Mystery Of The Priesthood Of Christ and the Church
Compiled By: +Thaddeus, SSJt., Ph.D.

Many there are who claim to understand this mystery, and those who do - - - are modern day academics, scholarly types who abide more often than not with that which is the much dreaded "Correctness Disease"... themselves, in many instances, having lost the gift of the Holy Spirit by their reducing both the benefits and meaning of this Mystery to man's limitation of words that cannot be fully descriptive.  For these who "understand" this mystery in such a restrictive manner, they fail because this mysteria is infinitely greater and deeper than human intelligence, which is able to understand or comprehend only something lesser than itself.  Therefore we must contemplate it through meditation ... with wonder as St. Paul did when he encountered this mystery on the road to Damascus.

1. Jesus Christ, Son of Mary, is a man like us.  Everything that is in Him is embodied in the Holy Mystery of communicating His Body and Blood to other people who so do out of sincere and true repentance, penance, and forgiveness of self and others.  This is why Christ can save us!
2. Christ, the Son of God, is GOD, the same God as His Father and Holy Spirit.  That is why He can unite us to the Father.
3. By partaking of the Holy Mystery of Communion, the Body and Blood of Christ, we are incorporated into His Resurrected body.  We become one in Him and With Him and all participants of His Divinity.  This Mysterious Body created by the union of the Head (Christ) with the member (those who sincerely participate and partake) is called the Church, the ecclesia.
4. As the Head of the Body controls its moving parts, so Christ acts as the moving force in relation to faithful members of His Church who truly and sincerely struggle out of pain of heart.  Through His Church of faithful strugglers, Christ is present and active in the world.  Those faithful strugglers in the Church respond to the impulses sent by the Head, Christ, listening to His Word through Holy Spirit, and acting in daily life from that Word.
5. While the parts of the body can live only if the blood which comes from the heart flows through them; one has to constantly ensure that his daily activities; his thoughts and actions do not impede, constrict or be infected with disease, the blood.  Members of the Church who are true strugglers in the faith through sincere and active daily contemplation (self-examination), meditation, repentance and true penance, then - on Sunday or more often, partaking of the Holy Mysteries, can be living members only if such circulates through them, uniting them to each other and to the Head, Christ.
6. The mystery of the Church consists in the fact that sinful, but believing, people are united to the Body of Christ through the action of Holy Spirit and then only to a true struggler in the faith while in this life.  They become members of the Single Body, Christ, and carry on His work through active daily contemplation, meditation, prayer, repentance, penance, consistent and constant acts of forgiveness of self and others either directly or indirectly; for Christ acts and speaks through those true and sincere strugglers in the faith.
7. The Mystery of Christ and of the Church, has many aspects which  St. Paul calls "the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. 4:1) and which true Orthodox Catholic Christians simply call "Mysteries".  In the Latin Church they have reduced the importance and meaning to the use of the word and term "Sacraments" which looses much in scope and depth, reducing their value to an almost regrettable state in the minds of most ordinary people who "perform" in Church.

The Lord Jesus Christ, being both God and man by His Life and Teachings, re-established communication between divinity and humanity.  He, through His actions and that of Holy Spirit in these times, make us who are spiritually alive, to hear God's Voice, for He is the Word of God made flesh.

Having ascended into Heaven in His human nature, He has become our advocate before God the Father, appearing "in the presence of God on our behalf" and presenting Him with a sacrifice "once for all when He offered up Himself" for those of His brothers and sisters (Heb. 9:24; 7:27) who are truly sincere strugglers in the faith through self-examination, meditation, contemplation, prayer, repentance, penance and forgiveness of self and others.

This function, as intermediary, between God and Man, is called "The Priesthood of Christ" .

Christ is given the title "High Priest" because of the sacerdotal function which, in and of itself, is a Holy Mystery passed on to the Apostles at Pentecost by the Holy Spirit (Tongues of Fire) who in turn have passed it on through a long line of successive apostles (lines of succession) who maintain to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ not just by action only, but only those (who are in these times becoming fewer in number) who are truly faithful strugglers as priests and teachers.  The title "High Priest" given to Jesus Christ is in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in all, Christian tradition, (Heb. 7:21) "thou art a priest forever".  Also see Psalm 109 (110).

As we have struggled to learn and see, Christ is our High Priest.  He acts in the world through His Body, the Church.  It is through the Church of faithful strugglers that His Voice is heard.  Yet, be war... be careful and cautious, because many who, by man's standards of judgment, many there are who are spiritually disconnected and thus have become, unknowingly (to themselves) priests of the Antichrist by their self-pride, arrogance, elitism, the 'correctness disease' and worse, to join in and with the synchrestic ecumenism denounced by the Church.

Although many of them may talk against the synchrestic ecumenism in vogue in this day and age, out sincerity of belief, they -themselves- have fallen into the trap of the evil one and are disconnected from Holy Spirit, being more connected to the un-holy spirit of Antichrist!

Yet, those who are truly sincere, faithful repentant strugglers as bishops, priests and religious; make the Church, the Body of Christ, a partner in the sacrifice of His own Body and Blood which He offers to the Father.

Christ does nothing without His Body; and the Church struggling faithful participate fully Christ's priesthood.

This means that Our Lord Jesus Christ asks for our collaboration in carrying out His Work in the world and in addressing His Father.  St. Paul tells us, "we are God's fellow workers" (1 Cor. 3:9) according to our individual nature and degree of ability to comprehend, to understand and act in both spirit and truth.

We are taught at an early age, or upon entering the Church through baptism and chrismation that when a self-professed "Christian" leans lovingly over someone who is suffering, that he acts as the hand of Christ; when he declares the truth of the Gospel, he acts as the mouth of Christ.  But we further learn, he must first become a true member of Christ's body through the power of Holy Spirit who acts in and through the Church that Christ established through His Apostles, transmitting the same through a long line of Apostles; and only those who stay true.

Yet, again, given all that is on-going in these more modern times of synchrestic ecumenism never before sanctioned, but condemned, by early Church Fathers; we can deduce that not all who are clergy or faithful as professed "Christians" are motivated by Holy Spirit somuch as an un-holy spirit of Antichrist.  Synchrestic ecumenism of these modern times is promulgated by the World Council of Churches whose membership lists include pagans, worshippers of Satan, the Vatican (Roman Catholic Church), man Eastern Orthodox Patriarchs, Patriarchates, pseudo-christians, and many others.

True Christians, motivated by Jesus Christ through Holy Spirit are true strugglers who endeavor to 'discern' the spirit flowing through those who speak to them.  True Christian strugglers are motivated by the Life and Teachings of Jesus Christ who incorporate daily contemplation (self-examination), meditation, prayer, repentance, penance, forgiveness of self and others with a serious contrite heart, mind and partake of the Holy Mysteries, the Holy medicine for sincere repentant sinners who live in a very sinful world.