Theology of Ordered Ministry
Mike PascualR220 IPM – Liturgy and SacramentsSession 7
Objective
Understanding the Ordained Priesthood under a coherent theology of ministry In other words, how do we make sense
of the priesthood? Answer is to make sense of how we
understand ministry.
Gameplan
Defining our terms… Vatican II Identify some general obstacles in
our experience (theology has a sociology)
Systematic Theology… Or analogy of faith
Ministry
Literally means “service”
In our use, any service rendered in the Church to assist in the fulfillment of its mission
Our understanding of Church can affect how we look at the role of service…
Vatican II
Prior to Vatican II, the Church was seen as an Institution
The Documents of Vatican II shifted the stress of understanding the Church away from institution
The People of God
While there was no specific model that replaced Institution, the documents of Vatican II specifically highlighted the concept of the Church as the People of God.
The One Priesthood
This highlight acknowledged the baptized participating in some way in the one priesthood of Christ and in mission of the Church itself (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church 11, 30, 31) Source of Common Priesthood is
Baptism…
Leading us to the question…
How do we understand the relationship of the laity and the ordained priesthood?
Why an issue? What we pray is what we believe… And therefore how we live.
Obstacles to our theology (understanding)?
Caste system?
THE PRIEST THE LAITY
Dividing Line Model…
What does this say?
THE PRIEST
Institution
ORDINATION
THE LAITY
Communion
BAPTISM
Limits?
The laity are described as “not the priesthood.”
“second-class” citizens? Encourages “clericalism” How is ministry seen in this model?
Understanding of Ministry?
How does the understanding of ministry (the Church at service) operate?
All ministry is of the priest? And the laity?
Understanding of God?
Priest = persona Christi capitis
The Lay leaders empowered by the Holy Spirit.
THE PRIEST
JESUS CHRIST
THE LAITY
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Corrective…the Trinity
“The basic understanding that the Trinitarian God is not an abstract reality of three persons, but rather a God of love and relationship.” (Hahnenberg 84) Edward Hahnenberg, Ministries: A Relational Approach (New York, NY:
Crossword Publishing Company, 2003),
The Trinity as 3 Persons
Greek: Hypostasis (relation…) Latin: Persona English: Person
In essence, the three persons are three relationships…
3 Persons (relationships) God the Father as the Divine Source…
God the Son is distinguished as God the Son because of His relationship(hypostasis)… Jesus as the begotten Son of the Father
God the Spirit is distinguished as God the Spirit because of His relationship (hypostasis) … The Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Trinitarian worldview
The belief of this theology of the Trinity necessarily implies a relational understanding of all reality…
All of reality is relational…
You can apply to ministry…
Trinitarian Ministry
This theology of relation can be applied to ministry by recognizing that an “individualistic conception of the minister is impossible to maintain.” (Hahnenberg, 95.)
From this account, the minister is not “the person apart.”
Trinitarian Ministry (cont)
The Minister serves as a member of the Church, in relation to God, both “local and universal; these horizontal relationships with other human beings flow from the relationship to God through Christ in the Spirit.”
Trinitarian is Relational
The leader needs the people in order to be the leader.
Similarly…the priest needs the laity to be the priest…
Therefore, it is from this relationship with the community that their ministry is a reality.
Instead of a dividing live…Concentric Circle Model…
Community
MINISTRIES
Advantage
Helps us see the integrative work between Christ and the Spirit in the life of the Church
Dividing line model suggests contrast (if not conflict) of Christ and the Spirit
The Minister…
Hence, a particular ministry does not exhaust the Church’s reality, but participates in it. The charism of community leadership
within an individual supports a community head who recapitulates the community.
Minister of the community
The Minister stands in place of the community on behalf of the community. Example Priest is Person of Christ , Head
of the Church (Body of Christ)
The Ministerial Priest as ministry of synthesis
The priest is a minister of unity, calls attention to the other members of
the body, to the variety of gifts and services raised up by the Holy Spirit.
Ministry catalyst
This suggests that the head minister (the priest) ought to be a ministry of synthesis, not a synthesis of ministry.
He should not take in the ministries as his own to do,
BUT BE THE CATALYST Dynamic Christ and Spirit movement… Person of Christ and Charism of the
Spirit… Pentecost parallels?
Ordered Ministry
In the world of Roman civic institutions, the word ordo suggested a well-defined social group or class, usually distinct from the general populace, such as the ordo of senators or the ordo of knights.
Thomas O’Meara imagines different degrees of ministry to articulate our experience of the diversity of ministries within the people of God. (Hahnenberg 126)
Theological Ideal
GENERAL CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
OCCASSIONAL PUBLIC MINISTRY
LEADERSHIP OF AREAS OF MINISTRY
LEADERSHIP OF COMMUNITIES
Ecclesial positioning
One’s “Church position” is determined by 1. the minister’s commitment to ministry 2. the significance and public nature of
the ministry itself 3. the recognition accorded by the
community of its leaders (page 131)
Ecclesial Position Requirements
MINISTRY
RECOGNITIONCOMMITMENT
A more detailed process… a personal call, ecclesial discernment and recognition of a
genuine charism formation appropriate to the demands of
ministry, some authorization by community leadership,
and some ritualization as a prayer for the assistance
of the Holy Spirit and a sending forth on behalf of the community.” Richard Gaillardetz, “The Ecclesiological Foundations
of Ministry within an Ordered Communion” 36.
Ontological Change?
Ontology means “nature of being” Is the minister who is “ordered”
(ordained in the loosest understanding of the word) changed ontologically?
Based off of this understanding of Ordered Ministry, there is a change in their relational ontology.
Relational Change
The change of being is their relational being within the church. This is the change in ecclesial
positioning…
To summarize
Theology of Ministry stems from an understanding of: The Trinity (Relationality) The Church (Ordered Communion)
In other words
This understanding of Ministry is based off a Trinitarian world-view of relationship and an understanding of Church as ordered communion.
Implications?
This situates the Sacrament of Orders within a wider understanding of Orders and Ministry Similar to what we did with the word
Sacraments We can now appreciate the role and
understanding of the Sacrament of Orders and Matrimony as Sacraments of Ministry
