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Priest: A Christian, A Mystic
By Akpan, Anthony
.M. OP
Thomas Merton and Karl Rahner
shared the conviction that if Christians are to be effective witnesses to the
Gospel in the twenty first century and beyond, they must be at once mystical
and political.
(The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, edited
by Michael Glazier and Monika K. Hellwig).
A Catholic priest is a Christian and
a mystic. He is a Christian because he is a follower of Christ and more so,
because he is Christ’s other, alter
Christus. He is a mystic because his life is a sacrament of the immanence
of God; a God who is inside and outside, within and without his creation; a God
who is also transcendent. This mysticism is indicative of that spiritual
permutation which explains how such a mighty God writes straight with the crooked lines of our lives,
especially, the life of a priest. It is little wonder, he is a high priest
taken from among human beings and appointed to act on their behalf in
relationships with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can
sympathize with those who are ignorant or have gone astray, because he too is
subject to the limitation of weakness (Cf. Heb 5:1-2). The mysticism we here
refer to is not much of an extraordinary phenomenon characterized by stigmata,
visions, levitations locutions, raptures etc. Of these, there are special
cases. It is not something so esoteric and far removed from our day to day
living. We speak of a mysticism that underlies the action of God’s grace in the
life of a Christian; in the life of a priest. It is the life of grace; a life
in Christ (Cf. Rom 6). It is that life of constant renewal unto God (Cf.
Col.3:1-4, Eph. 1:3-10). It is the living relationship between the Christian
and the Trinity; a life of union with the Father and the Son in the Holy
Spirit. It is eternal life. It is a life of consciousness of the spiritual and
the divine. It is a mysticism characteristic of a life consciously lived in the
presence of God. It is a life of grace lived in the community of grace – the
Church. This grace is properly communicated in and through the sacraments.
The sacraments
have their efficacy from the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. By His
incarnation, passion, death and resurrection, Christ opened the flood gates of
God’s grace to men. This grace is for our recreation unto God, thus, our divinization, the immediate corollary of
Christ’s humanization. This recreation; divinization; deification is a
process caused by, and under the influence of God. It is what the Very Reverend
John Arintero OP, calls “the Mystical
Evolution.” It is what St. Thomas Aquinas best captures in his exitus-reditus schema: coming from God-
returning to God. This entire process of deification by the power of grace
communicated through the sacraments is the mysticism we refer to.
In a special
way, the Christian is journeying back to God aided by Him. In this regard, the
sacraments are truly outward signs of
inward grace. In this journey, there is yet another sacrament of God’s
presence with His people, the priesthood. By his ministry, a priest is a
reminder to the faithful that God is uniting
all things in Christ (Cf. Eph 1:10). The life and ministry of a priest is
an eloquent testimony to this great reality. By administering the sacraments,
he takes part in a ministry that at once transforms him and the one upon whom
the sacrament is administered. In the sacrament of baptism, for instance, he
cooperates with God to make mystics of men; for by baptism, eternal life begins in the recipient (incohatio vitae aeternae). Through
baptism, a Christian is introduced into the community of grace, the mystical
body of Christ. In the sacrament of reconciliation, a priest, in persona Christi, performs the
fourfold duty of father, judge, healer
and teacher. By administering this sacrament a priest bears testimony to
the truth that the evolution of a Christian is also a constant metanoia: change of heart/ conversion.
The sacrament of reconciliation is at its best at the service of the Eucharist,
the source and summit of the Christian life, the kpim (highest point) of Christian initiation. In celebrating the
Eucharist, a priest, in persona Christi,
offers Christ as food to the faithful. When we eat this food, we become like
Christ fully aware that the risen Christ
is exemplar as well as agent of the true humanity God intended for human beings
from the start (Brendan Byrne SJ).
The Eucharist is a testament to the real presence of Christ. By this sacrament
the evolution of a Christian is presented as a configuration unto Christ;
a reconstitution in Christ, so too are the other sacraments.
At the heart of
the administration of these sacraments and being a sacrament of God’s presence
in the Church is the ministry and identity of a priest. This honour is given to
him. He does not take it upon himself (Cf. Heb 5:4). It is a gift of grace. And
to this gift, there is a task. The task consists in being that mystic he is:
always conscious of God’s presence. It also consists in loving the celebration
of the sacrament and receiving them too, especially, the sacrament of
reconciliation; for reconciliation is essential to the evolution of every
Christian, insofar as they are frail humans. More so, he has a task to announce
God’s presence to God’s people by words and actions. The Christian has to be
made to understand that the sacraments are outward expressions of their renewal
and regeneration. He has always to make the faithful know that they are
becoming like Christ, provided they cooperate with God’s grace and avoid sin.
He has to make known to Christians that they are mystics and that this mysticism involves a constant renewal
unto God; a reconstitution unto Christ, through the same Christ in the Holy
Spirit.
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