the brotherhood of diocesan priests of a local church, with the bishop at its head, is the company which, united in the love of the brotherhood, offers the sacrifice of love for and within the community of the faithful. The work of Christ remains the bishop's work. He who would co-operate in this work as God wills that he should, must stand, united in the obedience of divine charity with his bishop. CHAPTER III THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE DIOCESAN PRIESTHOOD E SSENTIAL for an adequate theological understanding of the secular priesthood is the recognition of the presbyterium as a brotherhood that imposes a special obligation of mutual Christian fraternal charity upon its members. Obviously this does not mean that the diocesan presbyterium is the only kind of community whose members are bound to love one another with the love of the brotherhood. Such an obligation is in no way peculiar to the diocesan priestly fraternity, because Christ our Lord has given this command to all His disciples and has made His Church a brotherhood of love. For this reason, within the universal Church itself, and within every legitimate social unit of the Church, Christ's disciples are bound to love one another with the true and sincere affection of charity. There are, however, special reasons that demand of a secular priest a particularly powerful and intimate fraternal charity for his fellow priests, and particularly for the members of his own presbyterium. Every priest, religious or secular, by the very fact of his position and function in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, has motives for fraternal charity stronger and more exacting than those which govern the conduct of Catholics not in sacerdotal orders. Every diocesan priest, by reason of his association with his bishop and with the other members of his own presbyterium in the Eucharistic leader ship of a local Church, is bound to the perfection of mutual charity by ties that affect only his own brotherhood. In order to realize the special position of mutual fraternal charity in the diocesan priesthood, we must first understand the urgency with which our Lord laid the command for the love of the brotherhood on all his disciples so as to make it a real bond of unity in His Church. The order to love one another was the "new commandment" He gave to His disciples. A new command I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.1 Our Lord returned again and again to this basic commandment during the course of His instruction after the Last Supper. "This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you," He told the disciples, and, "These things I command you, that you love one another."3 As a matter of fact St. John, the inspired author of the Fourth Gospel, explains Christ's own teaching about spiritual light and darkness in terms of this love of the brotherhood. Again a new commandment I write unto you: which thing is true both in him and in you, because the darkness is passed and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light: and there is no scandal in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth: because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.* This passage from St. John's First Epistle contains an obvious reference to our Lord's own statement: "I am the 1 John 13:34-35. 2 John 15:12. 3 John 15:17. light of the world. He that followeth me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life," and to the warning He gave the multitude that questioned and opposed Him after His triumph of Palm Sunday. Jesus therefore said to them: Yet a little while, the light is among you. Walk whilst you have the light, and the darkness overtaketh you not. And he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." Our Lord taught that the very purpose of His coming into the world was to give men, through faith in Him, that light of life with which the love of the brotherhood is inseparably connected. "I am come," He said, "a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in me may not remain in darkness."" Thus the love of the individual Catholic for the Church and for his brothers in the company of the disciples is something most clearly and forcefully commanded by our Lord. The charity of the brotherhood, or the true and sincere affection for the Church as the supernatural house or family of God and for its members, is a matter of stringent and fundamental obligation for all Catholics without exception. To classify this love of the brotherhood as something to be achieved only in the higher stages of perfection, or to think of it as merely something counseled by our Lord is to misconstrue the very purpose and the nature of the Catholic Church. "We know," St. John tells us, "that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death." It is impossible to love God with the love of charity without loving our brethren in the Church. If any man say: I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not? 5 John 8:12. 6 John 12:35. 7 John 12:46. 81 John 3:14. And this commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother." As a matter of fact, the great Douai theologian, Francis Sylvius († 1649), spoke of the amor fraternitatis apart from which true charity cannot exist as a requisite for membership in the Church of Jesus Christ in this world. Sylvius taught that this "love of brotherhood" could and did exist in persons not in the state of grace even though only those who possessed the amor fraternitatis could have the virtue of charity. Thus he held the Catholic truth that men not in the state of grace can be truly members of the one company described by St. Paul as the body of Christ.10 Sylvius defended strenuously and, it would seem, successfully his contention that the Second Epistle of St. Peter gave evidence of divinely inspired teaching that there is such a thing as a "love of brotherhood" distinct from the theological virtue of charity. He pointed to the passage in which St. Peter warns his readers to minister “in godliness, love of brotherhood: and in love of brotherhood, charity."" The Greek text has piλadeλpía for amor fraternitatis and ảyá′′ŋ for caritas. In common with many of his contemporary theologians, Sylvius refused to accept the teaching of St. Robert Bellarmine († 1621), that a man could be counted as a member of the true Church by the possession of only the external bond of unity within this society.12 St. Robert held that a man could and must be reckoned as a Christian, as a member of the one true Church of Jesus Christ in the world, if he had the profession of the true faith, if he was admitted to the communication of the sacraments, and if he held himself subject to his legitimate ecclesiastical pastors, and ultimately, 91 John 4:20-21. 10 Cf. De praecipuis fidei nostrae orthodoxae controversiis cum nostris haereticis, Lib. III, art. 2, in the Opera omnia (Antwerp, 1698), V, 237. 112 Pet. 1:7. 12 Cf. De ecclesia militante, cap. 2, in De controversiis christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos (Ingolstadt, 1856), I, 1264. |