Jesuit Said: Jesus Christ Having So Dignified Chastity In His Own Person Left It To His Priests As The Most Beautiful Adornment Of Their Priesthood

THE CHURCH OBLIGES HER PRIESTS TO CONTINENCY UNDER THE SEVEREST PENALTIES.

By Fr. Pierre Millet, S.J.

By what right ? If it may not be said that priestly continence is literally and rigorously of divine right, there is no question that it is, as Bellarmine says, in imitation of a divine pattern, that it was taught by the Apostles and is imposed by Ecclesiastical Law.

Could the Church require less of priests, who morning by morning immolate the Lamb without spot, than did the Law of Moses from the priests of Aaron, or the Pagans from the priests who offered sacrifices to false gods ? The priests of the Temple of Jerusalem were obliged to continence for the entire year during which their term of office lasted, and the Greeks and Romans laid a similar obligation upon the priests who served their idols.When there was question of the worship of their deities the Pagans recognized only one virtue and one vice : Castaplacent Superis, says Catullus ; and Plutarch said : Diis omnia munda , and in consequence the impure were thrust from their altars.

Jews and Persians, Indians and Greeks, Romans and Gauls, all peoples, recognized something divine in celibacy. The same idea was found existing in the New World among the Mexicans and Peruvians, and even among the Hurons and the Iroquois. Among all peoples and in ail ages there has been a persuasion that purity of body, that chastity, is an indispensable preparation for the exercise of sacred functions.

I quite agree, however, that Paganism was nothing more than a mass of rottenness, and that the Vestal Virgins bore the same resemblance to Christian Virgins that a hypocrite bears to a Saint. Paganism, while parading its chastity, everywhere set up altars to lust.

Chastity is indigenous to heaven and, when transplanted to earth, it is with difficulty that it takes root in our corrupt soil. Jesus Christ came to teach us by precept, and still more by example, how it is to be cultivated, how it is to be made to exhale and diffuse its sweetness and its fragrance and to bear incomparable fruit. How tender a love did the Man-God, Himself a Virgin from all eternity and born of a Virgin Father among the splendors of the Saints, bear to this angelic virtue throughout the whole course of His life! He chose a Mother ; she was a virgin and will be so for all the eternities, and this will ever be one of her sweetest and most glorious titles.

That a God on becoming man should be born of a Virgin goes without saying, but this was not enough : He wished that everybody about Him, every one nearest Him, should breathe forth only purity and innocence. Mary was given one to aid her in watching over the infancy of Jesus ; he was a virgin. Another was sent before the face of Jesus to prepare the way for Him ; he was a virgin. Jesus gathered together disciples and made them sharers in His divine mission ; they were virgins, says St. Jerome, or made the vow of chastity after they had been called : Apostoli aut virgines, aut post nuptias continentes. He permitted His enemies to impute to Him all sorts of crime, but there was one He would not suffer them to name. Dying on the Cross He committed to a Virgin disciple His Virgin Mother. Now triumphant in heaven and seated at the right hand of His Father, His throne is encompassed by Virgins, who form His guard of honor, who accompany Him wherever He goes, and who sing in His praise that mysterious Canticle which only virgins can sing.

Jesus Christ having so dignified chastity in His own person left it to His priests as the most beautiful adornment of their priesthood and the greatest glory of their ministry. A priest whose reputation is clean and whose morals are pure is dear to the heart of God and useful to His Church;

whereas, on the contrary, a priest whose morals are not beyond reproach, a pastor who is not chaste, what sort of a priest, what sort of a pastor is he?

For us, therefore, chastity is a treasure of infinite price, but we bear it about in frail vessels, and how shall we protect it against so many enemies ever on the alert to rob us of it ?

Link (here) to the original page (488) of a book entitled, Jesus Lives In The Priest, By Fr. Pierre Millet, S.J.

Jesus Living in the Priest: Considerations on the Greatness and Holiness of the Priesthood. By the Rev. P. Millet, S.J. English Translation by the Right Rev. Thomas Sebastian Byrne, D.D., Bishop of Nashville. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago: Benziger Brothers. [Price, 8s.]

This fine, solid, and substantial volume was published in French in 1858. Four editions of an Italian translation of it have appeared, the latest in 1898. The Bishop of Nashville, in the United States, met with it in Rome, and was greatly struck by its order, its clearness, its solidity, its spirituality, and its common- sense. Strange to say, he failed to get a copy of the French original, and was forced to translate it from the Italian translation. It is a most useful addition to a priest's ascetic library. It is excellently produced by the publishers; but several misprints have crept into the Latin quotations, as at page 495, etc. It is translated extremely well.

Link (here)