THE BISHOP AS THE FULNESS OF THE PRIESTHOOD

NAME: MUOGBO MICHAEL

COURSE: CANON LAW

LECTURER: FR. JOSEPH IYAMA

DATE: 2/12/2019

TOPIC: BISHOP THE FULLNESS OF PRIESTHOOD

INTRODUCTION

The priesthood was instituted by Christ. Every single priest shares in the priesthood of Christ because Christ is the universal divine high priest. At the Last Supper Jesus made known his desire to have the Apostles share in his priesthood, expressed as consecration and mission. This participation became a reality at different moments throughout our Lord’s ministry, which can be thought of a successive steps leading to the institution of Holy Orders: when he calls the apostles and forms them into a college.

 Firstly Christ shared his priesthood with the apostles and consequently to their successors. Every ministerial priest acts and functions not of his own accord but in the person of Christ, in persona Christi. Through the sacrament of Holy Orders a participation in the priesthood of Christ is conferred, stemming from the apostolic succession. However in the church, there are three hierarchies of those in orders. These include the diaconate, presbyterate and the episcopate. The diaconate, the priesthood and the episcopate are intimately related as grades of the one sacrament of Holy Orders, received successively and inclusively. At the same time they are distinguished according to the sacramental reality conferred and their corresponding functions in the Church. Thus the episcopate is the highest rank in the holy orders.

EPISCOPACY AS THE FULLNESS OF PRIESTHOOD

The fullness of the sacrament of holy orders as instituted by Christ is found in the order of Bishop, whose members are successors to the Apostles in a ministry of teaching, sanctification, and leadership. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says “that the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by Episcopal consecration, that fullness namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa) of the sacred ministry.”(LG 21 # 2). The bishop receives the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders, which integrates him into the Episcopal college and makes him the visible head of the particular Church entrusted to him.

According to the theory of apostolic succession held by the Roman, Orthodox, and Anglican Churches, the order of Bishop was instituted in apostolic times; when the apostles appointed successors, they transmitted to them the apostolic authority and priority of rank. These churches claim an unbroken succession of bishops from apostolic times. They consider holy orders a sacrament through which the bishop is endowed with certain sacred powers beyond those enjoyed by the priest.

The episcopate is “the fullness of the sacrament of Orders,” called “in the Church’s liturgical practice and in the language of the Fathers ‘the high priesthood’ or the supreme power of the sacred ministry.” The bishops are the vicars and ambassadors of Christ, which they govern by their counsel, exhortations and example, and over and above all by their authority and sacred power. They are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ. Thus within the episcopate lies the administration of the grace of supreme priesthood. The administration of all three grades of Holy Orders is reserved exclusively to the bishop. The bishops sustain the role of Christ himself. The Episcopal ordination confers the grace to sanctify others, as well as the authority to teach the faithful and to bind their consciences.

“The bishop is to be considered as the high priest of his flock, from whom the life in Christ of his faithful is in some way derived and dependent.” The order of bishops is the fullness of orders, which Christ has given to the apostles, and therefore is properly a rank of the sacrament of orders. The bishop’s commission comes from Christ alone. It is communicated to the bishop through this sacrament, enabling him to be an effective sign of the continuity of the apostolic faith. The bishop makes Christ present through a ministry of service in announcing the word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and caring for the unity of the body of Christ. Only by exercising his ministry as service does the bishop represent Christ as the shepherd and head of the church: ‘That office, however, which the Lord committed to the pastors of his people, is, in the strict sense of the term, a service, which is called very expressively in the sacred scripture a diakonia or ministry (cf. Acts 1:17 and 25; 21:19; Rom 11:13; 1 Tim 1:12)’ (LG 24). The Council teaches that ‘by divine institution the bishops have succeeded to the place of the apostles’ (LG 20). The apostles’ mission continues, according to God’s will, in the ministry of the bishop: the twelve were appointed to join Jesus in preaching the Reign of God (Mark 3:13-19); they shared in Jesus’ power to enable all to become his disciples; and this divine mission, which was committed by Christ to the Apostles, is destined to last until the end of the world (Matt 28:20).

CONCLUSION

The bishop receives the fullness of the priesthood because he is a first hand and direct successor of the apostles who received the commission directly from Christ himself. In the Bishop lies the fullness of the grace, power and authority of the priesthood and instituted by Christ without any form of limitations. They are the vicars and ambassadors of Christ; within the episcopate lies the administration of the grace of supreme priesthood. The administration of all three grades of Holy Orders is reserved exclusively to the bishop. They sustain the role of Christ himself.