THE CLERGY-LAITY DIVIDE IN THE CHURCH

Authors

  • Joseph Mattam DVK

Keywords:

Priesthood, Laity, Clergy, Eucharist

Abstract

This short article shows that the clergy-laity divide that has come to characterize the Church for many centuries does not have its origin in Jesus. Jesus’ attitude to ‘priests’ was rather negative as we can gather from the story of the Good Samaritan; he does not use the term ‘priest’ except in this story and when telling leprosy patients to show themselves to the Jewish priests. The claim that just before his death
Jesus ordained ‘priests’ just does not have any foundation in the NT. The normally proffered arguments that the Eucharist needs an ordained priest and the sacrament of Confession needs a priest are
disproved by the practice of the early Church where the Eucharist was held in the homes presided over by the head of the family, and the sacrament of Confession was not known in the first century Church.
Whereas, in all the four Gospels, Jesus speaks about the kind of leaders he wanted to leave behind — they were to be different from the leaders in the world; they had to be servants and were not even to be called
master or father, but were to be brothers/sisters to one another. Jesus showed by the foot washing the kind of leaders he wanted. The leaders in the Apostolic Church were not priests; they were what we have come to call ‘lay people’, not clerical figures at all. Hence this article pleads for a return to what Jesus wanted: a community of brothers/sisters where no one is superior or inferior but with distinctfunctions which do not make one superior, or more ‘reverend’; each member is responsible and respectable; all the offices of services should be open to every member who is willing to serve the community. It is hoped that such a change is possible.

Author Biography

Joseph Mattam, DVK

Fr Joseph Mattam, SJ is an emeritus professor of theology and belongs to the
Gujarat province of the Society of Jesus. He was the founder and for a long time dean of the first ever Jesuit regional theologate at Ahmedabad and later of the Gujarat Regional Seminary, now housed at Vadodara. He is a visiting professor in many seminaries and formation centres in India and abroad and is active in many national and international theological and Missiological Associations. He is the author of four books and has edited more than 10 and has authored over 150 articles. Email: joemattam@jesuits.net

References

Soares Prabhu: “Christian Priesthood in India Today, A Biblical Reflection,” in A

Biblical Theology for India, ed., Scaria Kuthirakkattel, Pune: Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth Theology Series, vol. 2, 1999, 214-244.

Herve-Marie Legrand: “The Presidency of the Eucharist according to the AncientTradition,” in Worship 53 (1979) 413-438.

Raymond E. Brown: Priest and Bishop, Biblical Reflections, London: Geoffrey

Chapman, 1970, 14ff.

Edward Schillebeeckx: Ministry: A Case for Change, London: SCM Press, 1980, 48ff

Joseph Mattam, “The Sacrament of Reconciliation,” in Vidyajyoti Journal of

Theological Reflection, (1989) 421-434 and 489-500.

Lumen Gentium, chapter 2.

Herbert Haag, Clergy & Laity. Did Jesus Want a Two-Tier Church?, Kent: Burns and

Oates, 1997, 72.

Acta Apostolicae Sedis 38 (1946) 149.

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Published

2015-06-30

How to Cite

Mattam, J. . (2015). THE CLERGY-LAITY DIVIDE IN THE CHURCH. Asian Horizons, 9(02), 277–287. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/ah/article/view/2657