Holy Thursday -why only men in the sacramental priesthood for Catholics and Orthodox Christians?

hey everybody father dave i just want to chat briefly about holy thursday right so whenever holy thursday comes i think of the mr magoo christmas special i don't know if you've ever uh watched the mr magu christmas special it's great we watched it every year well not every year now but we would watch it every year growing up as kids um and there's like a really sad there's like some great songs in there but there's a really sad song in there that mr ragu sings and it's from when scrooge is remembering being a little boy and being left all by himself you know and it's like uh a hand for each hand was made for the world why don't my fingers reach millions of grains of sand in the world why such a lonely beach and he goes on to sing you know where where are two shoes to click to my clack where is a voice to answer mine back and he sings i'm all alone in the world it's so sad my brother loves that song too and it's just really really sad he's left by himself at the boarding school he sees all his friends go home and you know because of whatever fight was going on he you know he can't he can't go home why do i think of that on holy thursday father dave this is the day where jesus gives us the priesthood he gives us the blessed sacrament the eucharist like this isn't a did we sing the glory this must be a really great day it's also the hardest night of jesus's life in his human nature because he's left alone padre pio st padre pio tells us that right that this was a really tough night for christ um you know the agony in the garden uh jesus is he naturally has a fear of death right he as a in his human nature right the body wants to live um and so like natural like for example hammer time all right hammer time i do this with i used to you i used to use this with uh marriage when i would do like pre-k right so like uh if i like slam this down right i don't want to really break my table but if i like slam this down how many of you want to put your hand underneath this hammer all right if i was like right like well no one right and if i reverse it bang right no one wants to put their hand underneath that and so jesus has because we have a natural inclination to shrink from pain and to like protect ourselves we don't have a hard actual skeleton we have a you know an internal frame like an internal frame backpack we have our skeleton on the inside and we're all the soft stuff on the outside right and so naturally jesus has a fear of death and he wants to shrink from pain no one wants to you know you you touch the hot stove you're going to whip your hand away right and he of course on the cross will keep his hand out there as the hammer you know comes down uh and our lord and you know is nailed to the cross for your sake and mine and for our sins all right so he is thinking about how he's going to sacrifice himself for us and he's also sadly thinking about all the people who just won't appreciate or you know be open to what he's going to do and all the cold hearts that are out there and he's going to have real a real hard night in the garden tonight again what padre pio tells us because he's going to go and look for comfort from his friends and he knows that they're going to betray him but not yet and when he goes to find them he finds them asleep they can't stay up for him and i remember when i went to the holy land and was able to go to the garden of gethsemane man i was like crying there you know we talked a bunch of prisoners i try to go to the holy land like every other every other year take a bunch of parishioners they should be couldn't for covet hopefully we'll go next year but i mean i remember whenever i go to the garden against him i just start bawling um because i think of like you know peter jesus tells you you know the apostles like stay awake right keep watching and they're not and i i'm sad for all the times that i haven't you know persevered in the faith and didn't keep watch as christ would ask me to do right as he asked you to do any time we sing we let the guard down all right so a really tough night so traditionally as catholics what do we do tonight so we have the celebration of the eucharist we're going to talk about that in a moment uh and uh the institution of the priesthood is related to holy thursday on the last supper but also then we make visits you know in the old days you would visit seven churches uh and the idea is that you're keeping watch with christ so he has the rumor he celebrates the last supper and then he goes uh you know he goes down and up to the mount of olives where he prays and that's unfortunate where he's gonna be betrayed but so we keep watch with christ and so you would do that by making visits to seven churches and then at least the jersey shore as you got older then i went to three churches um maybe during covid you can click on three different you know perpetual adoration chapels that you find online or around the world or something like that and make a virtual visit with jesus but his tough night his his toughest night i always think about that on thursday nights um i always think like man it's a good night to tell jesus you love him and keep watching him in prayer not to abandon him tonight um so it's also the institution of the eucharist so let's talk about that for a moment because it's not all like screw the story of scrooge is not all the sad lonely story it's also the story of of grace working in this guy's heart so in the catholic church when i was a chaplain at princeton i would tell kids like whatever question you have about the catholic faith you should have a good answer for it right like if this is if he's really god and this is really true whatever questions you have like why does the church do this why does the church do that why do we teach this there should be a good answer for it and i might not know all the reasons to all those i meant of all those questions but you should find them and if you don't find them out there and there's been some brilliant minds in our catholic faith and there's great saints but if you don't find it then you should find the church asking the same questions that you ask and so a question often that people ask catholics is well father dave you know why can't women be priests what's up with that well some of that is related to holy thursday now a biblical scholar will answer this question differently than i will so it kind of in the seminary theology is there's like different you know you could study systematic theology script you know biblical theology you could look at different on-ramps to answer some of these questions and the scripture scholar um which i'm not a scripture scholar but a scripture scholar would say well you know in the ancient covenant you had an all-male priesthood in uh judaism and so the uh christianity is the fulfillment of judaism it's carrying that forward and at the last supper it's jesus and the twelve apostles he doesn't make mary a priest he doesn't make mary magdalene a priest uh what he does is he makes the priests of the apostles and they were all dudes and that's what a scripture scholar would say and i and when i heard that i was like back in the back in the day i was like yeah man i want a better reason than that then that was because of probably my lack of faith or growing in the house of the scripture saint teresa benedicta uh edith stein became saint theresa benedict that she was a philosophy student a phenomenologist she wrote who's role's doctoral thesis she was like a well she is a great theologian and she was considered to be a real progressive uh feminist at the time and they asked her a question i remember reading this in seminars in the library plumbing through the books looking at this question and they asked her well what do you think about women not being able to be priests and she's like the incarnation forbids it and that's all she said about i was like what like what that is why is that the the enough for her like that wasn't enough for me so plum a little deeper so all this is a preamble to say that the reasons i'm going to give you are reasons in our catholic tradition but there are fuller and wider reasons and different theologians like joseph ratzinger car rauner the different folks will answer this question differently um you know mother teresa right saint therese right saint therese wanted to be a priest and realize that she couldn't and so she chose a higher vocation to be loved so so let's talk about this you know at least i know it's gonna be brief or not my videos tend to not be brief but um but i'm not preaching for the internet tonight we're just gonna have mass over here uh okay so first thing to say is the and the church will say the reservation of the priesthood to men alone has nothing to do with with men versus women right that's something that the devil introduces when he introduces sin into the world and division between adam and eve that's not god's plan in god's plan men and women are equal right the saint john the paul ii will tell us this right it says in the image of god he made him male and female he made them right and then when a husband and wife when a man and a woman stand together and committed love before the world that's what god looks like the image of god is the relationship between a man and a woman in committed love okay so it's not about men being better than women women being better than men not about that at all first we have to ask or at least i like to approach it this way first you ask and we do know all right so the jews had an all-male priesthood when the rest of the coasters did it right the rest of them had priestess priestesses and priests all around them but they had an all-male priesthood what was that about first let's ask and we would say well let's ask the question what does a priest do well the priest makes youtube videos father dave and goes on and on at ten at nine minutes already on holy thursday right yes we do but what do priests do priests lead prayer they gather people together they help feed the hungry they tell us the good news yes yes yes yes no no no no what a priest is what a priest or a priestess is all over the world is someone who offers sacrifice yes our priests happen to lead prayer you don't need to be a priestly prayer yes our priests tell us the good news of the scripture you don't need to be a priest to do that yes our priests feed the hungry you don't need to be a priest to feed the hungry right what a priest or a priestess does in all the different cultures is they offer sacrifice they're killing right they're killing goats and chickens and snakes and most of the human history priests and priestesses are killing humans right we kill like not we but priests kill people right the etruscans killed people the celts killed people the aztecs killed people um the native americans killed people um the egyptians killed people like think of a major culture right the the vikings where's my vikings the vikings killed people like the priests