Now I would like to treat an aspect that is certainly very important to what the Catholic priesthood does, and it is the fact that we are made ministers of the New Covenant. The depths of this doctrine are so great that the topic merits consideration from another point of view.

It is Saint Paul himself who said: God has indeed qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life. This appears with complete clarity in the Vulgate: idoneos nos fecit ministros Novi Testamenti (2 Cor 3:6).

What does it mean to be a minister of the New Covenant? It means many things, all of them important, all of them complementary, and together they form the entire mystery which is a minister of the New Covenant.

A. To Be a Minister of the New Covenant Means Giving the Primacy to Jesus Christ in Everything

The response of Saint Thomas in an article that questions if the effects of the priesthood pertain to Christ Himself begins by first recalling that the first agent in every genus, the one to whom everything in that order can be attributed, has those perfections in himself; the agent does not receive them, just as the sun illumi- nates but is not illuminated, or as fire gives heat but is not heated itself. To this he adds, “Now Christ is the fountain-head of the entire priesthood (fons totius sacerdotii): for the priest of the Old Law was a figure of Him; while the priest of the New Law (sacerdos novae legis) works in His person, according to 2 Corinthians 2:10: For what I have pardoned, if I have pardoned anything, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ.”[1] The Vulgate reads propter vos, in perso- na Christi; in the Greek text: έν πρωσόπω.

That is what characterizes a minister of the New Covenant as different from the minister of the Old Covenant. The minister of the Old Covenant did not act in the person of Christ; he was a figure, but not the reality. Thus, as Saint Irenaeus says, God calls men “to the things of primary importance by means of those which were secondary; that is, to things that are real, by means of those that are typical; and by things temporal, to eternal; and by the carnal to the spiritual; and by the earthly to the heavenly.”[2]

The great difference that arises between the priesthood of the New Covenant and the priesthood of the Old is based in the fact that the Old Law is secondary, a figure, temporal, carnal, and earthly, while the New is principal, true, eternal, spiritual, and heavenly. We are sacerdotes novae legis: priests of the New law, minis- ters of the New Covenant.

B. To Be Ministers of the New Covenant Means to Be Docile to the Holy Spirit Who Dwells in Us

The New Law consists principally in that which is infused. It is not written on tablets of stone; it is written in our hearts.

What is this infusion of the New Law? Saint Paul expresses it: the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Rom 5:5). It is love; it is charity.

It is both faith and charity: it is faith working through love (Gal 5:6).

Here we have–let us observe–the love of God, the Holy Spirit who infuses this in our hearts, the Most Holy Trinity; we have the three theological virtues, faith and charity, and, obviously, if faith and charity are present, then there must be what Claudel[3] called the petit espérance, who goes hand in hand with her two older sisters, faith and charity.

Consequently, the minister of the New Covenant is one who lives from faith; let us remember that “purity of faith,” as Don Orione said, “is so precious a thing that it must be placed before any other purity.”[4] The minister of the New Covenant lives from hope. The minister of the New Covenant lives from charity.

C. Therefore, To Be Ministers of the New Covenant Means To Live according to that Infused Reality

What is most important is grace, the absolute necessity of grace. The great teaching of that young Doctor of the Church, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, is the absolute necessity of grace. The primacy, consequently, belongs to the interior, to what is spiritual. This is not only because of what it does to the life of prayer, but also because of what it does for the governing of communities, for what is merely external kills, the letter kills, while it is the spirit that gives life; it is the spirit that gives freedom, a freedom that we must live because the New Law is the law of freedom (Jas 1:25; 2:12), because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor 3:17).

This means that we should take care not to make religion something carnal. From my point of view, the great drama of this age is a sort of judaizing[5] of the clergy, that is, the lack of super- natural vision, the lack of spiritual vision. This we have seen, to the point of fatigue, in so many clerics who are only concerned with what is temporal.

It means to make religion into something worldly. This is the reason why these clerics devalue the evangelical counsels; as they themselves are unhappy in their consecrated vocation, they hinder vocations. This also takes place with the knowledge of Sacred Scripture, where the supernatural sense is destroyed, and even the historical sense itself is shattered. Thus it happens with the knowledge of the signs of the times. Many pass the time talking about the signs of the times and how everything was better and how everything should be done. Here we are! The seminaries are still empty.

A worldly Christianity is seen clearly in pastoral works where more importance is given to the exterior than to the spirit. From here arises the importance that many ministers give to a certain “powerful gentleman, Mr. Money.” When everything is seen, not sub specie aeternitatis, but rather sub specie mammona iniquitatis, pastoral work is becoming worldly.

D. To Be Ministers of the New Covenant Means To Have a Universal Heart

The Old Covenant was something particular: it was for one people, and no one else. The New Covenant is universal, and it encompasses all men and women, of all times and cultures. Accordingly, the mentality of the minister of the New Covenant is completed opposed to the mentality of the little kiosk. No one should enclose himself in only his people or city: he must have anxiety for all the churches (2 Cor 11:28).

