Untitled - Saints' Books

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CHAP, ii.] The End of the Priesthood. 45
do they reprove the author of it ?
They study to gratify
his inclinations, and even expose their life in order to
please him. Is it thus that priests act for God ? It is
certain that they are his ministers of state: by them are
managed all the interests of his glory. Through them
sins should be removed from the world: this is the end
for which Jesus Christ has died. Crucified, that the body
of sin may be destroyed. But 1
on the day of judgment how
can the judge acknowledge as his true minister the
priest who, instead of preventing the sins of others, is
the first to conspire against Jesus Christ ? What would
you say of ministers who should neglect to attend to
the interests of their sovereign, and should refuse to
assist him when he stood in need of their aid ? But
what would you say
if these ministers also spoke against
their master, and endeavored to deprive him of his
throne by entering into an alliance with his enemies ?
Priests are the ambassadors of God, says the Apostle:
For Christ we are ambassadors? They are his coadjutors
in procuring the salvation of souls: For we are God s
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coadjutors:
For this end Jesus Christ gave them the
Holy Ghost, that they might save souls by remitting
their sins. He breathed on them, and He said to them : Re
ceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall forgive, they
are forgiven
them." Hence the theologian Habert has
written that the essence of the priesthood consists in
seeking ardently to procure first the glory of God, and
then the salvation of souls. 5
The business, then, of every priest is to attend, not to
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2 "
Crucifixus est, ut destruatur corpus peccati." Rom. vi. 6.
Pro Christo legatione fungimur.
2 Cor. v. 20.
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4 "
Dei enim sumus adjutores."
i Cor. iii. 9.
Insufflavit, et dixit eis: Accipite Spiritum Sanctum: quorum re-
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miseritis peccata, remittuntur eis."
John, xx. 22.
Ingenium sacerdotale essentialiter consistit in ardenti studio
promovendi gloriam Dei et salutem proximi." De Ord. p. 3, c. 5, q. 3.