AS REGARDS the Old Testament: In saecula saeculorum (“from ages to ages”), God chose men to image his holiness and divine fatherhood in the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites.
MYSTERIOUS SIGN
AS REGARDS the New Testament: In the present age, Jesus Christ chose men to image his divinity in the spirit and his humanity in the flesh. Christ the divine person chose human persons to image his own unique incarnation in the flesh as man, as a male. The consequence of this profoundly personalistic act is that the apostolic priesthood continues to offer the unbloody Eucharistic sacrifice in continuity with the spiritual fatherhood of Aaron whose Levite tribe never received a share of the land of Canaan but rather a tithe from all the other tribes.
THE APOSTOLIC priesthood completes the fatherhood of Aaron and the High Priesthood of Melchizadek by imaging the groomship of Christ who, as man “born in the likeness of men” [Phi 2:7] and eternal Son of God, forever will intercede for his bride with whom he will be as one in the nuptial rite and banquet of heaven. Christ established the priesthood of the Church as a profound and mysterious sign of the sacred relationships of Father and Son from whom the Spirit proceeds in the most blessed and eternal trinity of persons in the Triune God.
REVELATION 19:7-9
LET US rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure"—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.' [Rev 19:7-9]
CHRIST NEVER ESTABLISHED. . .
SPEAKING OF the eternal priesthood which the Church has no authority whatsoever to change: Whatever Christ began, he completed. Christ never established anything he could not finish. Christ never established anything that he could not sustain. Christ never established anything that was defective or insufficient. Christ never established anything that someone else could corrupt or steal. Christ never established anything under duress as a victim of his culture. Christ did not give life to the Church only to see it die. Our Lord's own words illustrate the magnitude of this truth:
FOR THIS reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again; this charge I have received from my Father. [Jn 10:17-18]
CHRIST NEVER established anything to mimic inconstant cultural and political fashions. Christ never established anything as a laboratory of innovation and experimentation. Christ never established anything that time or death could destroy. Christ never established anything that was not under the direct authority and will of his heavenly Father. Christ has never established anything that the Spirit of God opposed. Christ never established anything that he did not intend to be eternal.
ROMANS 8:27-29
AND HE who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. [Rom 8:27-29]
