Today, 06:49 AM
PART SECOND.
XVIII. How the Priest is the Mediator between God and Men.
— Often have Protestant ministers, in the footsteps of Rousseau and Voltaire, taunted the Catholic priests for stepping between God and man, and intercepting the communications between the Creator and the creature. The reproach would have some foundation had the priest assumed so much without a mission, as, in fact, ministers do. The priest does not usurp, but he fulfils a duty and asserts a right, in obedience to Him who has sent them forth to preach the true religion, to fight error, to sanctify and save souls, to reconcile the sinner, to dispense among the faithful the mysteries of God.
Again: the priests, the ministers of the Church, do not intercept communications between Jesus Christ and the Christian souls, no more than He intercepted, in his lifetime, communications between the Divinity and the world. On the contrary, God spoke to men through the Humanity of Christ, and taught them and blessed them; and that humanity was the means divinely instituted to establish religion. That is the bond that unites man to God.
Now, the mystery of the Church on earth being the continuation and extension of the mystery of the incarnation, it is no wonder if Jesus Christ, having ascended to heaven, and being invisible in his glory, still employs "humanity" to finish his work.
He exerts his power through his apostles; he is everything in his priests, who are nothing without him. Through the Pope he governs and infallibly teaches his Church; through the bishops and priests he is the pastor of souls; and when Protestants charge the Church with an usurpation of God's rights, they only exhibit a total ignorance of the mystery of salvation.
XVIII. How the Priest is the Mediator between God and Men.
— Often have Protestant ministers, in the footsteps of Rousseau and Voltaire, taunted the Catholic priests for stepping between God and man, and intercepting the communications between the Creator and the creature. The reproach would have some foundation had the priest assumed so much without a mission, as, in fact, ministers do. The priest does not usurp, but he fulfils a duty and asserts a right, in obedience to Him who has sent them forth to preach the true religion, to fight error, to sanctify and save souls, to reconcile the sinner, to dispense among the faithful the mysteries of God.
Again: the priests, the ministers of the Church, do not intercept communications between Jesus Christ and the Christian souls, no more than He intercepted, in his lifetime, communications between the Divinity and the world. On the contrary, God spoke to men through the Humanity of Christ, and taught them and blessed them; and that humanity was the means divinely instituted to establish religion. That is the bond that unites man to God.
Now, the mystery of the Church on earth being the continuation and extension of the mystery of the incarnation, it is no wonder if Jesus Christ, having ascended to heaven, and being invisible in his glory, still employs "humanity" to finish his work.
He exerts his power through his apostles; he is everything in his priests, who are nothing without him. Through the Pope he governs and infallibly teaches his Church; through the bishops and priests he is the pastor of souls; and when Protestants charge the Church with an usurpation of God's rights, they only exhibit a total ignorance of the mystery of salvation.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre