Hour of Reflection with Bishop Danny Meagher

The Ordained and Non-Ordained Ministering Together in the Church Today

Link to the recording:

Reflection with Bishop Danny Meagher – 22 Feb 2025

Jesus is the fundamental priest in the Church. The Church is the body of Christ. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, all of us – the ordained and the non-ordained – together share in the mission of Christ to be mediator, to be priests, to bring people God’s salvation.

There are three categories within the concept of priest – priest, prophet and king.

Christ is priest who gave himself his own body on the Cross won the forgiveness of our sins.

He is prophet – He revealed the Father to us and opened to us the true knowledge of the Kingdom of God. He revealed truth and honesty. He lived it, He died it.

As king, he is shepherd. He knew the sheep, He protected his people, fed, loved and served them. He sacrificed himself for the people.

We are all the Church. We are all called to holiness to mediate God’s salvation to the people. That’s the essential mission of Christ. That’s the essential mission for us as his body, the Church.

The ordained priest receives the Sacrament of Holy Orders by which, through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, he is conformed to Christ the Priest such that he can act, in Persona Christi, that is, in the very Person of Jesus Christ. So, priests speak the words of Jesus, celebrates the Eucharist on Jesus’s behalf. They forgive sins and hopefully live a life of self-sacrifice, something akin to the self-sacrifice of Jesus in their prophetic role and their preaching role. They are authoritative representatives of God’s Word. God’s Word assumes the whole of their being, not just in their preaching but in their whole lives.

The non ordained are prophetic, ready to witness to Christ in their lives. And this is part of the Order’s work to be defenders of the faith. It is an important part of the work of the Order to be defenders of the faith, but to always do so consistently with the local Bishop, to participate the priestly role, to participate fully in the sacraments, receiving Holy Communion and Reconciliation, and to offer our own sufferings and our sickness and our hard work, as Christ did on the Cross,

Shepherding is the personal social conduct of the priest, and that lies in the service of the poor and the sick.

The ordained serve the non-ordained so that the whole Church is reconciling. The non-ordained priesthood ought not be subservient to the ordained, but must cooperate with theordained. It can’t be independent of the ordained priesthood. The two work together as one united Body of Christ to bring about salvation to the world.