The Three Priesthoods

by Reader Lou Pizzuti

Often, I hear people say that we are all priests, referring to the passage in St. Peter’s First Epistle, where he says, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood”. Those who make this point seem to imply that the ministerial priesthood found in the Catholic Church, and in the other ancient churches – Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Church of the East – are somehow a later addition to the Gospel, perhaps even an aberration.

So, let us examine what Scripture says.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”  1 Pet 2:9

This priesthood is mentioned two other times in scripture.

“You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” Ex 19:6

“Worthy art thou to take the scroll and to open its seals, for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and hast made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.” – Rev 5:9-10

This tells us two things.

1. The Royal Priesthood is not something that was initiated with the New Covenant, the Gospel.  It was part of the Old Covenant, the Law, as well.
2. It’s been part of God’s plan along.

Under the Law, there also existed a ministerial priesthood, the Levitical, or Aaronic, priesthood, so called because all members of that priesthood were descendants of Moses’s brother, Aaron, a Levite. And that same section of Exodus shows the interaction of the Royal priesthood and the Levitical priesthood.

“And also let the priests who come near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out upon them. . . . do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD, lest he break out against them.” Ex 19:22, 24

The Levitical priesthood was something different than the Royal Priesthood, and it required consecration of those priests who would serve the Lord.

Let’s take a step back and ask, what is a priest?  Quite simply, a priest is one who offers sacrifice on the behalf of others.  The Levitical priest offered to sacrifice of the altar. We, the Royal priests, are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. We are to offer our sufferings to “complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col 1:24). We offer up our sufferings as a sacrifice to direct God’s grace.

And for whom is a priest’s offerings made? For oneself and for “the other”. A ministerial priest, a member of the community of Aaron’s descendants, made his offering on behalf of the Hebrew people, both those descended from Aaron and those not.  A royal priest, a member of the Hebrew community (or, today, the Christian community) makes his offerings on behalf of members of his community and those outside the community, that is, the person next door, the person down the street, the person on the other side of the world.

OK, but, isn’t Christ our High Priest?

Yes.  But not a High Priest of the Royal priesthood.  Scripture makes no mention of that priesthood having a High Priest.

He is a priest after the Order of Melchizedek.  And the Order of Melchizedek offer a sacrifice of bread and wine (“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High.” Gen 14:18).

Christ did not continue the Levitical priesthood.

“Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.” (Heb 7:11-14)

If Christ is High Priest, there must be, as happened with the Levitical High Priest, a
community of priests serving under him.  And there is. It’s the ministerial priesthood, found in all the ancient Churches. It’s the priesthood that offers the sacrifice of bread and wine, which we now know to be the actual Body and Blood of Christ, which is the medicine of immortality.

So, never let it be said that, since Christ is our High Priest, we need no priesthood. 

The fact is, since Christ is our High Priest, we know that there IS a priesthood that He has given to us, to offer sacrifice for us.  And He has given this priesthood the authority to deliver God’s grace to us not only in the Eucharist, but in all seven sacraments (or Mysteries, as they’re known in the East).

Praise GOD for this gift!!!