The Silence We Keep: A Nun's View of the Catholic Priest Scandal Read Online Free PDF Page B

prophetically fulfilling moments, as is his resurrection and the selection of The Twelve. Biblical theologians now recognize that the spirit in which the appointment of The Twelve is made reveals that Jesus accepts further his identity as Messiah. In picking twelve apostles, Jesus fulfills the Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah appointing heads of the “twelve tribes of Israel.” Quite clearly, there is no priestly “ordination” going on there at all.
    As Garry Wills observes, “Since there are no priests in the New Testament, there could be no ordination of priests.” 3 He also quotes theologian Raymond Brown’s explanation of what “ordination” in the early church probably looked like:
A plausible substitute of the chain theory (of “apostolic succession”) is the thesis that sacramental “powers” were part of the mission of the church and that there were diverse ways in which the church (or communities) designated individuals to exercise those powers— the essential element always being church or community consent (which was tantamount to ordination , whether or not that consent was signified by a special ceremony such as laying on of hands). [Emphasis added by Wills] 4
    In the beginning of priesthood, the Christian community practiced ordination by acclamation. In the beginning, it’s the community that chooses and empowers its priesthood, and it’s the community that ordains both men and women to serve in its sacramental ministries. Even so, the literal-minded still cling to the vision of a divinely ordained male priesthood and still claim the appointment of The Twelve as their infallible proof. (And denial still ain’t just a river in Egypt).
    Given the world in which Jesus lived, men were by law the only choice for everything in public and religious life. And by both religious and civil law, women were excluded from public and religious life. Because of the overwhelming biblical sentiment against women, the selection of men only by Jesus was a foregone conclusion. Nothing sexist or exclusive was intended: It was simply the law. No other credible choice could be made, especially because Jesus was fulfilling prophecy. Woman and priesthood were then just as cognitively dissonant to the literal-minded as they are now—and just as unlikely of happening. Understanding the fulfillment of prophecy as ordination to male priesthood remains one of the most misguided church teachings. And it is in such soulful violation of the Spirit of Christ that, according to Saint Paul, “There does not exist among you Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28.) That’s how the God of Christians envisions priesthood, “That all may be one.” All.

    While very early in the public life of Jesus there was a distinct religious movement associated with him and his followers, nothingabout them claimed to become another church with another all-male priesthood. Quite the contrary. The vision Jesus consistently leaves in the Gospels is one of a church that includes everyone, and a priesthood that includes all who are called by the community to serve. The “unchurch” of Christ is what it looks like. It’s like no other church in his world or ours, and what theologians call a discipleship of equals, a religious community bound by one spirit with many different voices, many different charisms, many different gifts, all equally divine in the Christian community. In the church of Christ everyone is invited to the table, and the priesthood of Christ is a calling every baptized person receives. All of us are ordained to do something divine with our lives. It’s a vision of “church” and “priesthood” that remains largely unfulfilled more than two thousand years later.
    Biblical theologians speak of Christianity’s earliest beginnings as the Jesus Movement. Not a new church with its own priesthood, but a traveling community of Jesus’ followers, distinguished in how they were