and priestesses are doing human sacrifices this is what's so big about abraham and isaac and god asking abraham to like stand his hold his hand right not to kill his son and why did god do that not because he's playing with abraham because he's trying to tell abraham i do not want human sacrifices that's huge but what a priest does writer preach this if you want to seek favor with the divine or be at peace with the divine or implore the diviners is you go to this priest or priestess and they're going to kill something okay priests offer sacrifice okay so we as catholics believe that jesus is the priest he is the high priest he is the only priest right we talk about the priesthood of believers right the common priesthood what does that mean well we are called to offer our lives as a sacrifice but sacrifice is tied to the priesthood okay so in the catholic church let me find a picture i got a picture up there um so priests offer sacrifice that's what a priest does is someone who offers sacrifice second how do the sacraments work sacraments work by signing sacraments work by signing when you see the sign the symbol the reality of the symbol is present right so if i had a picture of a hamburger you cannot eat that hamburger right that cheeseburger with um uh the jimmy buffett cheeseburger in paradise right i can show you a picture of it but you can't eat it you're mouthing water if you're watching this on good friday god bless you you can't eat it at all but um when you for for all of the sacraments when you see the symbol of the thing the reality that the symbol points to is present again so if the if the cheeseburger was a sacrament i'd show you a picture and you'd be able to eat it right if i show you a picture of a friend he or she would be present right that's how sacraments work so when someone is baptized what's happening they're going into the water well a human underwater is a is well that's a sign of death right water kills us if we're under water to the bubble stop you're dead right um we might think of swimming because we we don't live in the you know in hurricane season all the time we don't live in tidal wave season all the time but um water will kill you you're not made you don't have gills right you can want to be a mermaid but you're not mermaid if you remember that humbling okay so sacraments work by signification when you see the sign the reality is present okay now let's talk about the eucharist so tonight jesus gives us his body and blood right and he says what does he say right you have to eat my body and drink my blood and we think of the jews at passover of course because jesus is going to be celebrating right the passover meal the night of preparation for the passover right where the jews are saved from death through through the blood of the lamb right and the flesh of the lamb and the blood is put on the doorpost and they have to eat the lamb and if they eat the lamb they're sharing in the death of that lamb so now the angel of death will pass them over that's why it's called passover right and jesus is going to say and john the baptist points it out that he is the lamb of god right and this is what we believe of course we know this right if you're here this long you probably already know this right he is we believe he's the priest and and he says you have to eat his body right in john chapter six you have to eat his body you have to chew his flesh and they're like how can you give us flesh and blood only and god said you shouldn't drink blood right how can you say to do that because he's god when he says you have to eat my body and drink my blood he's claiming to be almighty god because god said don't do this and now god is saying now do this why we give up flesh and blood why we give up like meat on fridays in lent and particularly tomorrow good friday is because it's not the flesh and blood of animals that gives us life it's the flesh and blood of jesus christ all right so let's take a look at this so if you're a jew and passover you eat the lamb's flesh and you share in sacrifice so the angel death passes you over all right so it's a cross that i got that this little sign fell off so i wrote it on there uh almost like 20 something years ago when i started seminary all right so jesus so what is he sacrificing of priests offer sacrifice what is he sacrificing well you want to say what himself right yes himself he is sacrificing his body and blood to save us that's literally what he's giving up so let's ask this question again what is he giving up to save us himself father yeah literally he's giving up his left arm his right arm his knees right he is giving up his flesh to save us this is huge he is sacrificing himself well he can't give up divine nature because something that is divine cannot be separated right your soul can't be split into parts your soul can't be killed ever right this is like people wanna talk about ghosts we're not gonna talk about ghosts today but like a spirit can't be cut in half it's a spirit but flesh can right you can chop my hand off and then i won't have a hand right then then i'll never be able to drive a stick shift again and i like driving a stick shift right um so would you so you can't you can't cut in half a soul a spirit can't be cut in half and the divine in the divine nature jesus is a divine person with a human and divine nature right is he a human person no he's not he's the second person to trinity he's a divine person he's got two playbooks to act from right he's got a human and divine nature divine