E. It Means Being a Minister of an Eternal Covenant

The old covenant was temporal, given for a time, and was a figure; this new one is eternal, and there is no need to wait for another. Consequently, there is no need to fall in the thousands of forms that the Joachimite[6] error takes, particularly as is happening now with the coming of the third millennium. Everyone believes that another covenant will come, and some are even prophesying it! No! The Covenant is eternal and will continue being New! Therefore, the minister of the New Covenant is seen in a particular way in the Mass, where we have the transubstantiation of the blood of the New Covenant (Lk 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25), the blood of the eternal covenant (Heb 13:20), that is to say, that covenant that does not and will not pass away.

F. It Means Working with Realities

Now we are not working with just figures, as was the case in the Old Testament. Therefore, all things that are merely external should be left aside, and, so as not to fall into Pharisaism, the formalism that emphasizes things that are introduced from out- side and that are devoid of what is substantial, meaning what is interior, must be rejected.

G. It Means Seeking the Salvation of All People

The Old Covenant did not justify, and it did not save; the New Covenant justifies and saves, and it justifies and saves on account of what it has at its foundation, namely, that which is infused: the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

H. It Means Knowing that the Ministry Directly Concerns the Last End of Man and Woman

As the New Covenant leads to that end, it has the means given by God so that men can reach their last end.

I. It Means that We Are Witness of the Law of Children, Which Is the Law of Love

We are not witness of the law of slaves. In spite of our sins, we are ministers of the New Covenant. As Saint Asterius of Amasea said so beautifully, “Let us then be shepherds like the Lord. We must meditate on the Gospel, and as we see in this mirror the example of zeal and loving kindness, we should become thoroughly schooled in these virtues.”[7] Zeal and kindness: the same saint makes a very beautiful description of the parable of the lost sheep, and a truly splendid application: “For there, obscurely, in the form of a parable, we see a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. When one of them was separated from the flock and lost its way, that shepherd did not remain with the sheep who kept together at pasture. No, he went off to look for the stray. He crossed many valleys and thickets, he climbed great and towering mountains, he spent much time and labor in wandering through solitary places until at last he found his sheep.

When he found it, he did not chastise it; he did not use rough blows to drive it back, but gently placed it on his own shoulders and carried it back to the flock. He took greater joy in this one sheep, lost and found, than in all the others. Let us look more closely at the hidden meaning of this parable. The sheep is more than a sheep, the shepherd more than a shepherd.

They are examples enshrining holy truths. They teach us that we should not look on men as lost or beyond hope; we should not abandon them when they are in danger or be slow to come to their help. When they turn away from the right path and wander, we must lead them back, and rejoice at their return, welcoming them back into the company of those who lead good and holy lives.”

The Catholic priest is the minister of the New Covenant! He does not give blows to the sheep; rather, he gives his life for his sheep. This is the great teaching: we must never take anyone as lost beyond hope! We are ministers of the New Covenant!

J. Lastly, We Must Not Only Be Good Externally, but Also Internally

In this way, the primacy is given to the central element of the New Law: what is infused. The New Covenant does not only inhibit external bad actions; it also inhibits internal ones as well: Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. . . . Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. . . . Do not swear at all. . . . When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. . . . Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you (Mt 5:22, 28, 34, 39, 44).

Let us ask our Most Holy Mother for this grace for all the priests of the world so that we might never forget what a truly great thing it is to be a minister of the New Covenant, the Covenant which Jesus sealed on the cross.

[1] Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., III, q. 22, a. 4.

[2] Saint Irenaeus, cit. Liturgy of the Hours, III, 168; II, 152; from Against Heresies, IV, 14, 3.

[3] Paul Claudel (6 August 1868 – 23 February 1955), French poet, dramatist, and diplomat.

[4] Selected Letters, 160.  

[5] From judaizer, one who teaches that adherence to the Mosaic Law is necessary for everyone, including Christians; see, for example, Acts 15:24.

[6] Followers of Gioacchino da Fiore, or Joachim of Fiore (or Flora). Joachim maintained that there would be “three states of the world, corresponding to the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. In the first age the Father ruled, representing power and inspiring fear, to which the Old Testament dispensation corresponds; then the wisdom hidden through the ages was revealed in the Son, and we have the Catholic Church of the New Testament; a third period will come, the Kingdom of the Holy Spirit, a new dispensation of universal love, which will proceed from the Gospel of Christ, but transcend the letter of it, and in which there will be no need for disciplinary institutions. Joachim held that the second period was drawing to a close, and that the third epoch (already in part anticipated by St. Benedict) would actually begin after some great cataclysm which he tentatively calculated would befall in 1260” (Gardner, Edmund. “Joachim of Flora.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910).

[7] Saint Asterius of Amasea, Homily 13; PG 40, 355-358. 362.