すべてのクリスチャンは司祭です?

Saint Peter wrote, “You are a chosen race, 王室の神権, 神聖な国民, God’s own people” (1 ペット. 2:9). It is true that all Christians share in the priesthood of Christ through Baptism, yet this common priesthood is to be distinguished from the ministerial priesthood. What Peter said to the faithful in the New Testament, 実際には, was also said to Israel in the Old, “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (元. 19:6). Within the priestly nation of Israel, しかし, existed a distinct, ministerial priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. It is the same for God’s people in the New Covenant. We, それも, are a priestly nation; and within our ranks exists a special, sacramental priesthood charged with presiding over the Sacrifice of the Mass, our communal act of worship.

Our view of the Mass as a sacrifice sets Catholics apart from other Christians. At Mass the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is made sacramentally present to us on the altar through the Holy Eucharist. This does not mean Jesus dies again at Mass. Rather we are in effect transported back through time to the very moment of His death so that we might witness and participate in that saving sacrifice.

In the Gospels, the Apostles are given the authority to preside over the Eucharistic celebration. We see this in the account of Christ’s multiplication of the loaves and fish, an Eucharistic metaphor, in which the Lord commands the Apostles to feed the people (マット. 14:16). More directly, at the Last Supper, in the midst of instituting the Eucharist, the Lord commands the Apostles, “Do this in remembrance of me” (ルーク 22:19). The Apostle Paul explained he was calledto be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offerings of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (ROM. 15:16). And elsewhere he wrote, “This is how one should regard us [つまり, 使徒たち], as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries [つまり, 秘跡] of God. … For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Cor. 4:15).

While the term “priest” may not have been widely used by Christians in apostolic times, likely to set their ministers apart from the priests of Israel (参照. ROM. 15:16, その上), there is extensive evidence from the end of the first century forward of the term being applied to those who preside over the Eucharist. Writing in about the year 96 広告。, 例えば, Pope Saint Clement clearly distinguished between the ministerial priesthood and the priesthood of the laity. “The high priest,” 彼が書きました, referring to Christ, “is given his duties: 司祭たち [つまり, bishops] are assigned their special place, while on the Levites [つまり, deacons] particular tasks are imposed. The layman is bound by the layman’s code” (コリント人へのクレメンスの手紙 40:1-5). As a matter of fact, this is the earliest recorded instance of the termlayman.

In about the year 107, 聖イグナチオ, the Bishop of Antioch and a disciple of the Apostle John, 書きました, “Good, それも, are the priests; but the high priest [つまり, キリスト] is better, to whom was entrusted the holy of holies; and to him alone were entrusted the secret things of God” (Letter to the Philadelphians 9:1). He also counseled Christians tofollow the bishop as Jesus Christ did the Father. フォローする, それも, 中会は使徒たちと同じように; そして神の律法と同じように執事たちを尊重しなさい. 誰も司教の承認なしに教会と関係のあることを行ってはなりません. あなたは、司教または司教が認可した誰かによって祝われた聖体は有効であるとみなすべきである。 [つまり, 長老]. 司教がいる場所, そこに会衆を集めましょう, イエス・キリストがどこにいるかのように, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrneans 8).

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