Teach, Govern, and Sanctify:

The Priest and the Moral Life of Those Committed to His Care

MT 501: Moral Theology

Rev. Romanus Cessario, O.P.

Br. Paul M. Nguyen, OMV

Congregationis Oblatorum Beat Mari Virginis
May 5, 2015

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The priest is the one who makes Christ the Lord present to His people by means of his
configuration to Christ, the One High Priest, and the sacraments he celebrates by virtue of his
ordination, ex opere operato. He participates in an essentially different and higher way in the
three-fold munera of Christsanctifying Priest, teaching Prophet, and governing Kingbecause
the ordained priest's exercise of these offices is at the service of the common priesthood of all the
faithful, who also share in those offices, and the priest's is directed to the salvation of all the
world.1 The priest is nonetheless a man, an heir of original sin and concupiscence, a pilgrim on
the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem; he must attend to his own morality and holiness even as he
sanctifies, teaches, and governs Christ's flock.
The priests of the old covenant offered sacrifices for their own purification and in
atonement for the peoples' transgressions of the Commandments and the law.2 This was a
sanctifying act in those days, and it would seem that the practice for more serious sins was to
discourage bad conduct by the price of the penalty (purchasing the prescribed animal for the
sacrifice; humiliation before the community, etc.). Of course, this had to be taught, and common
people most likely learned first to approach the priests and scribes to learn about how the law
applied to them in specific cases and moments in their lives, and did not study the law in its
entirety. It is also likely that fathers taught their children what they knew of the law. Now with
Christ's priesthood and the ordination of men who participate in it, the paterfamilias still teaches
his children, and the priest teaches the father together with his whole family.
The priest is still responsible for the normative worship of God of a community of
believers. In persona Christi, he offers himself and the Lamb for the forgiveness of sins in the
anamnetic celebration of the Eucharist. Insofar as they share in the common priesthood of the

1
2

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), n. 1547.

CCC, n. 1539.

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faithful, the baptized also offer themselves.3 As the Catechism teaches, the moral life is spiritual
worship, ... and finds its source and summit in the Eucharist.4 In this way, the priest exercises
the sanctifying munus and provides in the Eucharist the grace needed to sustain a moral life.
Although the opportunity to preach on the moral life is ever-present, in the celebration of
the sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest has an opportunity to exercise all three munera,
especially the prophetic and royal offices. Through the sacrament, sanctifying and sacramental
grace come to the penitent; the priest may instruct the penitent in the moral life, especially by
commandments, beatitudes, and moral and theological virtues; and he may encourage or even
oblige the penitent to greater discipline of life, claiming more of his life for the Kingdom of God.
In short, the priest gives the efficacious message of the truth about the good of the human person,
directing the penitent and already setting him on his way to final beatitude. This sacrament
covers the whole human life, and presents an opportunity for a completely personalized approach
to the instruction in the moral life, as it is one-on-one and utterly private. The priest must also be
intimately familiar with everything that pertains to human morality, including a complete action
theory that correctly recognizes the appetitive, intellective, and volitive orders and determines
actionsthat are at least chosen if not completedby their objects, principally and
fundamentally, and then by their ends and circumstances.5 This mastery enables the priest to hear
clearly what is confessed, and then helps him to form the penitent's conscience with clarity and
precision. It is also the chief means to defeat the variety errors that have arisen by re-ordering
those determining factors or by ignoring one or another aspect of a complete action theory.
The priest-confessor may then ask questions of the penitent to ascertain his present
understanding of various principles of the moral life and to gauge his self-knowledge, and the
3
4
5

Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC), n. 48.

CCC, n. 2031.
John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (VS), n. 78.

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priest may then give apt advice about the next steps to take on his path of conversion. He will
have to break bad habits and cultivate good ones, shedding vices and growing in the virtues that
facilitate the moral life in the long-term. Most importantly, the priest must explain the
reasonability and suitability of these reforms in light of the nature of man and his perfection and
beatitude as the goal-state of his life, and not merely on a positivist, legal basis. The priest can
also give deviceful questions for the penitent to use for growing in self-knowledge and mastery,
questions that draw his attention to the various stages of human action, to see the true nature of
the action in question, or to observe the ways that virtues, particularly prudence, shape a moral
life and evidence attainment of beatitude.
All the sacraments in the life of the priest present an opportunity to give moral instruction
and to confer sacramental and sanctifying grace, including the gifts of the Holy Spirit.6 The priest
should be aware that there may be those in attendance who are yet unschooled in the moral life
(particularly in the case of sacraments received at high points in one's life when family and
friends are invited to witness, if not also participate in the celebration). Not only should he
expound saving truth and the truth about the good of the human person, but he should endeavor
to relate this message to those who yet lack the understanding and personal formation to receive
it immediately in its fullness. In light of the New Evangelization and universal call for all the
faithful to live as Christian prophets in the world, the priest could easily address those others
present in the form of a commission to the faithful present, offering concrete suggestions for the
mission of the laity that immediately speak to those present to whom they are sent.
The priest does well to relate his preaching to the fundamental reorientation of life that
Baptism begins in all Christians. The gift of faith, received at the moment of Baptism by water
and the Trinitarian formula, must be nourished and grow within each believer. This means that he
6

