A Priest's "Powers"

A week or two ago I received an e-mail from someone seeking to debunk the idea that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. It started out by explaining that Catholics believe priests have the "power" to turn bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus.

Such a statement hints at a quite basic misunderstanding of sacraments and of the role of the priest in the Catholic faith. But it's a misunderstanding that some Catholics may share, so it's really worth thinking about carefully.

In Matthew 18:20 Jesus is quoted as saying, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Does that mean that any two or three of us has the power to force Jesus to be present in a particular place at a particular time? Well, in a sense it does, but that doesn't mean we have power over Jesus. It means that Jesus is faithful, and we can depend on him to do what he has promised. In the sense that we serve a powerful God and have been sent a powerful savior, it might be useful at times to think of ourselves as powerful. Our love can be powerful. Even our suffering can be powerful when we join it with Jesus’ suffering. But it would be a terrible misconception to think of priests or any Christians as having occult powers – powers to do magic, to direct God, etc.

When a priest speaks for us the words of consecration, "This is my body" and "This is my blood," Jesus, who asked us to "do this in memory of me," (Luke 22:19) makes the priest's words true. It is the priest speaking the words, but it is Jesus acting. It is the faithfulness of Jesus, even the power of Jesus, not any "power" the priest has that changes the bread and wine into the body and blood of our Lord.

The ordination of a priest makes him special more in the sense of being given special responsibilities – for example, it is the priest and only the priest who will serve the community by celebrating the Mass and by extending God’s forgiveness for sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation – than in the sense of being given "powers."

Faith that Jesus is really present in the consecrated bread and wine is one of the oldest and most fundamental of Christian beliefs. It is amazing that Jesus gives himself so completely for us and gives himself so completely to us. It is amazing that Jesus gives to the Church, with all our imperfections, the "power" to make him present in the world, but he does just that. In that sense, we are incredibly powerful, but only because we have a God who is so faithful and so wonderful.