The Priest is Christ in your midst, who daily offers His one-time sacrifice. If you are to be saved you must unite yourself to Him. Christ forever lives to intercede for us and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated daily on Altars throughout the world is this 'Intercession'. Just as Christ said, 'without Me you can do nothing', these words are equally true of the Priest in our midst, who is at the head of the Church. Without the Priest we can do nothing for he is Christ in our midst and he has the marks to show it albeit in his soul, which is symbolically expressed in and by his ecclesiastical attire, which worn faithfully serves as a reminder to himself and the world around him of his consecration. The Priest does a favor to the world by faithfully wearing the visible sign of his invisible consecration so as to preserve himself and others from treating his consecration as something 'common'. So it is more about others then himself when wearing the collar. It is also a gratitude shown to God in th sense that one who sees a man with a collar is less likely to profane what God has consecrated to Himself just as one is less likely to pass in front of the Divine Presence of Christ in the Tabernacle without genuflecting when the vigil light is lit then if it weren't.
The Lord has set the Priest apart in a specific way and he should be treated accordingly. The wearing of the collar is also a respect offered to God in prayerful remembrance of the Incarnation of Christ, who took on Himself a human nature so that He could express in a human way the Truth of His Divinity such that would respect our human manner of learning. For as St. Thomas Aquinas says, 'we are led by means of sense perceptible realities to higher spiritual realities.'
Who can see the spirit of a man or his soul, no one with eyes of the body at least? So is it not reasonable and even a matter of justice that if I have a divine gift in my soul, namely, conformity to Christ the Priest and Lord from whom comes the life of the Church that I should bear some sign such that others may know that I carry such life.
The Priest is a visible sign of an invisible invitation. At all times we must possess a fearful familiarity with our Priests because worldly familiarity breeds contempt, which sooner or later proves to be the hand that slapped our Blessed Lord as he stood before Caiaphas during His trial. Christ is our brother, that is true but only because as Lord He chose to associate us with Himself. We injure ourselves when we lessen the Lordship of Christ in an attempt to emphasize Him as our brother. For if Christ is only our brother then He is no better then us and if that is the case anyone of us could have paid the ultimate price of our salvation.
The historical significance of Calvary is not our salvation if we understand its significance as something we intellectually lassoe through faith some twenty centuries later. Rather the historical significance of Calvary becomes significant for us by virtue of its eternal significance. The historical significance of Calvary acknowledges the eternal significance of Calvary, because it is not bound to the limits of time. It is this eternal significance, which is perpetuated in the Holy Mass that enables all people of every period in history to work out their salvation with fear and trembling albeit in an unbloody manner according to the Sacramental will of God.
This eternal significance is perpetuated because Christ has mirrored Himself, His very Self in the souls of those men whom He has called to Himself so as to continue His saving mission.
The branch cannot bear fruit without the vine so accordingly the People of God should look upon their Priest as the Vine to which they must cling if they wish to bear fruit. Any branch that seeks to warp the Vine will sooner or later, in this life or the next will be pruned or severed completely each respectively.
Has the Priest been set apart? Yes, but you will say, 'so are the lay faithful and the consecrated brothers and sisters'. To this I will say, yes you are right but each in their proper place. Christ is in the gathered assembly but the gathered assembly is not Christ. Yet the Priest does not cease to be the presence of Christ after the Sacred Liturgy is celebrated and the gathered assembly have disassembled. The presence of Christ in the Priest is Christ as Lord, the One who initiates and makes salvation possible. Christ in the gathered assembly is present drawing them closer to Himself in holiness. Christ in the Priest is present accomplishing this holiness by making the means of our holiness possible.
The Baptized receive two ontological hugs; the Priest, however, receives three. The third is so that Christ can make Himself present to His Bride as 'Head and Shepherd of the sheep'.