cf. VS, n. 5.

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must embrace ever more consciously and deeply the propositions of eternal significance about
man's relationship to God, the offer of salvation extended through the Incarnate Word sacrificed
on the Cross Who rose triumphant,7 and the deep truth of his own human dignity to which he
commits by his own free assent to the faith. This commitment then calls him to increasingly
conform his life to Christ and to become His witness to the world, a witness to the freedom of the
sons of God, living the moral life in conformity with the truth about his own good as spiritual
worship.8
The priest's function is to guide and also accompany the faithful by authoritative
teaching. But, just as it is primary to the prophetic role of the laity to give witness to an authentic
Christian life in the world, it is through the priest's own perfection in holiness and virtue that
render convincing his accompaniment and teaching.9 He must reveal by his whole life, just as
Christ did, that The Truth sets us free, both within ourselves and from worldly power, even if we
suffer martyrdom.10 The priest must continually seek to know himself and foster his own
sacramental life even as he makes the sacraments available to his people. And he must equally
remain familiar with his people and their culture in order to present the unchanging truth as a
response to the ways in which it is manifested or obscured in the current situation.11 At the same
time, the priest must care for his own moral life by taking his own advice and responding directly
to specific challenges that only arise out of priestly life, including moral fatigue, which
compromises authentic priestly joy and demands renewal that is both physical and spiritual.12
Ongoing attention to spiritual development, especially in a total and dedicated way, is essential.
The priest must possess first what he wishes his people to receive, for one cannot give what he
7
8
9
10
11
12

VS, n. 117; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17.

VS, n. 89; cf. Romans 8:21; 12:1.
cf. VS, n. 3, 110.
VS, n. 87.
John Paul II, Pastores dabo vobis (PDV), n. 72.
PDV, n. 77.

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does not have, and a bad priest's people will surely be lost, while a saintly priest's people will be
holy.13 In describing the structure of the visible Church, the Council describes priestly ministry as
flowing from an abundance of contemplation.14 This clearly shows that the priest's prayer life,
by which he beholds God with heart and mind, is the source and vivifying energy of his whole
ministry, by which he engages people in the moral life. The priest's mission is bound up in
disciple-making, that is, in continually setting people in relation to their End, which is union with
God in the beatific vision of heaven.15 But here again, the mission is inseparable from the
necessity for the priest himself to receive and embrace that mission of discipleship. He himself
must be in relation to the End of heaven, living with daily choices that exhibit virtue, from his
abundance of contemplation and sacramental life, so that both his life and words prophesy to the
truth about the good of the human person.
Religious priests have no exemption from what has been said thus far. On the contrary, by
virtue of their religious consecration, they are both called to a more perfect state of following
Christ, and assisted by that same consecration to embody the evangelical counsels of chastity,
poverty, and obedience in a stable way. And for all priests, the Church provides numerous helps.
Religious brothers and sisters, by their own pursuit of perfection and prayers, obtain further
graces to strengthen active priests. Finally, the recent popes and the Council alike have stressed
the example and matronage of Mary for all the faithful, and also for priests as Regina cleri. As
the cult of the Virgin has pride of place around the world, so also do priests wisely seek her
counsel, imitate her virtues, and implore her assistance, beginning with the initial acceptance of
the call to the clerical state, continuing through formation, and persevering through the whole life
of ministry until death.16
13
14
15
16

CCC, 1589.
LG, n. 41.
PDV, n. 1.
PDV, n. 82.

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References
Catechism of the Catholic Church. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
John Paul II. Pastores dabo vobis. 1992
John Paul II. Veritatis Splendor. 1993.
Second Vatican Council. Lumen Gentium. 1964.