Cathal BarrySacramental ministry in the Church is a collegial and personal service, writes Cathal Barry
A diversity of ministries exists which serves the Church’s mission, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.
To the apostles and their successors, Christ entrusted the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing “in his name and by his power”.
The laity too “have their own assignment in the mission of the whole People of God”.
From both hierarchy and laity come Christian faithful who are consecrated to God and serve the Church through the profession of the evangelical councils (Canon 207). Christ established a variety of offices for the good of all. Those who hold offices invested with sacred powers must dedicate themselves to the salvation of all.
The Catechism is clear that Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal:
“In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase its numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good of the whole body. The holders of office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated to promoting the interests of their brethren, so that all who belong to the People of God… may attain to salvation” (Second Vatican Council).
Faith comes from hearing, the Catechism teaches. No one can “hear without a preacher” and no preacher can give himself a mandate and the mission to proclaim the Gospel. Only from Christ can ministers receive the mission and sacred power to “act in the person of Christ”. This ministry is called “a sacrament” and is conferred by a special sacrament (Holy Orders).
Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as service. Just as Christ took “the form of a slave” (Phil 2:7), so too ministers must be “slaves of Christ”.
Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it has a collegial character. Jesus chose the 12 apostles as “the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy”.
Chosen together, they were also sent out together and their fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the faithful: they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons. Therefore, every bishop exercises his ministry from within the episcopal college, in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of St Peter and head of the college. So also priests exercise their ministry from within the presbyterium of the diocese, under the direction of their bishop.
Finally, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a personal character.
Although Christ’s ministers act in communion with one another, they also always act in a personal way. Each one is called personally to be a personal witness within the common mission, to bear personal responsibility before him who gives the mission, acting “in his person” and for other persons.
Sacramental ministry in the Church, then, is a collegial and a personal service, exercised in the name of Christ.
This is evidenced by the bonds between the episcopal college and the Pope, and in the relationship between the bishop’s pastoral responsibility for his particular church and the common solicitude of the episcopal college for the universal Church.
