Day 122: Christ’s Faithful (871-879)

• It’s Day 122!!

• Today we start PARAGRAPH 4: CHRIST’S FAITHFUL-HIERARCHY, LAITY, CONSECRATED LIFE

• What makes up the Body of Christ?

• There is a STRUCTURE there and there are certain ROLES within the Church

• We will also look at THE HIERARCHICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH

• WHY THE ECCLESIAL MINISTRY?

• Ecclesial means CHURCH

• Why is there ministry in the Church?

• HIERARCHY means sacred structure that comes from the Lord God Himself

• Jesus essentially sets up a structure when he calls the 12 to Himself

• In the Old Testament there is a very clear structure when it comes to the hierarchy of the leaders of the Jewish People

• We say RULERS and LEADERS and that is true

• We have to understand what is the character of these rulers and leaders

• The first character is SERVICE

• For all Christians, but particularly those in ecclesial ministry

• Jesus became a slave for ALL

• So all those who lead in the Church do that as a SERVANT and as a SLAVE in imitation of Christ 

• The second is COLLEGIAL CHARACTER

• This refers to the bishops who do not operate ON THEIR OWN

• They operate IN UNION WITH EACH OTHER and IN UNION WITH THE POPE

• Same thing with priests

• Priests do not act on their own

• There is a collegiality among the PRESBYTERATE (priesthood) united to the EPISCOPATE (the bishops)

• The third is PERSONAL CHARACTER

• When God calls, He doesn’t call HEY Y’ALL!!

• HE CALLS YOU!!

• YOU come follow me

• There is a personal character to Christ’s call

• That is the reality when it comes to the call of all the Christian faithful, those in the hierarchy, and those consecrated people

• Let’s turn to our Lord today!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Jesus Christ, bring us to your Father. You make access to your Father real. You make access to your Father possible. We ask that you please bring us, bring our hearts, bring our minds, bring our lives, bring our bodies, bring our whole entire selves to your Father, into our Father. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Lord God, please accept us. Receive us. And let us let you love us. Pour out your Spirit upon us so that we can be more and more like you, Jesus. We make this prayer in your name, Lord Jesus, to the Glory of the Father in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!

• Paragraph 871 says, “‘The Christian faithful are those who, inasmuch as they have been incorporated in Christ through Baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world, in accord with the condition proper to each one.’”

• When we are incorporated into the Body of Christ we are ANOINTED in a unique way as little Christs

• PRIESTLY

• PROPHETIC

• ROYAL ROLE

• That is the IDENTITY of a Christian

• Because of that, every Christian is going to be called to EXERCISE THAT MISSION

• THAT IS INCREDIBLE!!

• Paragraph 872 says, “‘In virtue of their rebirth in Christ there exists among all Christian faithful a true equality with regard to dignity and the activity whereby all cooperate in the building up of the Body of Christ in accord with each one’s own condition and function.’”

• St. Paul says, “In Christ there is no Jew, no Greek, no slave, no free, no male, no female…”

• ALL ARE ONE IN CHRIST!!

• This is EQUALITY IN DIGNITY

• It’s not the same thing as equality in roles

• There are still different roles

• For example fathers and mothers in a family are equal in DIGNITY

• BUT…

• They do not have the same ROLE

• They may do SOME of the same things

• In some ways only a father can father

• Only a mother can mother

• They both can cook supper

• They both can take care of sick kids

• BUT…

• There is a way in which the CHARACTER of this is accomplished in a DIFFERENT WAY

• Hopefully that analogy made sense

• Paragraph 873 says, “The very differences which the Lord has willed to put between the members of his body serve its unity and mission.”

• There is a DIVERSITY of ministries but a UNITY of mission

• THAT IS SO INCREDIBLE!!

• Paragraph 873 continues, “‘To the apostles and their successors Christ has entrusted the office of teaching, sanctifying, and governing in his name and by his power. But the laity are made to share in the priestly, prophetical, and kingly office of Chist; they have therefore, in the Church and in the world, their own assignment in the mission of the whole People of God.’”

• There is a hierarchy

• There is a structure to the bishops and priests

• There is a unique role

• BUT…

• ALL the Christian faithful SHARE in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office and they have THEIR OWN ROLE in the Church and in the world

• These are not LESSER roles

• They are not GREATER roles

• They are DIFFERENT roles

• This already existed in the Early Church

• St. Paul says, “The eye cannot say to the foot or the ear, I don’t need you.”

