All are Priests. Some are Priests. None are Priests

A few years ago, pastoral leaders in this diocese; priests, deacons, and lay pastoral staff, were invited to come together to reflect upon the relationship of priestly leadership to lay pastoral leadership. We heard a very complex theological explanation by a professor from St. John’s University in Minnesota named Susan Wood which I found fascinating and thought provoking but almost everyone else found to be boring and wordy. Then we heard from another speaker named Zeni Fox who everyone else seemed to find enlightening but I felt like she reduced ministry to a hug, used lots of meaningless jargon, and generally oversimplified a complex issue. I had hoped the conversation at my table would help us understand the complexities at hand and come to some common ground but, instead, I found myself assigned to a table with a group of embittered priests and laity who complained about the declining number or priests and admitted to me that they didn’t try to work with the young men in their parish to nourish vocations to the priesthood because they want to “solve” all the church’s problems by forcing the Pope to allow women and married men to be priests. I walked away from the whole day feeling frustrated, angry, and concerned for the future of the church – and no closer to understanding the relationship of lay leaders to the ordained.

So you can imagine my surprise as I was reading over a commentary on today’s scriptures and heard the phrase that seemed to answer this very question. It said, “All are priests, some are priests, none are priests.” Let me repeat that in case you think that I left out a note or two. I said, “All are priests, some are priests, none are priests.” Now, let me explain. The Second Vatican Council rightly emphasized that, through the imposition of the Holy Spirit at baptism, we have all come to share in the priesthood of all believers. By being initiated into the Church of Christ, we are called upon by Christ to lay down our lives to lead a life of holiness. This vocation to holiness was described well in our second reading today. It said we are children of God just like Jesus was a child of God. This childhood is a sharing in the priesthood of Christ in the faith, hope, and love that was given to us in Christ’s triumph over sin and death on the cross. We, in turn, must live lives of faith hope and love in the way we steward our lives. Parents play a special role in this by training their children in the faith. Next week we will remember our mothers who, oftentimes, laid down their lives to raise their children. It’s only appropriate that we thank them for that sacrifice, so don’t forget!

Yet, amidst this general priesthood to which all people are called, there are a group of people that are called to a special priesthood. These priests, to which I have been called, model Christ for the community in a radical way – in their gender and in their undivided devotion to God. This is the priesthood in which Peter was participating in the first reading. He has been filled with the Spirit and is called forth by Jesus himself to be a leader in the Christian community. He was to put a holy order to things so that it was possible for the gospel to spread. His ordering of the holy community tells us that priests are not meant to do everything in a parish, nor are they confined to doing only the sacraments. They are to model Christ by laying down their lives so that they can be the shepherds of a community. That’s why we can’t be like the people at my table at that meeting hoping to coerce a change in the church. We need to pray that God continue to call forth good, holy leaders from among his people and always encourage our young men to be priests.

So, all are called to the priesthood of the faithful in baptism and some are called to priesthood by ordination. But what was I talking about by saying none are priests? The truth of the matter is that Jesus Christ is the only shepherd of his Church, the only priest. It said so in our Gospel today when Jesus said that there will be one flock and one shepherd. If any of us, lay or ordained, begin to believe that we have the authority to make decisions about faith or morals outside of the teaching of the Church of Christ then we have in effect strayed from the fold in an attempt to make ourselves the shepherd. The only true everlasting priesthood is that of Jesus Christ, the good Shepherd. He is the one who appoints certain men to be priests and he is the one who calls us all to the priesthood of all believers. Truly all are priests, some are priests, none are priests.