PRIESTHOOD
As the Cup
of Messiah's Sacrificial Suffering is inseparable from Redemption, but Redemption is inseparable from
Incarnation, so the Eucharist
is inseparable from the priesthood.
The priesthood is G-d's lawful institution in Torah (not to speak about
Melchizedek / Malkitsedek still before the Sinaitic Law). It is aimed to
perform actions with the sense of a Sacramental Sign, e.g. showing a man that
forgiven is his sin for which he had made an offering. In this way such a Sign has
sequels.
Sacramental Signs witness a real (not symbolic!) mystic change
associated with action for which G-d has specialised a correspondent performer,
not any accidental person. All men of Levi's tribe were appointed to serve G-d,
however only those of them were kohens, who were descendants of Aharon. Only
kohens were capable to perform sacramental sacrifices in the Temple.
The Blessed Sacrament cannot but presume real sequels (including negative
sequels – cf. the admonition of 1 Kor=Qōrintijjīm ālep 11, 29)
and changes implicating G-d's gifts to one who really unites with Crucified JHS
with all his heart. Since this shows a degree of perfection of the Sinaitic
Covenant, similar perfection is expected for priesthood too. This seems to have
been understood in apostolic times: the apostlehood was transmitted through
laying on of hands.
In the New Covenant there is a the concept of total
priesthood of all believers, what has been especially developed by Protestants.
Nevertheless one should not forgot that not all Levites offered sacrifices,
however the kohens only. The latter correspond to bishofs in Christian
tradition. The bishofs lay hands on priests consecrating them bishofs, the
bishofs also ordain priests to fulfil duties. Even the reformation of
Luther-Zwingli-Calvin did not change this praxis. Therefore all inventions of
Neo-Protestants of the 19th
c. and later can
hardly be taken seriously.
Thus all believers in JHS may be Levites, however it is a question whether all
of them can be kohens!
Messianic Jews, as heirs of the whole Jewish tradition, can hardly negate
priesthood of Levites and kohens of the Sinaitic Law similarly as the Sinaitic
Law does not negate the priesthood of Malkitsedek. For the same reason the
apostolic priesthood through laying on of the hands cannot be ignored too.
Therefore, keeping to Jewish millenary tradition of the priesthood seems to be
ideal, especially in the matter of indubitable sacraments (those with sequels) of
which Eucharist is most significant according to almost all opinions. In
the future, it seems possible that the priesthgood of Malkitsedek will reappear
in the renewed Church of St. Ya‘aqob with the help of messianic genetic kohens
laying hands on elected priests of the priesthood of Malkitsedek. Messianic Jews
are not any traditional protestants who historically come from the same
Anti-Jewish Constantin's Church of 325, as Roman Catholic or Orthodoxes (cf. the
beginner of Protestantism Martin Luther who was the first to transform
political-religious
Anti-Judaism of the Romans into future racist Anti-Semitism of the Germans).
Although
the Eucharist uniting with the Crucified JHS can be individual and spiritual, the
Sign of G-d becomes apparently needed for rallying the community when
delivered through the hands of G-d-elected priest.
Objections
that the sign itself does not make a person participant of the
Golgotos Sacrifice does not make sense, because on the one hand the Sign is
given to already a participant in faith, on the other hand the Sign is Divine
and mystical rather than human and material. Together with the Sign one obtains
a Gift uniting all miserable or larger individual sacrifices into the Sacrifice
of Golgotha. One who contributes less to the Bank of the Universal Sacrifice in
Body of Saviour, that gets from there as much reinforcing Grace as it is needed
for further individual steps on the way of the Lord.
Such a kind of reasoning is certainly Catholic, however why it should be worse
than any Protestant one, often rationalized and cleansed of mysticism?
A
Catholic sees in Hostia all the Body of JHS, i.e. the whole Church beginning
from St. Miryam, apostles and martyres up to today living believers, ending with
his neighbour who stands by his side at a Mess, who is in the state of Grace,
and with whom the Community of Saints is witnessed in the same Mystical Body.
Uniting all believers round the Jewish roots, Messianic Judaism is not
necessarily obliged to reject any positive experience of 2000 years of
non-Jewish Christianity. Nevertheless in certain frames only. An enormous
charismatic share has already brought such things into the Messianic Movement
which are unthinkable in the Jewish tradition (as e.g. speaking
"languages"). This can even choke up the Jewish tradition in case such
believers of Non-Jewish origin prevail.
Where no sacramental sacrifice is offered, no priesthood is necessary. Therefore
it does not exist in traditioal rabbinic Judaism similarly as in Islam. Many
Neo-Protestants have rejected sacramental priesthood coming from times of the
Temple. This happened because of the rejection of the Papacy and the
rationalisation of faith depriving it from its mystical content. However
survival of pre-Nicene terminology (as bishops, presbyters) in
almost all Protestant denominations reveals their Roman provenance. Therefore
when confronted with Messianic Judaism, both Catholics with Orthodoxes and their
opponents Protestants appear to be at the same alternative side, i.e. at a Roman
side (no matter whether of "the first", or "the second"
Rome). The last thing to end all these abstract speculations on "the
theory of the Messianism", is a degree to which Paulinistic exegesis can be
justified for messianic believers, when only one presumably Paul's epistle is addressed to
the Jews, all the others are oriented toward traditions and mentality of the
pagans.
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