CHAPTER III
The Life of Priests
Article 12. In discussing the title of the decree it has already been stressed that in forming a notion of
the office of the priest it is important first to think of his ministry and only then of his life. It was
affrmed that the office of the priesthood would be viewed primarily in terms of its function and not of
its status. A consequence of this is that the priest's whole life his spiritual life, his spirituality, his
relationship to the world, to things and to men - must be decisively defined and stamped by his
ministry, his function, his mandate and mission. The purpose and content of chapter 3 of the decree is
to demonstrate precisely these things. First of all the priest's spiritual life in general is discussed (1214), then some of the particular human and religious demands that the office brings with it (15-17),
and finally the helps and means that are available or are required for his spiritual life, for his continuing
formation and for his material sustenance (18-21).
Article 12 is built up as follows. By way of introduction, the special obligation of the priest to strive for
perfection is explained; then comes the first definition of the peculiarity of his road to sanctification
and of the specific nature of his spirituality. The central idea of this article is the special union that
must exist between the presbyter and Christ the High Priest, and hence between the presby ter and
Christ's mission, destiny and redemptive work extending through time. For the non-theologian, the
statement: “By the sacrament of orders priests are configured to Christ the Priest”, requires further
explication. The configuration here mentioned is ascribed by theological tradition, especially since St.
Thomas, to the character of orders, understood as a supernatural quality physically inhering in the
soul-more exactly, as a spiritual potency to undertake the performance of divine worship. Quite apart
from the implied restriction of the priestly ministry to the liturgy, the man of today finds it hard to use
concepts taken from the material order to describe processes and conditions in a personal spirit. lt is
time, therefore, for us to translate the undoubtedly profound speculation of high scholasticism into
personal categories, as has been successfully attempted some time ago with the tractate on grace. If
this is not done, what is really meant will no longer be understood and will be rejected as nonsensical.
The further statement, that priests are bound by a special claim, since they have been consecrated to
God in a new way by the reception of orders. They have become living instruments of Christ the eternal
priest, so that through the ages they can accomplish his wonderful work", likewise requires more
precise explication; for the priest's state of consecration has very commonly been misunderstood in
the past, and for many the priest is, purely and simply, the consecrated man. What, by contrast, is the
true meaning of the statement?
As the citation of Jn 10:36 in the following section implies, "being consecrated" means first of all being
set apart" for the special priestly ministry.! By irrevocably calling a man to such a ministry, God sets
him apart, lays his hand upon him, claims him for himself and for his work, so that theone who is called
and commissioned has to put himself, as an instrument, at God's (Christ's) disposal. In this sense he is
consecrated to God. At the same time, this being consecrated means that God grants the one called
and set apart his authority and grace to perform the ministry laid upon him. He in clines in love towards
him, gives him his Spirit. This is precisely what is meant in biblical-patristic tradition when it speaks of
the anointing of the priest with the messianic-prophetic Spirit, or when the more sober language of
theology speaks of the grace of the sacrament, which confers upon the priest the power to place his
whole life in the service of Christ and enables him to perform "the priestly service of the gospel of
God" (Rom 15:16). But the call and the consecration of the priest are rooted in the fundamental call
of the Christian to faith and in the consecration of baptism, which are unsurpassable and than which,
in the objective order, there is no higher gradation a fact which in no way denies the special dignity of
the sacramental priesthood, and even less calls in question the increase in justifying grace.
All special calls and consecrations are already embraced within this fundamental call, and represent
merely the articulation and unfolding of this fundamental vocation and fundamental consecration for
the one service of Jesus Christ in the various dimensions of ecclesio-charismatic life. The decree draws
attention to the connection between the consecration of baptism and that of the priest, although
unfortunately it adverts one-sidedly to the perfection contained in the two vocations and not to the
call to minıstry (as would have been in harmony with the tenor of the decree). This emphasıs could
mislead us into separating perfection from ministry. The concluding sentence of the first section does,
however, obviate this misunderstanding by saying that it is precisely the ministry taken up by the priest
as commissioner and representative of Christ, which gives him the opportunity to imitate Christ better.
