4th Sunday of Easter

Today has become an opportunity for the Church to focus on priestly vocations with "Good Shepherd Sunday." I think it is important that we not only pray for more priests but also ensure we have an adequate understanding of who they are. This is because so often in New Zealand we absorb any number of wrong ideas about priesthood from the media or Protestant churches whose understanding of ministry is radically different. The starting point has to be that we are all "priestly" through our baptism. All of us have been incorporated in Christ - priest, prophet and king. However, this priesthood is exercised in different modes. The ordained priest acts in persona Christi capitis - in the person of the Christ the Head. This is an ontological, ie. to do with being, change brought about through the laying on of hands whereby a man is conformed to act as Christ the Good Shepherd so as to use his baptismal gifts in a different way. He is no longer oriented in his Christian life towards the world but towards the well being primarily of the Church through the provision of the sacraments. This is not a functional distinction, it relates to the whole person. Vatican II puts it this way: "Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ. The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, 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. But the faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join in the offering of the Eucharist. They likewise exercise that priesthood in receiving the sacraments, in prayer and thanksgiving, in the witness of a holy life, and by self-denial and active charity." (Lumen Gentium, 10) The priest therefore is not a "boss," "manager" or "administrator" rather he is a special presence of Christ, in the midst of the people, called to serve as Christ the Good Shepherd served.