Christ is truly present in all of the Sacraments but the Eucharist alone is His substantial Presence, and this as the Priest exposes His own heart on the Altar for the Priest is not incidental to the Eucharist just as a man cannot live without a heart. “By One Sacrifice He 'has forever' perfected those who 'are being' sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14
The Priest must be a man of the Eucharist in a most special way for the Eucharist is the very lifeblood that flows through his Priestly viens, which carry to his heart the life that will enlarge his sacrifical love for the People of God. There must be or come to be an intimate link between the Priest and Sacrifice. For a Priest is a Priest primarily because He is called to off sacrifice. Understood apart from sacrifice his Priesthood becomes simply functional. For Christ, the Priest offered His own Body and Blood, His very Self. He did not offer something or someone outside of Himself. The same is true of the Priest, he must see tha in offering the Holy Eucharist he is in some real sense offering Himself in so far as he is configured to Christ through sacramental ordination. As another 'Christ' he offers himself to the Father by offering the Body and Blood of Christ for the Body and Blood of Christ become the Sacramental manifestation of his Sacramental character. Since the character received is that of Christ then the sacramental manifestation of this character must be the Body and Blood of Christ. It is also dogmatically attested that this sacred sacramental character of Christ is ontologically imprinted upon the soul of the Priest and not merely a label. As a result the Priest who offers the Holy Sacrifice is in some real sense offering himself for he is offering Christ whose Persona has been indelibly imprinted upon him. The Sacraments were instituted by Christ the Priest and so all the Sacraments come about in the life of the Church through the Sacramental Character of Christ in the soul of the Priest. In other words, the sacraments come from the sacramental character of the Priest, which is the Sacred Heart of Christ imprinted upon the soul of the Priest.
The Priest should also enjoy an intimacy with the Almighty Father unlike that of anyone else. Why, you may ask, aren't we all God's sons and daughters through Baptism? The answer flows from the closeness existing between the identity of the Priest and Christ the wholly unique Son of God. The Priestly soul reflects in a unique way the Christ, who is the unique Son.
The Priest stands before the Almighty Father as His son different then do the Baptized, who stand before Him as sons and daughters of God by grace. Even though it is by grace that the Priest can call God, Father, it is with the grace of Christ as unique Son that he calls Him, Father. This should fill the Priest with a special confidence in regard to the prayers and petitions he offers in the name of sinners as well as the profound need to live a spotless life on account of the undeserved dignity that has been given him. This conformity to Christ which is given him as a heavenly gift demands an obedience on the part of the Priest; an obedience deserving the giving of his life even in death.
It should be said of the Priest that he spent long hours in prayer offering up tears and supplications for others as well as himself. The Priest should be a man well versed in virtue, and not merely in speaking about their number and defintion.
The Priest while being no better then any other person must never dismiss the uniquely special grace indelibly marked upon his soul, which of itself deserves special attention and veneration. If he will not accept such attention and veneration for his own sake he must recall that to dismiss such attention and veneration is not so much to be an act of humility on his part as it is to be a denial of veneration for Christ, whose Persona he now has by virtue of the grace of Sacred Orders. The Priest must also proceed cautiously when in attempting to blend in with other non-ordained members of the faithful he may in fact deter or discourage others from giving Christ the veneration and attention that is His by right albeit in the soul of the Priest. It would be like the doors of the Tabernacle saying, 'leave me alone for my doors are no better then are the doors of the Church,' and while that may be true it does not dismiss the unique Presence of Christ whom they enclose.
The Priest who genuflects before the Holy Eucharist is like one who genuflects to his own heart or like one who picks his heart up off the ground and dusts it off. The Priest who stands reverently at the Altar is like the doctor who performs heart surgery upon his Bride to be.
The Priest who wears beautiful Vestments clothes Christ well. Just as one preparing for heart surgery would not place themselves in to the hands of just anyone so too should be the Sacred Vessels in which the Priest will see reflected back at him His own Body and Blood. You would choose the best hands to handle your heart surgery, choose the best of Sacred Vessels to handle your Sacramental LifeBlood.
The Priest who will not preach the Truth of the Gospel cannot have a real devotion to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. How can a Priest bring himself to gaze upon the fruit of the Holy Sacrifice present in the Tabernacle if he is not willing to make the same sacrifice in the pulpit.
