Called to a More Perfect Charity

Essentially, all the baptized have the same dignity as Christians: we are all heirs of heaven, children of God, brothers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is because of the same grace which the Lord Jesus Christ gained through His singular passion, death and resurrection that all of us share in the same dignity and inheritance. We all possess the same Holy Spirit who inspires us to proclaim the Gospel of the Lord to all mankind in various manners and occasions. 

Most of us Christians are called to live the Gospel message in the world, that is, in the ordinary cycle of human life and through the various aspects of social and communal interaction. However there are among us those who have responded to a more perfect calling or vocation. They responded to and live the call to a more perfect following in the footsteps of the Lord and in a way, seem to have "left" the world and entered into a more intimate communion and relationship with God. 

Calling to the Ministerial Priesthood

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Being baptized, we all share the three-fold office of the Lord Jesus Christ: the priestly, prophetic and kingly offices. We are called Kingdom of Priests - in the words of St Peter: a royal priesthood. The Second Vatican Council recognizes this fact and states in Presbyterorum Ordinis that,

'The Lord Jesus, "whom the Father has sent into the world" (Jn 10:36) has made his whole Mystical Body a sharer in the anointing of the Spirit with which he himself is anointed. In him all the faithful are made a holy and royal priesthood; they offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ, and they proclaim the perfections of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light. Therefore, there is no member who does not have a part in the mission of the whole Body; but each one ought to hallow Jesus in his heart, and in the spirit of prophecy bear witness to Jesus.' [Presbyterorum Ordinis, Chapter I, Number 1].

However, the same documents also acknowledges that aside from the royal or common priesthood that all the baptized share, there is also that other priesthood which the Lord has established for the purpose of uniting all into one body, in these words,

"The same Lord, however, has established ministers among his faithful to unite them together in one body in which, "not all the members have the same function" (Rom 12:4). These ministers in the society of the faithful are able by the sacred power of orders to offer sacrifice and to forgive sins, and they perform their priestly office publicly for men in the name of Christ. Therefore, having sent the apostles just as he himself been sent by the Father, Christ, through the apostles themselves, made their successors, the bishops, sharers in his consecration and mission. The office of their ministry has been handed down, in a lesser degree indeed, to the priests. Established in the order of the priesthood they can be co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission entrusted to priests by Christ.

"The office of priests, since it is connected with the episcopal order, also, in its own degree, shares the authority by which Christ builds up, sanctifies and rules his Body. Wherefore the priesthood, while indeed it presupposes the sacraments of Christian initiation, is conferred by that special sacrament; through it priests, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are signed with a special character and are conformed to Christ the Priest in such a way that they can act in the person of Christ the Head." [Presbyterorum Ordinis, Chapter I, Number 1].

   

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Calling to the Religious Life

Furthermore, though every Christian is called to live a life of perfection or holiness, there are among us who are called to leave the "world" and enter into a more intimate relationship and more perfect communion with the Triune God through the practice of the so-called evangelical counsels and which they have accepted as religious vows: poverty, chastity and obedience. Some of their religious families - called order or congregation - have added another vow in accordance with their respective charisms, or inspirations from the Holy Spirit. More importantly, they are the ones who responded more concretely to that call to "leave behind families and follow the Lord in a more perfect way."  

The Vatican II document, Perfectae Caritatis, states,

"Indeed from the very beginning of the Church men and women have set about following Christ with greater freedom and imitating Him more closely through the practice of the evangelical counsels, each in his own way leading a life dedicated to God. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, lived as hermits or founded religious families, which the Church gladly welcomed and approved by her authority. So it is that in accordance with the Divine Plan a wonderful variety of religious communities has grown up which has made it easier for the Church not only to be equipped for every good work (cf. 2 Tim 3:17) and ready for the work of the ministry-the building up of the Body of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:12)-but also to appear adorned with the various gifts of her children like a spouse adorned for her husband (cf. Apoc. 21:2) and for the manifold Wisdom of God to be revealed through her (cf. Eph. 3:10)." [Perfectae Caritatis, 1].

Indeed, the Church is fully alive and truly animated by various works, apostolates and inspirations. The Church has so much room for everyone, not only as individual persons, but as persons with individual charisms and vocations. Our purpose here is to discuss and practice the proper manner of our relationship with our brethren who have heard, responded and lived the call to a more perfect following of the Lord through the priestly and religious life. Though we are all called to live a truly perfect or holy life, they have chosen to respond more concretely to particular consecrations which we ought to honor and respect in accordance with the will of God and the apportionment of the various works, apostolates and charisms in the Church.

To be continued