31 May 2007
Patristic Quote of the Day
It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered. --St. John Chrysostom, prod. Jud. 1:6 (cited in par. 1375 CCC)
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2 comments:
Don't underestimate the import of that little phrase "The priest, in the role of Christ", Pastor. Indeed it is the power of the Word of Christ, and Christ alone who "makes" the sacrament, but the priest is the one who--there and then--IS Christ, speaking these Words. Who or what makes him "in persona Christi"? How did he come to be in this role? Who authorised him? Could just anyone speak these words, or only "the priest, in the role of Christ"?
David,
It is a VERY important phrase. If I could shift the language to current Lutheran terms to answer, the pastor acts in the person of Christ by virtue of his call and ordination. The call comes to him from God through the Church and the ordination takes place through his fellow-presbyters laying their hands on him as the "comprabatio" of his call.
Thus, and only thus, is he authorized to stand before the congregation and chant the verba in the person of Christ. The Lutheran Symbols thus also say, here speaking also of unworthy priests:
"Because of the call of the Church, the unworthy still represent the person of Christ and do not represent their own persons, as Christ testifies, The one who hears you hears me. When they offer God's Word, when they offer the Sacrament, they offer them in the stead and place of Christ." Apology VII/VIII:28
Luther himself once described this reality in these beautiful words, but which further mention the connection between the pastor's speaking, Christ's speaking, and the whole church:
For, God be praised, in our churches we can show a Christian a true Christian mass according to the true intention of Christ and the church. There our pastor, bishop, or minister in the pastoral office, rightly and honorably and publicly called, having been previously consecrated, anointed, and born in baptism as a priest of Christ, without regard to the private chrism, goes before the altar. Publicly and plainly he sings what Christ has ordained and instituted in the Lord's Supper. He takes the bread and wine, gives thanks, distributes and gives them to the rest of us who are there and want to receive them, on the strength of the words of Christ: "This is my body, this is my blood. Do this," etc. Particularly we who want to receive the sacrament kneel beside, behind, and around him, man, woman, young, old, master, servant, wife, maid, parents and children, even as God brings us together there, all of us true, holy priests, sanctified by Christ's blood, anointed by the Holy Spirit, and consecrated in baptism. On the basis of this our inborn, hereditary priestly honor and attire we who are present, have, as Rev. 4 pictures it, our golden crowns on our heads, harps and golden censors in our hands; and we let our pastor say what Christ has ordained, not for himself as though it were for his person, but he is the mouth for all of us and we all speak the words with him from the heart and in faith, directed to the Lamb of God who is present for us and among us, and who according to his ordinance nourishes us with his body and blood. This is our mass. AE 38:208ff.
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