The Priesthood by a Converted Priest
A common thread that runs
throughout the experiences of former priests is this: we had a great yearning to
be different from those around us. We wanted to be more pure, nearer to God. We
wanted to be free in conscience before God, and we sought the priesthood in
which we thought we could administer salvation stage by stage to our fellow man.
The nobility and charm of the priesthood also drew us, as priests around
us were signally honored with special privileges and dignity. Hearing
confessions, forgiving sins, bringing Christ down upon the altar, the wonder of
being "another Christ", all of these attracted us. In the words of Graham
Greene's novel on the subject, we were drawn by "the power and the glory".
We did not question:
1. That there is an office of sacrificial
priesthood in the New Testament.
2. That the priest's life revolves
around the sacraments.
3. That we were fit subjects to be elevated to
this honor. We had all worked hard at being "holy" so we took for granted that a
right standing with God was something that we could merit.
1. The Office
of the Priesthood
In the early 1970s we who gloried in being priests were
shocked to read the word of one of our best Roman Catholic Scripture scholars,
Raymond E. Brown:
When we move from the Old Testament to the New
Testament, it is striking that while there are pagan priests and Jewish priests
on the scene, no individual Christian is ever specifically identified as a
priest. The Epistle to the Hebrews speaks of the high priesthood of Jesus by
comparing his death and entry into heaven with the actions of the Jewish high
priest who went into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle once a year with a
offering for himself and for the sins of his people (Hebrews 9:6-7).
But
it is noteworthy that the author of Hebrews does not associate the priesthood of
Jesus with the Eucharist or the Last Supper; neither does he suggest that other
Christians are priests in the likeness of Jesus. In fact, the once-for-all
atmosphere that surrounds the priesthood of Jesus in Hebrews 10:12-14, has been
offered as an explanation of why there are no Christian priests in the New
Testament period.1
Later in the same chapter Brown argues for a
priesthood like that of the Levitical class in the Old Testament. He makes his
case for the development of such a doctrine by means of tradition. Even those of
us who knew very little of the Bible knew that the Pharisees counted tradition
superior to the clear Word of God. Brown did more to demolish the conviction
that we were indeed priests than to ease our troubled minds.
Now I see
that what Brown stated in the section quoted is biblically and absolutely true.
Other than the royal priesthood, which applies to all true believers in Christ,
there is no office of priesthood in the New Testament. Rather, as Hebrews states
so clearly of the Old Testament priests, "And they truly were many priests,
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man,
because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:23-25) "Unchangeable
priesthood" means just that in the Greek: aparabatos means "untransferable". The
reason it cannot be transferred to men is that its essence is Christ's own,
..who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than
the heavens" (verse 26).
2. The Priest's Life Revolves around the
Sacraments
The second presupposition was that the Roman Catholic sacraments
gave, as our catechism books said, "outward signs of inward grace". Our mindset,
in the words of Canon 840, was that the sacraments "...contribute in the highest
degree to the establishment, strengthening and manifestation of ecclesiastical
communion".2 In fact, the sacraments themselves were for us the center of
salvation and of sanctification.
For example, regarding confession to a
priest, Canon 960 declared that it was "the only ordinary way by which the
faithful person who is aware of serious sin is reconciled with God". Rather than
proclaiming the finished work of Christ Jesus as the answer to the problem of
our sinful nature and personal sin record, our lives revolved around these
physical signs. Some of us were shocked to read in Dollinger (the most respected
Roman Catholic historian) that the sacrament of penance (confession) was unknown
in the West for 1,100 years and never known in the East.
Dollinger said,
"So again with Penance. What is given as the essential form of the sacrament was
unknown in the Western Church for eleven hundred years, and never known in the
Greek."3 How could this be? The bishops were declared to be high priests "first
and foremost" (Canon 835). Were not we as priests also declared to be dispensers
of the sacramental system? In the light of God's Word, this was magic rather
than the gospel message.
The New Testament has two signs as instituted
by the Lord; yet rather than the two signs, center stage in the Bible is the
proclaimed message. But for us the sacraments themselves were of major
importance. Every day began with Mass. Our doubts regarding the physical
sacraments as central to our life with God began from experience. Many of us,
priests for many years, had baptized countless infants, and had said the words,
"I absolve you," over countless heads. We had anointed many aged, sick and
accident victims with the words, "May the Lord who frees you from sin save you
and raise you up."
Year after year we saw the children we had baptized
as infants grow up as pagan as the pagans on the mission field. The myriads of
people over whose heads we had pronounced absolution came up off their knees as
much sinners after our words as before them. When the sick and the aged were
neither saved nor "raised up", it was then that some of us dared to check the
Bible. Here we discovered: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life" (John 6:63).
