Our People

Priest as Servant

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
11/2/2007

In 1995 the Congregation for the Clergy organised an International Symposium on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Conciliar Degree, Presbyterium Ordinis. At this symposium our current Holy Father was asked to speak. He entitled his talk, “Life and Ministry of Priests”. He began his paper by returning to the time of the Council and discussed what was a key area of debate surrounding the decree on priests.

He said,

Two conceptions of the priesthood were in confrontation: a social functional vision which defined the nature of the priesthood as a service to the community in the fulfilment of a function at the service of the social body of the Church. The ontological-sacramental vision which, while not denying the service character of the priesthood, saw it anchored in the existence of the ministry, an existence that was determined by a gift, called a sacrament and granted to him by the Lord through the Church. A shift of terminology accompanied the functional vision. One avoided using the words "priest" or "priestly" on account of the sacral meaning; in its place one used the neutral-functional term "minister" which at the moment had almost no importance in Catholic theology. [1]

Cardinal Ratzinger continues in his presentation to say that the two concepts do not have to be in opposition to one another, but can complement one another. He turns to the thought of the great Latin Theologian, Augustine.

St Augustine used the concept of a priest being a servant of God (servus dei) or servant of Christ (servus Christi). The scriptural inspiration can be found in the hymn to Christ in Philippines where Christ is described as “taking on the form of a servant”. [2] Thus, as Christ was servant so a priest could depict himself using the same image.

I would like to consider this approach to understanding the nature of priesthood.

A servant is one who is in a particular relationship with the master. He is not simply an employee, but one whose whole life is oriented in a role of being servant. A servant carries out the master’s wishes. He awaits the instruction of the master. One can see how this was also the way in which the Lord saw his life. He did not come to do his own will, but the will of the One who sent him, as he said. The Lord constantly oriented his life around the will of his Father. There was the dynamic of their relationship that drove the action and decision of Christ. A servant is in a personal relationship with his master and this marks the dedicated action of the servant.

A priest can be described as a servant of Jesus Christ. A priest engages his life as one of faithful dedication to the intentions of his master, Christ. Any service that he thus renders in the Church for the good of the people is grounded in his orientation to Christ. As Cardinal Ratzinger says, “The priest because he belongs to Christ, belongs in a radical way to men”. [3] Thus does the Cardinal argue that the engagement of a priest with the world devolves from the ontological aspect of his priesthood, his belonging to Christ. Our priestly service is not just inspired by social relationships with the people and characterised by an effort to meet their needs. Rather, a priest looks first to Christ and acts as Christ would want him to act.

The daily prayer of a priest can be: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”

It was St Augustine who developed the notion of “sacramental character”, the indelible seal that certain sacraments effect on the person of faith. In the case of a priest, one could say that he has had impressed on his being at his ordination the character of being a servant. This is a very significant way of depicting our life. Like the Lord himself, we have come not to be served, but to serve.

As Christ is servant, “laying down his life”, so too does the priest. [4] The priest is servant in the way that Christ is servant. Further, his service to people is the service that Christ offers to people. Thus, the priest is the conduit of Christ’s service. It is Christ who acts in and through his servant, the priest.

St Augustine also meditated on the relationship between the voice and the word, considering the life and witness of role of John the Baptist. John the Baptist described himself as “a voice crying in the wilderness”. [5] As we know the word, the content of the message, is first formed in the mind and then given expression through the act of speaking. John the Baptist saw himself as giving expression to the word which comes from God. This, after all, is the role of the prophet, and John was the last and greatest of the prophets. It was not his thoughts that he sought to express, but rather it was the revelation intended by God. This word, as St John the Evangelist was to declare “became flesh” in the person of Jesus Christ. [6]

A priest then, as servant of Jesus Christ, is the voice of Christ, who is the Logos, the Word. The priest becomes the instrument, the means, whereby Christ is able to speak today. The priest thus speaks not his own thoughts, but is one who conveys the word given to him by Christ.

Bishop Julian Porteous
Rector
Seminary of the Good Shepherd

Endnotes:

 [1] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Life and Ministry of Priests (23-28 October 1995).
 [2] Phil. 2:5-11.
 [3] Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Life and Ministry of Priests (23-28 October 1995).
 [4] John 19:25-42. Cf. John 15:13.
 [5] John 1:23; cf. Isaiah 40:3, Malachi 3:1.
 [6] John 1:14.