• WE ALL NEED EACH OTHER!!

• The whole body is constituted in such a way that we all need each other

• WHY THE ECCLESIAL MINISTRY?

• Paragraph 874 says, “In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase its numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good of the whole body.”

• Why does the hierarchy exist?

• TO SERVE THE WHOLE BODY!!

• AND…

• TO CONTINUE THE MISSION OF JESUS CHRIST!!

• Why?

• Paragraph 875 says, “‘How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent?’ No one-no individual and no community-can proclaim the Gospel to himself: ‘Faith comes from what is heard.’ No one can give himself the mandate and the mission to proclaim the Gospel…No one can bestow grace upon himself; it must be given and offered. This fact presupposes ministers of grace, authorized and empowered by Christ. From him, bishops and priests receive that mission and faculty (‘the sacred power’) to act in persona Christi Capitis…”

• WE HAVE TO BE SENT AS EMISSARIES OF JESUS!!

• IT IS SO REMARKABLE!!

• Paragraph 875 continues, “The ministry in which Christ’s emissaries do and give by God’s grace and what they cannot do and give by their own powers, is called a ‘sacrament’ by the Church’s tradition.”

• THAT IS SO REMARKABLE!!

• THAT IS INCREDIBLE!!

• Paragraph 878 says, “Finally, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a personal character.”

• “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

• “This is MY body…”

• “This is MY blood…”

• “I absolve you…”

• Because of God’s grace through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, when Fr. Mike says that, he is not speaking as Mike Schmitz

• He is speaking IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST

• IN PERSONA CHRISTI CAPITIS

• IN THE PERSON OF CHRIST THE HEAD

• That is the PERSONAL CHARACTER where Jesus does something that Fr. Mike could not do ON HIS OWN

• THAT IS SO HUMBLING!!

• IT IS SO REMARKABLE!!

• Priests and bishops operate the same way

• What they give to you is something they could not give on their own no matter how good, wise, loving, or caring that they are

• Because of the Sacrament of Holy Orders!!

• They have received what they could not merit and did not give to themselves

• BUT…

• God, through the Church, has given it to them

• They are able to offer, through God’s Power, what they can not offer on their own power

• The DEEPEST nature of this ecclesial ministry is its character as SERVICE

• Jesus said, “I did not come to be served, but to serve.”

• He gave His life as a ransom for many

• So all those bishops and priests who lead MUST LEAD AS SERVANTS

• They lead TOGETHER

• That is the COLLEGIAL CHARACTER

• NO ONE ACTS ON THEIR OWN!!

• They all act in communion with each other

• This preserves UNITY

• This preserves THE FAITH

• There is also that PERSONAL CHARACTER

• Jesus calls each individual one by one

• So any of those people listening to this who are maybe even discerning a call to the religious life, to the priesthood, to the diaconate

• Fr. Mike invites you to KEEP PRAYING ON THAT

• The Lord calls all of us to belong to Him and serve Him as Christians

• God also calls some men to be priests and deacons (You know who you are out there 😁)

• He also calls some women and men to be consecrated religious

• SO KEEP THAT IN MIND!!

• Paragraph 879 says, “Sacramental ministry in the Church, then, is a service exercised in the name of Christ. It has a personal character and a collegial form. This is evidenced by the bonds between the episcopal college and its head, the successor of St. Peter, and in the relationship between the bishop’s pastoral responsibility for his particular church and the common solicitude of the episcopal college for the universal church.”

• So your local bishop is responsible for his diocese

• At the same time…

• The whole episcopal college together are very conscientious of the need for the whole world to be sanctified

• For the whole world to be made holy

• For the whole world to come to know the great love of God through Jesus Christ

• That’s why we have the Catechism

• The bishops got together with the Holy Father

• There is this sense of the Church needing an updated teaching

• The people have changed

• The teaching has not

• BUT…

• The teaching has to be presented in a new way

• And that is why we are here

• There have been leaders in the Church who have served

• In serving, they have called us to learn more and grow deeper in knowledge of the Lord God and His Church on earth

• That is what we are doing right now!!

• So good job!!

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!