Just to follow what the good Doctor said, I thought I should clarify one little thing from the perspective of the “FutureChurch” folks. Their website, the page to which Dr. K linked, has the following on it:
FutureChurch advocates for opening ordination to all the baptized. Didn’t
Jesus ordain only men?
In fact, Jesus did not ordain anyone. Ordination was a practice that started to occur decades later in church history. Jesus had both male and female disciples (see “Jesus and Women” link).
So what was the Last Supper, if not the Institition of the Eucharist and the Priesthood? Was it some posh dinner-party? And note, at the Last Supper there were only Apostles – the whole group following Our Lord was not in that room, nor could they have fit. According to the writings of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, a mystic, Mary, the Mother of the Lord, and the other key women were actually having a meal in a separate room at that time, considering what was to be:
Our Lord cut up another lamb, which was carried to the holy women in one of the buildings of the court, where they were seated at table. The Apostles ate some more vegetables and lettuce. The countenance of our Divine Saviour bore an indescribable expression of serenity and recollection, greater than I had ever before seen. He bade the Apostles forget all their cares. The Blessed Virgin also, as she sat at table with the other women, looked most placid and calm. When the other women came up, and took hold of her veil to make her turn round and speak to them, her every movement expressed the sweetest self-control and placidity of spirit.
At the Last Supper, Our Lord gave us not only Himself, but the seeds of His Church – our first bishops. Of course it bears little resemblance to current sacramental ceremonies – it was a Jewish Passover meal, not a Catholic Ordination Mass. (Although, in truth, it was. Outer vestiges and inner meaning merge with ease when Our Lord so chooses. We do not choose. He does.)
So, yes, Jesus did have male and female followers, “man and woman He created them,” but these were not those who were with Him through the hours of his dolorous Passion. The Apostles partook of the First Eucharist, and were given the task of sacerdotal (priest) and episcopal (bishop) ministries. If you deny this, you deny the legitimacy of the first Pope, Peter, Bishop of Rome. If Jesus didn’t ordain them, if he didn’t start the ever-growing chain of laying-on-of-hands, then who did? I guess it had to be Mary Magdalene. (I trademark that idea, Dan Brown. If there’s a novel in this, it’s not going to be yours.)
Tags: Progressive Drivel
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