THE P RTAL
April 2014
Page 6
The A - Z of the Catholic Faith
by Fr Stephen Wang
O is for…
Ordination
All Christians are called to live the
baptismal priesthood: to offer their lives in prayer and
service to God in union with Jesus the High Priest.
The ministerial priest, through the sacrament of
ordination, shares in the priesthood of Christ in a
special way. His very being is transfigured, so that
he can represent Christ the Good Shepherd for us,
Christ as the Head of the Church. He stands before
the Church and ministers to us as Christ ‘in person’.
When he teaches with the authority of the Church
then Christ teaches; when he forgives sins in the
sacrament of Penance then Christ forgives; when he
offers the Sacrifice of the Mass then Christ offers that
Sacrifice; when he loves and supports and cares for his
people then Christ is present with his people.
Because of the wishes of Jesus himself, confirmed by
the tradition of the Church throughout the centuries,
the ministerial priesthood is reserved for men. In
the Western Church the priesthood is also reserved,
ordinarily, for single men who are willing to make a
lifelong commitment to celibacy, for in this way they
can give their whole hearts and minds to the service of
the Lord and to the love of his people.
Original Sin
God’s plan was for all people to live in friendship
and love with him and with all human beings. This is
the meaning of holiness.
Sin is whatever damages this friendship. It is a
conscious decision to turn away from God or from
our neighbour. It is the implicit rejection of God’s
goodness and love that takes place whenever we
disobey his commandments. It is the selfishness and
isolation that arises whenever we fail to trust him as
our loving Father.
The Book of Genesis describes how our First Parents
refused to trust God and turned away from him in
disobedience. Since then, all human beings have been
born into a fallen state of ‘original sin’, even though we
are not personally responsible for it. Our relationships
with God and one another are damaged (but not
destroyed). Our human nature is wounded (but
not totally corrupted): we are subject to ignorance,
suffering and death; and there is an inclination within
us to sin and selfishness. In ordinary language: things
are not as they were meant to be; and many people
even without faith have a sense of the fallenness of the
human condition.
Human solidarity, which is such a blessing, also
means that we all share in the moral and spiritual
‘wound’ inherited from our First Parents. The full
tragedy of sin is only understood in the light of Christ’s
Passion, where we see the Incarnate God, the Innocent
One, rejected and murdered as a consequence of our
sinfulness. At the same time, by loving us even unto
death, Jesus reveals the Divine mercy, forgiveness and
healing that are the only remedy for sin.
Our Father
The disciples said to Jesus, ‘Lord, teach us
to pray’. In response, he taught them the Our Father,
the Lord’s Prayer. There are two versions in the New
Testament, one shorter (Luke 11), one longer (Matthew
6). The longer version is more commonly used:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who
trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
Tertullian said this prayer is a ‘summary of the
whole Gospel’. Augustine called it ‘the perfect prayer’.
It expresses our fundamental identity as Christians:
God is our loving Father; we are his adopted sons
and daughters; we adore and glorify him; and we
turn to him with childlike trust for all our needs and
intercessions. It is a communal prayer (‘Our