nature cannot be held in a very specific place at any one time the divine nature can the divine nature cannot be cut in half at all but human nature we occupy place i'm sitting in my rectory couch right now i'm not over there in the church right because i i can only be in one place because that's the property of human nature not divine nature so literally what he is choosing to sacrifice to save us is his body and blood all right and this divine person became human all right now we're getting close to the answer we're getting close to the answer right okay literally he is offering up his left arm to save us okay father dave you said that yeah no focus on that what he is offering up to save us is his body and blood which is his which is his human nature that's what he's offering to save us his human body and blood which happens to be masculine the human species right the human person is either male or female gender right i know our culture's going crazy about gender and all this but like from a biological scientific chromosomal side you're either male or female that's it you come to the world as one or the other and some people have some chromosomal aberrations but if you look on a chromosomal level they're they either have two x chromosomes right which means they're female or x and y and they're male and if they have an extra chromosome then they have again some aberrations but they're you know they're male or female okay right because women don't have the y chromosome i'm not a biologist or a geneticist but that's what science shows us right you have a genotype and a phenotype look those things up if you don't know what they are okay so if the human the human species is a gendered species and we are and you come into the world as male or female when god became one of us he would have to become one or the other so saint augustine writes to include both men and women in the redemption god would then have to be born by one that can give birth into the other gender that cannot give birth to include both of us right let me say that again so right women can give birth men can't give birth so to include women in in redemption god would have to be born by her by woman into the other gender masculinity saint augustine goes so far as to write that if god if the second person of the trinity was born as a woman well then men couldn't be priests wait wait what father did that's right if the second person of the trinity and god doesn't have gender right the second person of the trinity divine person the second person if that person became incarnate as a woman men couldn't be priests why we'll get to that moment but it's related to the sacraments and how sacraments work so to include both males and females in redemption it makes it's fitting it makes sense these are like ways we talk in theology there's a rightness and a logic to it that god would be born of women of a woman into masculinity into a male with a male human nature which is what we say in the creed right because we don't just say god became one of us like we actually say he was born of the virgin mary born born born like mary is a part of this women are a part of this god is not like well look i just want to save men at all right and people often bring up like the gospel of thomas and these other gospels and why isn't this gospel included and people will read the gospel of thomas you know the gospel of thomas people are like at the end of the gospel which is basically a quote book but you know saint peter's like um well lord what about her and he points to mary magdalene and jesus is like well i'm gonna make her a man this way she can get to heaven because only make it to heaven that's not what the church teaches the church is like no jesus never taught that that's not gonna go in the bible you can do what you want with that book but we're not following that book and we're not putting that book in the bible because jesus never taught that because men and women are equal in god's plan all right so when god becomes one of us he becomes one of us as a dude and literally what he's offering on the cross is his flesh he as a priest is sacrificing himself the lamb of god for our salvation if the second person the trinity became a woman well then men couldn't be priests again why not so the sacraments work by signification when you see the sign the reality is present okay so when you come to church and you see a man separately hold up bread and wine this is not a consecrated host it's just a piece of bread right now but you see a priest separately hold up bread and then whine you are in the presence of the one man who let himself be sundered be separated for you and for me what do you mean father dave so again according to the kosher law for the jews the jews couldn't eat meat with blood in it at all it's forbidden if you went to if you were like going or walking through your city and behind a restaurant you see a a human person who's been killed and all their blood was you drained out you call the cops you're freaking out and all their blood is drained out and they have their body here no blood in it and all the blood is all around them the cops will be like whoa this isn't just a murder or an accident this person will sacrifice because all their blood is drained and that's how you would in the course of law you have a big knife and what you do is you draw it across the neck of the lamb or the goat that's terrible and all that's blood pours out right and when they eat the body there's no blood in it we talk about the sacrifice