together….they broke bread in their homes" (Acts 2:44-46) which again demonstrates that it was not just the Apostles who consecrated the host.

What does the first Pope have to say on the matter at hand:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Once you were not a people at all and now you are the People of God; once you were outside the mercy and now you have been given mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

This is one of the few times the New Testament actually mentions "priesthood" and Pope Peter is referring to all of us, the People of God. Alleluia! Where did our institutional church go wrong? Like all institutions it saw a means to power and grabbed it, probably egged on by Constantine as it made it easier for him to control the Roman Empire.

We are "a royal priesthood", we are, as emphasised by the Second Vatican Council, "the People of God". As long as one baptised Christian survives there will be no shortage of royal priests, however, it will take the institutional Church a long time to agree with this argument – turkeys do not vote for Christmas.