Digital Continent Digital Continent Easter 2017 | Page 51

with sacred holy oil, administered by the bishop or presbyters of the Church (RSV, Jas 5:13),
God’s people are held in His loving arms.
The sacraments at the service of communion, the sacrament of Holy Orders, “those of the
faithful who are consecrated by Holy Orders are appointed to feed the Church in Christ’s name
with the word and the grace of God” (LG, n.11). The Fourth Lateran Council reiterated the
necessity of apostolic succession as the means by which God’s people are lead to eternal life,
…among the various things that are conducive to the salvation of the Christian
people, the nourishment of God’s word is recognized to be especially necessary,
since just as the body is fed with material food so the soul is fed with spiritual
food, according to the words, man lives not by bread alone but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.” The bishops were admonished to appoint
“suitable men to carry out with profit this duty of sacred preaching, men who are
powerful in word and deed and who will visit with care the people entrusted to
them. 128
The ministers of the Cathar church were those who received the consolamentum. They lived
strict ascetic lives as they sought to share the tenets of the church throughout the south of France,
they were not anointed in Christ. The ministerial priesthood of the Catholic church go out into
the world, as sent by Christ with the ability “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for
building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God” (RSV, EPH 4:12).
128
Fourth Lateran Council, http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum12-2.htm, accessed, February 5, 2016,
n.10.