The Priest who abhors silence and interior silence is neglectful of his own pulse. Interior silence is the trumpet that proclaims the voice of Divine Love. The Priest who seldom visits our Eucharistic Lord can be said to be a nomad. The Priest who hurries through the Holy Mass is like the teenager who wishes its youth away with the false belief that something better lies beyond. If Christ established a hierarchical Church who are we that we would seek to frustrate that? Are we not knitting our own noose? Have we forgotten the words of Christ, 'he who does not gather with Me scatters.'
The Priest, who in praying the Eucharistic prayer is seen looking at the assembly needs to be reminded that it is impolite not to look at the Person to whom you are speaking, namely, the Almighty Father. The Priest, who sits down so that a Lay person may distribute our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist is like the woman after having given birth who says to someone else, 'I bore it now someone else can raise it'.
The Priest is the guardian of the Incarnation. The Priest who truly loves the Sacraments loves the Church for the Church is nothing without them. She is born of them and sustained because of them and it is through them that her hope is secured. Christ, as St. Paul tells us, 'gave himself up for her (the Bride), so as to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless'. Ephesians 5:25-27 The Sacraments therefore are in the most reverental sense the supernatural anti-aging cream that preserves the face of the Bride of Christ. The Priest therefore, who loves the sacraments loves the Bride of Christ and if he loves the Bride of Christ he loves Christ who gave Himself up for her and finally if he loves Christ who gave Himself up for her he will love the Holy Priesthood through which Christ cares for His Bride as the Beloved Bridegroom.
The Priest who trivializes sin is accusing Divine Love of being over-sensitive. The Priest who trivializes sin is in essence seeking to fill the wounds of Christ with putty as if to say, 'sin doesn't merit a Cross, a Cross which would forge crimson upon Personified Innocence'.
Christ says, 'it is My sacrifice that I offer to the Father, which you must unite yourselves to if you would be saved. And yet as you unite yourself to My sacrifice remember that it never ceases to be My sacrifice, which I of My own free will have made so that you by clinging to it may be saved. Remember this Truth also when you prayerfully gather with My 'other-self' – the ordained Priest through whom I perpetuate My Self-Emptying Love upon the Cross. In uniting yourself to the Ministerial Priest remember that as 'another Christ' in your presence it is he who accomplishes the Sacrifice that saves you for I extend Myself to you through him. Treat him not as common, for I Myself am not common but Holy, Holy, Holy!
What I have accomplished in his soul is not a label that can easily be removed when you disagree with him for telling you the harsh Truth you need to hear for your soul's salvation or even when he is seen to fall from grace as sometimes happens when he fails to 'keep watch and pray'. Christ says, 'I am not cheap as to set in your midst a mere copy of the real thing. Didn't I say, 'I am with you to the end of the age?' Did you think that I was joking with you, or did you think that I would be present to you merely in your ability to call to mind my words and presence as you would recall a phone number which you have memorized? In the Priest's soul I have imprinted Myself. Not even all the sin in the world can erase this imprint. What hurts Me so is when My 'other-Self' is separated from Me for all eternity in Hell. Even there the imprint of Myself can be seen thereby intensifying the agony of the damned soul of a Priest. The soul of a damned Priest has no where to hide from Me for I am imprinted in his very soul. The most cursed of all, you could say is the soul of a Priest who has damned himself to Hell. Next in line would be the souls of consecrated brothers and sisters, then all Christians who have been Baptized and then finally all who have rejected My offer of salvation.
The Priest who offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass poorly, irreverently, hurriedly or neglectful of the Church's precepts and guidelines hurt Me with the most bitter betrayal. On the day of judgement I will speak the following words to the Priest, who does not respent of such atrocieties against My Sacred Death, “If an enemy had reviled Me, that I could bear. If My foe had viewed Me with contempt, from that I could hide. But it was you, My other-Self, My comrade and friend, you, whose company I enjoyed, at whose side I walked in procession in the house of God.” Psalm 55
The Priest, who learns to be bored only when he is not in My Eucharitic Presence I will grant an eternal dwelling in My pierced side.
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