Whether It Is Fitting That Christ Should Be a Priest?
Objection 1: It would seem unfitting that Christ should be a priest.
For a priest is less than an angel; whence it is written (Zech. 3:1):
"The Lord showed me the high-priest standing before the angel of the
Lord." But Christ is greater than the angels, according to Heb. 1:4:
"Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a
more excellent name than they." Therefore it is unfitting that Christ
should be a priest.
Obj. 2: Further, things which were in the Old Testament were figures
of Christ, according to Col. 2:17: "Which are a shadow of things to
come, but the body is Christ's." But Christ was not descended from
the priests of the Old Law, for the Apostle says (Heb. 7:14): "It is
evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, in which tribe Moses spoke
nothing concerning priests." Therefore it is not fitting that Christ
should be a priest.
Obj. 3: Further, in the Old Law, which is a figure of Christ, the
lawgivers and the priests were distinct: wherefore the Lord said
to Moses the lawgiver (Ex. 28:1): "Take unto thee Aaron, thy
brother . . . that he [Vulg.: 'they'] may minister to Me in the
priest's office." But Christ is the giver of the New Law, according
to Jer. 31:33: "I will give My law in their bowels." Therefore it
is unfitting that Christ should be a priest.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Heb. 4:14): "We have [Vulg.:
'Having'] therefore a great high-priest that hath passed into the
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God."
_I answer that,_ The office proper to a priest is to be a mediator
between God and the people: to wit, inasmuch as He bestows Divine
things on the people, wherefore _sacerdos_ (priest) means a giver of
sacred things (_sacra dans_), according to Malachi 2:7: "They shall
seek the law at his," i.e. the priest's, "mouth"; and again,
forasmuch as he offers up the people's prayers to God, and, in a
manner, makes satisfaction to God for their sins; wherefore the
Apostle says (Heb. 5:1): "Every high-priest taken from among men is
ordained for men in the things that appertain to God, that he may
offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins." Now this is most befitting
to Christ. For through Him are gifts bestowed on men, according to 2
Pet. 1:4: "By Whom" (i.e. Christ) "He hath given us most great and
precious promises, that by these you may be made partakers of the
Divine Nature." Moreover, He reconciled the human race to God,
according to Col. 1:19, 20: "In Him" (i.e. Christ) "it hath well
pleased (the Father) that all fulness should dwell, and through Him
to reconcile all things unto Himself." Therefore it is most fitting
that Christ should be a priest.
Reply Obj. 1: Hierarchical power appertains to the angels, inasmuch
as they also are between God and man, as Dionysius explains (Coel.
Hier. ix), so that the priest himself, as being between God and man,
is called an angel, according to Malachi 2:7: "He is the angel of the
Lord of hosts." Now Christ was greater than the angels, not only in
His Godhead, but also in His humanity, as having the fulness of grace
and glory. Wherefore also He had the hierarchical or priestly power
in a higher degree than the angels, so that even the angels were
ministers of His priesthood, according to Matt. 4:11: "Angels came
and ministered unto Him." But, in regard to His passibility, He "was
made a little lower than the angels," as the Apostle says (Heb. 2:9):
and thus He was conformed to those wayfarers who are ordained to the
priesthood.
Reply Obj. 2: As Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii, 26): "What
is like in every particular must be, of course, identical, and not a
copy." Since, therefore, the priesthood of the Old Law was a figure of
the priesthood of Christ, He did not wish to be born of the stock of
the figurative priests, that it might be made clear that His
priesthood is not quite the same as theirs, but differs therefrom as
truth from figure.
Reply Obj. 3: As stated above (Q. 7, A. 7, ad 1), other
men have certain graces distributed among them: but Christ, as being
the Head of all, has the perfection of all graces. Wherefore, as to
others, one is a lawgiver, another is a priest, another is a king; but
all these concur in Christ, as the fount of all grace. Hence it is
written (Isa. 33:22): "The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our
law-giver, the Lord is our King: He will" come and "save us."
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