[4] Whenever someone says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human? [5] What is Apollos, after all, and what is Paul? Ministers through whom you became believers, just as the Lord assigned each one. [6] I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. [7] Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth. [8] The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive wages in proportion to his labor.
(CCC 874) Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal: In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase its numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good of the whole body. The holders of office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated to promoting the interests of their brethren, so that all who belong to the People of God… may attain to salvation (LG 18). (CC 876) Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as service. Entirely dependent on Christ who gives mission and authority, ministers are truly "slaves of Christ" (Cf. Rom 1:1) in the image of him who freely took "the form of a slave" for us (Phil 2:7). Because the word and grace of which they are ministers are not their own, but are given to them by Christ for the sake of others, they must freely become the slaves of all (Cf. 1 Cor 9:19). (CCC 879) Sacramental ministry in the Church, then, is a service exercised in the name of Christ. It has a personal character and a collegial form. This is evidenced by the bonds between the episcopal college and its head, the successor of St. Peter, and in the relationship between the bishop's pastoral responsibility for his particular church and the common solicitude of the episcopal college for the universal Church.
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