Tu Es Sacerdos In Aeternum, or Why Priests and Kings are Not Like Other Guys

Image not mine :)

“The Lord has sworn and will not repent: 'You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.'” --Hebrews 7:17

"Remember then that you are taken from among men and appointed on their behalf for those things that pertain to God. Therefore, carry out the ministry of Christ the Priest with constant joy and genuine love, attending not to your own concerns but to those of Jesus Christ." --From the Rite of Ordination to the Priesthood

Hello wonderful people! I'm in Ireland right now, and I don't have access to my photos (because they're still on my camera, and I don't have my transfer cable or my editing computer, y'know, as one does) so instead of doing what I wanted to do and posting about my time in Ireland, you're getting my slightly intense musings on Anointing and The Holy Spirit and Special People. But honestly, this post has been bouncing around in my brain for almost a month at this point, so I'm excited to share it with you, even if it wasn't my plan! (And I'm revising said plan the night before this is due to post, because I accidentally left Plan Ahead Sam somewhere and can't find her again.) (Oh, and the second half of the post was written after I'd had a pint of cider and a shot of whisky (on a friendly local), and while I'm not drunk, I've, y'know, had two drinks. So. Hopefully it still makes sense. XD)

Anyway! On to the thesis!

So, when I was travelling with my family, one of the things we did was visit two (Catholic) manor houses near Birmingham. (There'll be more about this when I talk about the history of Catholic persecution in England, which I am DYING to do.) One of them had seven (seven!) priest hides (some of them EXCESSIVELY and AMAZINGLY ingenious (a SWINGING BEAM HIDE, I ASK YOU)), and the other one was one of the houses where Charles II hid when Parliament [? my English history is awful] was gunning for his hide. 

And I think it was at that second house, Boscobel, that it occurred to me to start thinking about this topic. There was a little 'secret' video that the kids could activate with a magnetic wooden 'candle holder' of Charles II in one of the bedrooms cutting off his hair and disguising himself as a peasant. He made a very convincing peasant in the video, and that made me starting thinking...what made him so different from a peasant anyway? 

And then that made me start thinking about priests, too. 

Here's where those thoughts were trending...

Since Vatican II, one of the big 'things' in Catholic culture has been "oh yeah, priests are just people! Don't forget, he's just a man! Don't forget, he's basically just an ordinary guy! Nothing special about priests!" Pre-Vatican II, priests got a lot more respect and reverence, to the point that it used to be that attacking a priest was an automatic excommunication. (It isn't anymore, as far as I'm aware, however, please don't. ;))

And for the record, that is true. Priests are men. They're human. It's not good to put a priest so far up on a pedestal that you forget his humanity, or his needs as a person. (Priests need hugs just as much as anyone else does, just saying.) 

But it's also not true that priests are the same as everyone else. It's possible to swing so far back from reverence to priests to the point that we forget that there is something special about them. They're not just men. They're more than that.

And something that made me start pondering this was learning at one of our "Catholic tourism" (lol) stops that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (and maybe King James, too?), it wasn't just illegal for a priest to say Mass or distribute the Sacraments. It was illegal for a man to be a priest. 

Let that sink in for a moment. 

It was illegal to be a priest in England. 

No matter if you hadn't said Mass for the Faithful in months. No matter if you had been hiding in the wilderness alone not "corrupting" anyone. 

It was illegal to be a priest. 

There was something about the person of the priest that was inherently threatening to the Queen, or at the very least to Protestantism. 

And here's why. 

When a priest is consecrated (Catholics believe) with Sacred Chrism (the oil of the presence of the Holy Spirit, roughly speaking), his hands are smeared with the oil, and through the virtue of the anointing, he receives a special character, imprint, or 'mark' on his soul.

Let that sink in. Priesthood (like Baptism and Confirmation) literally leaves a mark on a priest's soul. 

Plus, now his hands are anointed hands, anointed with Sacred Chrism. Which hands can now turn bread into God. So. Y'know. That's pretty cool. 

Are you starting to get the gist of how priests are not exactly the same as everyone else? 

Also, through the virtue of his anointing in Holy Orders, priests can administer the sacraments. His consecration basically turns him into a special conduit for the grace of God. Not that ordinary people can't be instruments of God's grace--it's just that for priests, it's an any-time-he-administers-the-sacraments thing. Which is every day, God willing. No wonder Queen Elizabeth didn't want them even existing in her realm. They were strengthening her most recalcitrant subjects with graces all the time. 

And even if a priest isn't actively saying Mass or administering the sacraments, he was serving as a symbol to the Catholics around him. A symbol of God's love for them, made visible. (Because He gave us the Sacraments, and He gave us priests to give them to us.) A symbol of courage and heroic love of the Faith. (Because if he was caught, he would probably be tortured and then killed.) Something to inspire them, something to remind them that there are things worth dying for. 

Is it any wonder Queen Elizabeth wanted them all gone? I think not.  

Because they're not, precisely, ordinary men. They're humans, but they're humans with a special character on their souls, and anointed hands. That doesn't make them any less human and weak, but it does give them a special character as a conduit of God's grace. And so their very existence was an afront to to Queen whose goal was, very nearly, to set herself up as an idol for her country. 

"Sam," you may be saying, at this juncture, "we've been talking for a while and you still haven't gotten back to kings." 

Ah! Glad you asked!

It's important because kings are anointed, too. Even in modern England, largely secular, and otherwise Anglican (mostly), kings and queens are anointed. (King Charles was, during his coronation, and they still don't show that part of the ceremony on TV or even to those present.)

In Catholic monarchies, especially, the king (and/or queen) is anointed...with Sacred Chrism. From what I've been able to discover, 

They're anointed on the head, and then, depending, also on the hands/arms and chest. The coronation of kings and queens used to be considered a sacrament, but isn't anymore, so I'm not sure that the king or queen's soul receives a permanent mark. 

But still. They've been anointed. They are the anointed, chosen rulers of their country, with the responsibility to care for their people. When you're anointed with Sacred Chrism, Sacrament or not, permanent soul-mark or not, that doesn't go away. 

So like. Kings and Queens are human, but they're also not quite the same as other humans, in rather the same way as priests. 

They've been anointed to care for, guide, and govern their people. They have a responsibility towards them, and that doesn't go away no matter what, no matter if they're deposed, or run off the throne, or attacked. (That's why Blessed Charles kept trying to get back to Austria after he was deposed.) 

And thus, they're a threat to anyone who's trying to be on the throne unjustly, or even to do away with the throne. And just like priests, they're a symbol for the people under their rule: a symbol of the country, of God's sovereignty, and ideally a symbol of God's care for His people. 

The anointing (whether for priests or for kings...or even in our Baptism and Confirmation) means something, and even if people don't want to admit that it does, they know it. 

It makes someone, through the gift of God, more than they are. It doesn't take away their broken humanity and weakness, but it endows them with graces (and the ability to bestow graces) beyond our understanding. 

They're not like the rest of us.

And that's a gift. 

Priesthood and kingship show God in the world, and they show Him working, even through weak, sinful people.

And that's a beautiful thing.

So, so, so. Just some musings! Please let me know what you think! :)