The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

www.freecatholicebooks.com
"You then love not Christ, who fly from the charge of souls." St.
Chrysostom answered, that he loved him, and fled from this charge
because he loved him, fearing to offend him by taking upon him such an
office, for which he was every way unqualified. Basil retorts with
warmth, that his treachery towards himself was unpardonable, because he
was acquainted with his friend's incapacity. Chrysostom answers, that he
should never have betrayed him into that dignity, if he had not known
his charity and other qualifications. In order to show that he had
reason to shun that charge, he in his third book sets forth the
excellence and obligations of that dignity; for it is not earthly, but
altogether heavenly, and its ministry would do honor to the angels; and
a pastor ought to look upon himself as placed among the heavenly
spirits, and under an obligation of being no less pure and holy. This he
shows, first, from the tremendous sacrifice of the altar, which requires
in the offerer a purity truly becoming heaven, and even far surpassing
the sanctity which was required in so terrible a manner of priests in
the Old Law, a mere shadow of ours. "For," says he, "when you behold the
Lord himself lying the victim on the altar, and offered, and the priest
attending, and praying over the sacrifice, purpled with his precious
blood, do you seem to remain among men and on earth, or not rather to be
translated into heaven? O wonderful prodigy! O excess of the divine
mercy! He who is seated above at the right hand of the Father, is in
that hour held by all in their hands, and gives himself to be touched
and received. Figure to yourself Elias before the altar, praying alone,
the multitude standing around him in silence, and trembling, and the
fire falling from heaven and consuming the sacrifice. What is now done
is far more extraordinary, more awful, and more astonishing. The priest
is here standing, and calls down from heaven, not fire, but the Holy
Ghost: he prays a long time, not that a flame may be kindled, but that
grace may touch the sacrifice, and that the hearts of all who partake of
it may be purged by the same." c. 5, p. 385. (See the learned prelate
Giacomelli's Note on St. Chrysostom's doctrine on the real presence of
the body of Christ in the Eucharist, and on the sacrifice of the altar,
in hunc librum, c. 4, p. 340.) Secondly, he mentions the eminent
prerogative of binding and loosing, not bodies, but souls, with which
the priesthood of the New Law is {257} honored: a power reaching the
heavens, where God confirms the sentence pronounced by priests below: a
power never given to angels, yet granted to men. John xx. 22. All power
was given by the Father to the Son, who again transferred it on men. It
is esteemed a great authority if an emperor confers on a private person
power to imprison others or to set them at liberty. How great then is
the authority with which God honors the priesthood. The priests of the
Old Law declared lepers healed; those of the New really cleanse and heal
our souls. They are our spiritual parents, by whom we are reborn to
eternal life; they regenerate us by baptism, again remit our sins by
extreme unction, (James v. 14,) and by their prayers appease God whom we