The Trinitarian Priesthood
A scriptural look at the hierarchy of holy orders
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers Comments Off on The Trinitarian Priesthood
The Trinitarian understanding of the hierarchy of holy orders traces its origins back to the Old Testament and is rooted in covenant relationship with God. When this bond is broken by original sin (Gn 3), God establishes a three-tiered system of priests who act as mediators of the covenant between God and his people. This initial priesthood is based on the family model of patriarch (grandfather), father (who acted as the sacrificial priest on behalf of his family) and the first-born son (who was the ministerial assistant to his father).
After the incident of the golden calf at Mount Sinai (Ex 32), the tribe of Levi replaced the patriarchal priesthood, following a similar trinitarian model: high priest (Lv 8), Levitical priests (who offered the sacrifice, see Lv 5:5 ff.) and Levites (Nm 18:1- 7). When Jesus established the Church, Christ instituted a threefold hierarchy of bishops, priests and deacons as the fulfillment of both the patriarchal and Levitical priesthoods that preceded him. The Twelve Apostles (and St. Paul) are the first bishops (Acts 1:13), the presbyters ordained by the apostles are the priests (1 Tm 4:14, Jas 5:14-15) and, of course, there are the deacons (Acts 6).
Jesus Christ is the one true high priest in whose priesthood we all share either spiritually through the charism received at baptism or ministerially through holy orders. That Christ directly established the episcopacy and priesthood is quite clear. He handpicked the Twelve Apostles (modeling the leadership of the 12 tribes of Israel) and, as the true Melchizedek (Gn 14:18 and Ps 110:4), offers bread and wine as his body and blood, thus instituting the new and eternal covenant that will be administered by the apostles and presbyters (Lk 22:19-20). Jesus also gave them the power to forgive sins in his name (Jn 20:19-23).
‘Ministers of the Mysteries of Jesus’
In John’s Gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus washes the apostles’ feet. This action by Christ serves a twofold purpose. First, Jesus is confirming the institution of the priesthood. In Exodus 30:17-21 (and the parallel text of Exodus 40:30-32), the priest, after exiting the tent of meeting, washed his hands and feet before approaching the altar of sacrifice. Second, as Deacon Dominic Cerrato points out in his Establishment Hypothesis, Jesus is also instituting the diaconate. Unlike Exodus, where the priests washed their own feet, Jesus washes the apostles’ feet as a deacon, saying, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do. Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him” (Jn 13:15-16). Jesus models for the apostles that headship, leadership and authority in the Church are rooted in the ministry of diakonia (service).
To try and separate the diaconate from the hierarchy of holy orders, as some are proposing as a future direction for the diaconate, is like separating Christ from the Trinity. This is not hyperbole. In his Letter to the Trallians (A.D. 110), the bishop and martyr St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “Deacons, too, who are ministers of the mysteries of Jesus … are not mere servants with food and drink, but emissaries of God’s Church. … Similarly, all should respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, just as all should regard the bishop as the image of the father, and the clergy as God’s senate and the college of the apostles. Without these three orders you cannot begin to speak of a church. … Whoever acts apart from the bishop and the clergy and the deacons is not pure in his conscience.”
DEACON HAROLD BURKE-SIVERS serves at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon.