of the mass so when how when you come to mass how was a priest holding up bread and wine a symbol of jesus and his sacrifice on the cross how does that make sense well just we just always do it father dave yeah here's how it makes sense when you come to church and you see a priest separately offer bread and wine you recall of course holy thursday where jesus says take this this is my body take this this is my blood and you are in the presence of the one man the second person in trinity who has a masculine human nature who offered up his bread and offered a bread and wine offered up his body and blood and let himself be ripped apart imagine like a mass right have a carcass of a sheep and then i rip all its innards out right and i present it to you right well you would get that sack that sacrifice like if you came into catholic churches and you saw us like draining blood out of sheep and holding up a reservoir holding the blood of the sheep and then it's dry carcass and was like you'd be like man that's sacrificial and that's what happens when you come to mass the sacrifice the separating the separate offering of the bread and the wine a dude you're in the presence symbolically bread masculinity wine you're in the presence of the one man the divine person who took on a human nature for us who offered up who let his body and blood happen to be masculine be separated for you and for me and that's it right women cannot be priests not because they can't do anything but the symbol of femininity was not offered on the cross that wasn't offered up for us because when he became human he had a masculine human nature doesn't mean men are better than women or women or worse than men or or women are better than men because they were they have to go to the cross doesn't mean anything like that but when when we say the reservation of the priesthood is to men alone what we're recognizing is that when you come to mass and receive holy communion right it's not simply the offering it's not just any offering of bread and wine it's tied specifically to what happened this night and we're a historical faith means we're locked because we believe he's god if you don't believe he's god then you can do what you want because we believe he's god and the priest when you see a priest doing the priestly thing right not always not when i'm cheering for the vikings or like you know playing rap songs or whatever like that's not priesty stuff when i'm offering sacrifice or forgiving sins i can't forgive you your sins he can and how does he do it when you see the symbol the reality is present when you come to confession and the reality of you confessing to a priest you're in the presence of sinners who are reconciled to jesus because he's reconciling them as he told the apostles tonight who sin or the resurrection who sins you forgive are forgiven right that's happening in you so when you see the symbol of reality's present this is 25 minutes long enough father dave okay so long story short the reservation of the priesthood to men alone in the catholic church is related to what happened on holy thursday night what happened when jesus says look um he separately offers us his body and blood and if you eat and drink that you're going to share in what happens to his body and blood on the cross where it was ripped apart sundered apart for us when you're at mass and you see the priest hold them up separately separately separately right he says the words of institution we talk about it and then they're presented right that dude and the the bread and the wine are a symbol but in it's more than a symbol because in the catholic church it's a sacrament and the sacraments are special symbols super highways of grace when you're you see the symbol the reality is present what is present is he is present just as jesus is saying in the last supper this is my body he's making a connection between the bread and himself and his body which happens to be masculine which he's offering up to save us the only things technically that priests can do that no one else can do is consecrate the eucharist forgive sins in confession and give last rites and in all those sacraments sins are forgiven right sins are for your you know venial sins are forgiven you receive holy communion mortal sins are forgiven in confession and last rites right technically any christian can baptize you don't have to be a priest to witness marriages you have to be a bishop to confirm people um but expressions of the sacrifice of christ are where our sins are forgiven and those things are reserved to the priesthood all right anyway if you hung in there for 27 minutes you rock god bless you have a happy holy thursday keep jesus company tonight in your prayers think about the gifts that he offers us and the next time you go to mass and you see a dude holding out the bread and wine think of like a sheep that is ripped apart and that you are now in the presence of the sacrifice of christ and we're not re-killing him we don't re crucify jesus like people like to say character no we represent and you're there and where are you we'll celebrate that tomorrow on good friday god bless you and we'll see you on easter you

Channel: Father Dave

Views: 17,280

Keywords: Holy Thursday priesthood, Father Dave Holy Thursday, why can't women be priests, only men can be priests in the Catholic Church, institution of the priesthood, reservation of the priesthood to men alone

Id: q_ETJGzLtdE

Length: 28min 20sec (1700 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 01 2021