enturies, this freedom of
choice was not offered them.

CHAPTER XI

THE PRIESTHOOD

The High Priest of the New Law, St. Paul tells the Hebrews, is Christ.
And the Christian priesthood, which He instituted, is a participation
and extension of His office and ministry. The commemoration of the
same sacrifice which was once offered upon the cross for the sins of
the world is daily renewed on our altars from the rising to the
setting of the sun. The Christian priest, in the language of spiritual
writers, is "another Christ," taking His place amongst men,
perpetually renewing, as it were, the Incarnation in the Sacrifice of
the Mass, preaching the word, and applying the fruits of Redemption
through the channels of the sacraments.

In common estimation, the dignity of a man is reckoned by the
character of the office he fills or the duties entrusted to him.
Judged by this standard, no worldly dignity can compare with that of
the priesthood, whose authority comes from God, and whose powers,
transcending earth, reach back to heaven. "Speak not of the royal
purple," says St. Chrysostom, "of diadems, of golden vestures--these
are but shadows, frailer than the flowers of spring, compared to the
power and privileges of the priesthood."

And whence arises, we may ask, this incomparable dignity of the
priest? First of all, from his power to roll back the heavens, and
bring down upon the altar the Majesty of the Deity, attended by an
angelic train. "The Blessed Virgin," St. Vincent Ferrer informs us,
"opened heaven only once, the priest does so at every Mass." Exalted
is the sovereignty of kings who rule a nation, but more sublime the
power which commands the King of kings, and is obeyed. Who could
conceive, did not Faith teach it, that mortal man were capable of
elevation to such a pitch of glory? No wonder St. Chrysostom was
betrayed by this thought into the rhapsody: "When you behold the Lord
immolated and lying on the altar, and the priest standing over the
sacrifice and praying and all the people empurpled by that precious
blood, do you imagine that you are still on earth amongst men and not
rather rapt up to heaven?"

The second great prerogative of the priest is to forgive sins. Christ
having one day said to a paralytic, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee"
(Luke v: 20), some of the bystanders marvelled, thinking within
themselves, "Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" Yea, truly is this
a Divine power, but these criti