The Catholic priest by Fr Lawrence Ogundipe SDV

The Catholic Priest
Catholic priesthood is a vocation. Being a vocation, it is a sublime gift of God. It is also a gift of God’s love to his sinful humanity. One can say that the Catholic priesthood is a vocation or a call to exercise among God and his people. Through the sacred ordination he enters into “the portion of the people of God” destined for its service, “a portion” whose honor consists of being of service for the leitourgia.
Pope Innocent III, speaking of the priest and of his office, says that the priest is placed between God and man, beneath God, but above man. He cannot be called God but neither can be called God nor can be called a mere man. In other words, the priest is called by God and is a mediator between God and man. The Catholic priesthood can be seen as the priesthood of Jesus Christ since the priesthood emanated from Jesus Christ himself. He instituted the priesthood Himself as the eternal High priest whose priesthood tally with the order of Melchizedek – without the beginning or end (cf. Heb 5: 1 ff Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men (cf. Heb. 5:1-3), made the new people “a kingdom of priests to God his father” (Apoc. 1:6, 5:9-10).
The sacerdotal dignity says St Alphonsus Liguory is the most noble of all the dignities in this world. Nothing says St Ambrose, “is more excellent in this world, It is transcendent says St Bernard, all the dignities of kings, of emperors and of Angels.
 According to St Ambrose the dignity of the priest far exceeds that of kings,   as the value of Gold surpasses that of lead. The reason is because the power of the kings is temporal and to the bodies of men. But the power of the priest extends to spiritual goods and to the human souls.
Hence says St Clement, as much as the soul is nobler than the body, so much is the priesthood more excellent than royalty. The priestly office my dear brothers surpasses that of the Angels who likewise show their veneration the priesthood says St Gregory Nazianzen. All the angels in Heaven cannot absolve from a single sin.
The chief role of priests is to offer sacrifice. In the Eucharistic sacrifice, he act in the person of Christ and thus joined the offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their head... and in the sacrifice of the mass he makes present again and apply... the unique sacrifice... of Christ himself once and for all a spotless victim to the father. By virtue of the sacrament of orders, in the image of Christ the supreme and eternal high priest, The priest, for his part, is to be formed to imitate Christ’s service of communion through his imitation of Christ.  He is to be formed to be servant of communion through a life and ministry sacramentally configured to represent the munus triplex Christi.  He represents Christ in a community which the author of the First Letter of Peter described as “the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God” (1 Pet 2:9-10).  Far from describing the Church as an aggregate of priests, these words refer to the collective sacerdotal vocation of the entire Church.  The ministerial priesthood exists in and for the service of this collective vocation of the entire people of God.  As Tillard pointed out: Ministry [of priests] exists in light of this priesthood of the sacerdos community.  It is the servant of the Spirit of Christ for priestly and theocentric communion which is the local Church in its profound being and life. 

The priest is consecrated to preach the gospel and shepherd to the faithful, as well as to celebrate divine worship as true priest of the New Testament. It implies that a priest like Christ is first of all a teacher, an announcer of divine truth. The word of God is placed upon his lips. So, a Catholic priest is called to be a mediator between God and men. The beautiful hands of these priests have absolved many souls and saved them from damnation of hell oh thank you God thank you dear Fathers for accepting the call.
It is a common belief among the people that Catholic priests should have special qualities. This is because of the assertions and traditions that the priests are set apart as extraordinary people. They often forget the fact that priests are ordinary men like themselves. For them, if a priest is to be a leader in the church, he has to be another Christ. If he is to call others to holiness, he has to be holy himself. Often, priests are perceived by people in non-human terms. So also if there is anyone who is denied the right to have personal problems and difficulties, that person is priest. The modern outlook towards priest, his status and identity is different from the past. Commenting on this, Nubiola says, “the world has changed and it is still changing very fast. And in this changed and changing world, the way of life of a priest and his ways of apostolate have to be adapted, have to change.

THE BEAUTIFUL HANDS OF A PRIEST
We need them in life’s early morning, we need them again at its close. We feel their warm clasp of true friendship, we seek them when tasting life’s woes.
When we come to this world we are sinful - the greatest as well as the least. And a hand makes us pure as Angels, ’tis the beautiful hand of a Priest.
At the altar each day we behold them, and the hands of a king on his throne are not equal to them in their greatest. Their dignity stands all alone.
For there in the still of the morning  ’ere the sun has emerged from the east, there God rests between the pure fingers of the beautiful hands of a priest.
And when we are tempted to wander to pathways of shame and sin, 'tis the hands of a priest will absolve us - not once, but again and again.
And when we are taking life’s partner, other hands may prepare us a feast, but the hand that will bless and unite us is the beautiful hand of a priest.
God bless them and keep them all holy, for the Host which their fingers caress. What can a poor sinner do better than to ask Him who chose them to bless?
When the death dews on our eyes are falling, may our courage and strength be increased, by seeing raised over us in blessing the beautiful hands of a priest.
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength."
1 Timothy 1:12

The Priest is not an Angel sent from heaven.  He is a man chosen from among men, a member of the Church, a Christian.
Remaining man and Christian he begins to speak to you, the word of God.  This word is not his own.  No, he comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s word.  Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself.  Perhaps he adulterates it.  But he believes, and despite his fears he knows that he must communicate God’s word to you.
For must not someone of us say something about God, about eternal life, about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being; must not someone of us speak of sin, the judgement and mercy of God?
So my dear friends, pray for him.  Carry him so that he might be able to sustain others by bringing to them the mystery of God’s love revealed in Christ Jesus.
                               

Reference
Anthony A. Akinwale, O. P. With Saint Thomas as teacher: priestly formation in the light of the second Vatican council
J.-M.-R. Tillard, Church of Churches, pgs. 211-223.
Justin Nnamdi, The Priestly Ministry, p. 80
Interpreting these words as describing the Church as an aggregate of priests can be used to elaborate a theology of the priesthood that ignores the Conciliar distinction between the common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood.  According to Vatican II, the two “differ essentially and not only in degree” (Lumen Gentium, 10.  Understanding and explaining this assertion is a double task for the theologian.
G. Manalel, Priest as a Man: Counselling for the Clergy, (Kochi: Karunikan Books publication, 2006), p. 9.
R. Nubiola, Challenges to Religious Life Today, (Bombay: St. Paul Publications, 1983), p. 17.
Fr Karl Rarhner on The priest