The Priesthood of Christ

It is fitting that Christ be a priest. The office of a priest is to bestow sacred things on the people; to offer the prayers of the people to God; to make, in some manner, satisfaction for 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.”

Christ was not only a priest in offering sacrifice; hewas the victim offered in the sacrifice. He offered himself by freely 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 of sweetness.”

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

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

The end of our Lord’s priestly sacrifice is the everlasting good of those for whom the sacrifice is offered. It isthe eternal bliss of the beatific vision gained for rational creatures. And thus the sacrifice is eternal, and the priesthood of Christ is eternal. Psalm 109:4 says: “Thou are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech.”

Christ’s priesthood is described as “accordingto the order of Melchisedech.” Melchisedech lived, and offered his sacrifice of bread and wine, before the Old Law was established. The priesthood of the Old Law was a figure of the priesthood of Christ, but it could not take away sins, nor was it eternal. The priesthood of Melchisedech suggests the preeminence ofthe priesthood of Christ over the priesthood of the Old Law.