Wednesday, September 26, 2012
326. What is the effect of episcopal ordination?
(Comp
326) Episcopal ordination confers the fullness of the sacrament of Holy
Orders. It makes the bishop a legitimate successor of the apostles and
integrates him into the episcopal college to share with the Pope and the other
bishops care for all the churches. It confers on him the offices of teaching,
sanctifying, and ruling.
“In brief”
(CCC 1594) The bishop receives the fullness of the sacrament
of Holy Orders, which integrates him into the episcopal college and makes him
the visible head of the particular Church entrusted to him. As successors of
the apostles and members of the college, the bishops share in the apostolic
responsibility and mission of the whole Church under the authority of the Pope,
successor of St. Peter.
To deepen and explain
(CCC 1558) "Episcopal consecration confers, together
with the office of sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling.... In
fact... by the imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration,
the grace of the Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in
such wise that bishops, in an eminent and visible manner, take the place of Christ
himself, teacher, shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona agant)" (LG 21).
"By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them,
bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have
been made pontiffs and pastors" (CD 2 § 2).
Reflection
(CCC 1557) The Second Vatican Council "teaches… that the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders
is conferred by episcopal consecration, that fullness namely which, both in the
liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of the Fathers of the
Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa) of the sacred ministry"
(LG 21 § 2). (CCC 896) The Good Shepherd ought to be the model and
"form" of the bishop's pastoral office. Conscious of his own
weaknesses, "the bishop… can have compassion for those who are ignorant
and erring. He should not refuse to listen to his subjects whose welfare he
promotes as of his very own children.... The faithful... should be closely
attached to the bishop as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is
to the Father" (LG 27 § 2): Let all follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ
follows his Father, and the college of presbyters as the apostles; respect the
deacons as you do God's law. Let no one do anything concerning the Church in
separation from the bishop (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Smyrn. 8, 1: Apostolic
Fathers, II/2, 309).
(Next question: What is the office confided to a Bishop in a particular
Church?)
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