It is unfair to the psychological make-up of the priest of today to stress so strongly (as this article does)
that the priest is under obligation to strive for the perfection of Christ in a special way ("To the
acquisition of this perfection priests are bound by a special claim, since they have been consecrated
to God in a new way by the reception of orders"), for today the priest feels the burden of his own
imperfection far more acutely than did the priest of former days. ?
The second section explains more precisely wherein the perfection, that is determined by this ministry
of representing Christ, consists. It consists in nothing other than the dedication of the priest's whole
life to the service of mankind, in the style of Christ who gave himself for us. In order to express
adequately the “Passion" that is necessarily attached to such a dedication, that is, to define the
characteristic quality of the priest's mortificatio, as a striving and suffering with Christ the High Priest,
the text makes the general statement: Priests mortify in themselves the deeds of the flesh." Such
asceticism, however, is not specifically that of the priesthood. It would have been more appropriate,
therefore, to have said something like this. "For the sake of total dedication to the service of men,
they mortify all private desires and plans for their own lives." The allusion to Eph 4:13 in the last
sentence of this section is hardly apposite, for in all probability this passage is not saying “that we, the
members of the body of Christ become the perfect man (vopz rEheov, virum perfectum, Vg), but that
we, through the movement towards unity in faith and knowledge, arrive at Christ the Head". Nonetheless, this passage, like other passages in this article, correctly emphasizes that the sanctity of the
priest - like that of every Christian is primarily a gift of grace, a fruit of the holiness of Christ, whose
Spirit "vivifies and leads them". The frst precondition of his sanctity is, therefore, that he keep his eyes
fixed on Christ, that he remain in union with him, being "docile to the impulse and guidance of the
Holy Spirit". As the third section in particular argues, where thís happens there is an interaction
between "the ministry Of the Spirit and of justice" (cf. 2 Cor 3:8 f.) and sanctity. (The allusion is to the
priest of the new covenant as a servant of the Spirit and of the righteousness of grace, in contrast to
the mechanical ministry of the Old Testament.) This is what makes apostolic work fruitful, while the
priestly ministry in its entire scope is "directed towards perfection of life'".
The concluding paragraph once again emphasizes the critical importance of holy priests for the
spiritual renewal of the Church, aimed at by the Council. This is undoubtedly justifed in essence, but,
in the weariness and crisis of faith which not a few priests are experiencing during the post-conciliar
development of the Church, the constant admonition to strive for "that greater sanctity" does not
always exert a beneficial psychological effect.
Article 13. The idea, already expressed in general terms in Article 12, that the way of sanctification
peculiar to the priest lies in the perfect fulfilment of his priestly ministry, is now thematically developed
in terms of the three offces.
In respect of the teaching or preaching office, the frst section is dictated by the re-discovery of holy
Scripture and the present high esteem accorded to the word of God. The opening words of this section
echo the opening words of the Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation, but they make use of the term
"ministers of God's Word" popularly used by Protestants to describe their clergy, and hitherto suspect
in Catholic circles. Holy Scripture alone is explicitly named as the source of preaching. This does not,
it is true, exclude the theological and spiritual tradition of the Church, but allows it to recede into the
background. In this way the decree becomes clearly distinguished from all that has been officially
published to the pastoral clergy in the recent past on the subject of preaching. In this the article merely
draws the conclusions implicit in the statement of the Decree on Priestly Formation, that holy Scripture
"ought to be the soul of all theology'", Two requirements are now put forward in respect of the
sanctification of the priest through study and preaching of the word of God.
1. The priest must prayerfully make the word of God in holy Scripture his own.
2. His preaching must not be mere instruction, but must be a spiritual word. The first requirement
asks for the re-discovery of the "prayerful theology" so often inculcated in recent years. For this, daily
Scripture reading and constant recourse to fresh scripture study are indispensable. At the same time
we must consider how the word of Scripture is to be translated into the concepts and mentality of the
man of today, with his experience of the modern world, his diffculties and doubts in matters of faith.
In carrying out this translation we must take care as the decree points out not to push into the forefront
our own