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Choose a topic from Part 3a:

• The Incarnation
  • 1. Fitness of the Incarnation
  • 2. The Union of the Word and the Flesh
  • 3. The Person Assuming Human Nature
  • 4. The Nature Assumed
  • 5. Elements of the Nature Assumed
  • 6. Order of the Elements Assumed
  • 7. The Grace of Christ as a Man
  • 8. The Grace of Christ as Head of the Church
  • 9. Knowledge in Christ
  • 10. The Beatific Knowledge in Christ
  • 11. Christ's Infused Knowledge
  • 12. Christ's Acquired Knowledge
  • 14. Deficiencies in the Body of Christ
  • 15. Limitations or Deficiencies in Christ's Human Soul
  • 16. Consequences of the Hypostatic Union
  • 17. The Oneness of the Being of Christ
  • 18. The Unity of Will in Christ
  • 19. The Unity of Operation in Christ
  • 20. The Subjection of Christ to God the Father
  • 21. The Prayer of Christ
  • 22. The Priesthood of Christ
  • 23. The Adoption of Sons
  • 24. The Predestination of Christ
  • 25. The Adoration of Christ
  • 26. Christ as Mediator
• Our Blessed Lady
• Our Lord Jesus Christ
• The Sacraments in General
• Baptism
• Confirmation
• The Holy Eucharist
• Penance

22. The Priesthood of Christ

1. It is fitting that Christ be a priest. The office of apriest is to bestow sacred things on the people; to offer theprayers of the people to God; to make, in some manner, satisfactionfor the people's sins. Our Lord exercised this priestly office;hence, he was and is a priest. And fittingly so; the priestlyministry belongs essentially to what Christ came to do. In St. Paul(Heb. 4:14) we read: "Having therefore a great high priest . .. Jesus, the Son of God."

2. Christ was not only a priest in offering sacrifice; hewas the victim offered in the sacrifice. He offered himself byfreely accepting suffering and death to gain us remission of sins,preservation in grace, and union with God. Says St. Paul (Eph.5:2): "Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered himself forus, an oblation and sacrifice to God for an odor ofsweetness."

3. The priesthood of Christ has power to expiate our sins.St. Paul says (Heb. 9:14): "The blood of Christ, who by theHoly Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, shall cleanse ourconscience from dead works to serve the living God." Thepriesthood of Christ produces the two effects needed to expiatesins: (a) it gives the sinner grace to turn to God; (b) it pays thedebt of punishment due to sin.

4. The expiatory sacrifice of Christ the Priest is forothers and not for himself, for he who has no sin needs noexpiation. Hence, our Lord himself does not experience the effectof his priesthood.

5. The end of our Lord's priestly sacrifice is theeverlasting good of those for whom the sacrifice is offered. It isthe eternal bliss of the beatific vision gained for rationalcreatures. And thus the sacrifice is eternal, and the priesthood ofChrist is eternal. Psalm 109:4 says: "Thou are a priestforever, according to the order of Melchisedech."

6. Christ's priesthood is described as "accordingto the order of Melchisedech." Melchisedech lived, and offeredhis sacrifice of bread and wine, before the Old Law wasestablished. The priesthood of the Old Law was a figure of thepriesthood of Christ, but it could not take away sins, nor was iteternal. The priesthood of Melchisedech suggests the preeminence ofthe priesthood of Christ over the priesthood of the Old Law.

"The name of Jesus, pronounced with reverence and affection, has a kind of power to soften the heart. "
St Philip Neri

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"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis

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"O Lord, my God, who will seek you with simple and pure love, and not find that you are all one can desire, for you show yourself first and go out to meet those who seek you? "
St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church

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