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← The Imitation of Christ/Book 4 · On the Blessed Sacrament
Chapter 5Imit.4.5

De dignitate Sacramenti, et statu Sacerdotali.

The Weight of the Sacrament

No human merit, even angelic purity, suffices to receive or handle Christ's Sacrament.

Even if you had the purity of an angel and the holiness of Saint John the Baptist, you still wouldn't be worthy to receive or handle this Sacrament. This isn't something human merit can earn — that a person should consecrate and handle the Sacrament of Christ and take the bread of Angels as food.✦1

The Dignity of the Priestly Office

Priests are granted a unique and sublime power to consecrate Christ's Body, acting as God's ministers under His authority.

Great is the mystery and great the dignity of priests, to whom has been given what was not granted to Angels. For only priests, properly ordained in the Church, have the power to celebrate and to consecrate the Body of Christ. The priest is indeed a minister of God, using God's word by God's command and institution. But God is there as the principal author and invisible worker, to whom everything He has willed is subject, and who obeys everything He has commanded.2

Approach with Fear and Reverence

Trust in God rather than in one's own senses, and approach this great work with fear and reverence.

So you ought to place greater trust in almighty God in this most excellent Sacrament than in your own senses or in any other visible sign. This work must be approached with fear and reverence.

The Priest's Sacred Obligation

The priest is called to faithful celebration, blameless life, stricter holiness, and conversation with the Angels.

Pay attention, then, and recognize the ministry entrusted to you through the laying on of the Bishop's hands. See, you have been made a priest and consecrated to celebrate: see to it that you offer sacrifice to God faithfully and devoutly at the proper time, and that you present yourself blameless. You have not lightened your burden; you are now bound by a stricter discipline and held to a greater perfection of holiness. A priest ought to be adorned with every virtue and to give others an example of a good life. His conversation is not with ordinary people, but with the Angels in heaven or with the perfect on earth.

Clothed in the Cross

The priest bears the Cross before and behind him, following Christ's footsteps and enduring hardships for His sake.

The priest, clothed in sacred garments, bears the place of Christ, so that he may humbly and suppliantly entreat God on his own behalf and on behalf of all his people: he carries the sign of the Lord's Cross before him and behind him, to remember continually the passion of Christ. Before him he carries the Cross on his chasuble, so that he may diligently look upon the footsteps of Christ and strive to follow them frequently. Behind him he is marked with the cross, so that whatever hardships are inflicted by others he may mercifully endure for God's sake.

Mediator Between God and Sinners

The priest mourns his own sins, weeps for others, and perseveres in prayer and offering until grace is obtained.

He bears the Cross before him, so that he may mourn his own sins; behind him, so that he may also weep with compassion over the sins committed by others, and know that he is placed as an intermediary between God and the sinner — and let him not grow slack in prayer or in the holy offering until he deserves to obtain grace and mercy.3 When the priest celebrates, he honors God, gladdens the angels, builds up the Church, helps the living, provides rest for the dead, and makes himself a partaker of all good things.

Read the original Latin

Si haberes angelicam puritatem, et sancti Johannis Baptistæ sanctitatem, non esses dignus hoc Sacramentum accipere nec tractare. Non hoc meritis debetur hominum, quod homo consecret et tractet Christi sacramentum et sumat in cibum panem Angelorum. Grande mysterium et magna dignitas Sacerdotum, quibus datum est, quod Angelis non est concessum. Soli namque Sacerdotes in Ecclesia rite ordinati potestatem habent celebrandi et Corpus Christi consecrandi. Sacerdos quidem minister Dei est, utens verbo Dei per jussionem et institutionem Dei. Deus autem ibi est principalis auctor, et invisibilis operator, cui subest omne quod voluerit, et paret omne quod jusserit.

Plus ergo credere debes Deo omnipotenti in hoc excellentissimo Sacramento, quam proprio sensui aut alteri signo visibili. Ideoque cum timore et reverentia ad hoc opus est accedendum. Attende igitur et vide cujus ministerium tibi traditum est per impositionem manus Episcopi. Ecce Sacerdos factus es, et ad celebrandum consecratus: vide nunc ut fideliter et devote in suo tempore Deo sacrificum offeras, et teipsum irreprehensibilem exhibeas. Non alleviasti onus tuum, sed arctiori jam alligatus es vinculo disciplinæ, et ad majorem teneris perfectionem sanctitatis. Sacerdos debet esse omnibus virtutibus ornatus, et aliis bonæ vitæ exemplum præbere. Ejus conversatio non cum popularibus hominibus, sed cum Angelis in cælo, aut cum perfectis viris in terra.

Sacerdos sacris vestibus indutus Christi vices gerit, ut Deum pro se et pro omni populo suo suppliciter et humiliter roget: habet ante se et post se Dominicæ Crucis signum ad memorandam jugiter Christi passionem. Ante se Crucem in casula portat, ut Christi vestigia diligenter inspiciat, et sequi frequenter studeat. Post se cruce signatus est, ut adversa quælibet illata ab aliis clementer pro Deo toleret. Ante se Crucem gerit, ut propria peccata lugeat; post se, ut aliorum etiam commissa per compassionem defleat, et se medium inter Deum et peccatorem constitutum esse sciat, nec ab oratione, nec ab oblatione sancta torpescat, donec gratiam et misericordiam impetrare mereatur. Quando Sacerdos celebrat, honorat Deum, Angelos lætificat, Ecclesiam ædificat, vivos adjuvat, defunctis requiem præstat, et sese omnium bonorum participem efficit.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.78.24-Ps.78.25 — He rained down manna for them to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven. Ps.78.25 — Man ate the bread of the mighty; provisions he sent them to the full.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Panis Angelorum (bread of Angels) is a traditional devotional title for the Eucharist, echoing Psalm 78:25 (Vulgate).
  2. 2 ↩The final clause (paret omne quod jusserit) is paradoxical: God 'obeys' what He has commanded in the sense that His will is accomplished without resistance. The Latin plays on the asymmetry between divine command and divine action.
  3. 3 ↩Medium (intermediary) reflects the priest's mediatorial role between God and sinner, not a spatial sense.