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should
boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The verses in Ephesians shocked us most of
all. Our standard definitions of sacraments defined them as "works", as in the
famous Canon 8 of the Council of Trent: "If anyone says that by the sacraments
of the New Law grace is not conferred ex opere operato [from the work worked],
but that faith alone in the divine promise is sufficient to obtain grace, let
him be anathema."4
It was difficult even to begin to doubt the
sacraments. Much of our time was absorbed by these and other physical signs.
During Lent or Holy Week, for example, we had to make arrangements for procuring
and putting in order the newly blessed oils, the Pascal candle, the Pascal fire,
the palms, the ashes from last year's palms, the processional cross, the
thurible with its charcoals and incense, the purple, red and white vestments,
and so on. How could any of us dare to hear the Lord's principle stated so
clearly in John 6:63: "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing."
But hear the words we did, as these testimonies bear witness.
The Father drew us, showing us our own worthlessness and the sufficiency of his
Word. As Jesus said to the Father, "Thy word is truth".(John 17:17).
3.
Unfit Subjects for Honor
The last presupposition was the most deeply rooted
within us. As a child, before ever wanting to become a priest, I had labored at
being "holy". During Lent I would "offer up" candy and sweet drinks to be a
better Catholic. I visited nine churches in one day praying alternately "Our
Father" six times, "Hail Mary" six times and "Glory Be" six times in each
church. Some of us played at being holy by giving white peppermints to our
friends when they would kneel down, as if we were the priest giving communion.
As priests, most of us were very enthusiastic about Vatican Council II.
When the documents were published, some of us preached from them. One of the
most popular documents was "The Church in the Modern World". But when the
excitement had calmed, those of us who studied it saw the same message we had
lived and preached. Paragraph. 14 states, "...Nevertheless man has been wounded
by sin... When he is drawn to think about his real self he turns to those deep
recesses of his being where God who probes the heart awaits him, and where he
himself decides his own destiny in the sight of God." Paragraph. 17 continues,
"Since human freedom has been weakened by sin it is only by the help of God's
grace that man can give his actions their full and proper relationship to God."5
This type of modern teaching seemed very much like the old message. The
old message was also contained in Vatican Council II documents in a less popular
document, No. 6, Indulgentiarum Doctrina, Paragraph. 6 which states: From the
most ancient times in the Church good works were also offered to God for the
salvation of sinners, particularly the works which human weakness finds hard...
Indeed, the prayers and good works of holy people were regarded as of
such great value that it could be asserted that the penitent was washed,
cleansed and redeemed with the help of the entire Christian people."6
All these teachings were endorsed by messages at Lourdes and at Fatima.
That many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and to do penance for
them was part of our third and biggest presupposition. Grace was, of course,
presupposed; but it is you who by means of your suffering and good works merit
salvation for yourself and for others.
This is the net in which all of
us who lived the works gospel so intensely were most deeply entangled by Roman
Catholicism. This two-fold presupposition; that we were somehow holy and right
before a holy God because we had prayed and suffered, and that we would continue
as holy and righteous men to practise our religion, became our biggest undoing.
Mankind's Condition Before The Holy God Christ Jesus describes man's
nature. "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from
within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from
within, and defile the man" (Mark 7:20-23). See also Jeremiah 17:9: "The heart
is deceitful above all things; and desperately wicked; who can know it?
Both Old and New Testaments tell us that we are spiritually dead to God.
Adam's sin brought death (Genesis 2:17). Ezekiel states, "The soul that sinneth,
it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:20) and Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death."
We are not simply "wounded" as Roman Catholics believe. We are spiritually dead.
The Biblical Message of Salvation We find the remedy for this situation
in both Old and New Testaments. The prophet Isaiah declares: "But he was wounded
for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all". Peter and John tell us: "ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition from our fathers; but with the precious blood
of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot". "And he is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world" (I Peter 1:18-19, I John 2:2)
The Bible clearly states that
salvation was Christ's work and his alone: ". . .by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Hebrews 1:3).
Romans
3:26 says that God is "just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus".
One is saved by God's work. Salvation is God's majestic, finished work. Woven
through these testimonies is the same scarlet thread of God's sovereign grace.
Before him, each person is dead in sin. By grace one is saved, through faith.
What the Bible has to say about priesthood becomes crystal clear in
these personal testimonies of men who experienced both the false and the true
priesthood (the priesthood of every believer in the once for all sacrifice of
Christ Jesus).
The best summary of what happened to these men in the
Roman Catholic priesthood is found in the words of Paul in II Corinthians 4:1-2:
"Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint
not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of
the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God."
Richard M. Bennett