Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

Benedict XVI’s May 10th Wednesday audience brings the importance of Apostolic succession to the issue of Apostolic Tradition. Apostolic succession is the guarantee of Tradition’s authenticity. Benedict shows that Scripture testifies to the implicit understanding of the first Apostles that there was a vacant office that had to be filled (cf. Acts 1:15-26). This pericope from Acts is the framework for understanding the structure of the Church.

St. Matthias was elected as bishop (the term was to come into use later) to fill the office vacated by Judas when the latter succumbed to despair over his treason. Benedict explains that the term bishop, from the Greek episcope, refers to this office as one of shepherds of souls who are entrusted with guarding the flock as St. Peter points out in his first letter.

Benedict points out that above all, Apostolic succession is to be understood in terms of the historical continuity of ministers but also the spiritual sense of the privileged action and transmission of the Holy Spirit (by which he means Holy Orders). This is an important reaffirmation of the traditional understanding of Church structure. In the last few decades, some Catholic ecclesiologists (primarily those involved in ecumenical dialogues with Lutheran and Anglican communities) have begun to float the theory that Apostolic succession means only the transmission of Apostolic faith. The reason for this speculation is that it would allow them to posit the validity of orders in these ecclesial communities if they were able to also show that for the most part, these communities remained close enough to the Apostolic faith. This, I think, is why Benedict chooses to make this statement here. He is clarifying for those confused theologians, that these novel theories have no standing.

Benedict goes on to quote a bishop from the second century, St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who explicitly ties the office of bishop to the succession of the Apostles. St. Irenaeus says that the office of bishop, and more explicitly, the bishop of Rome is “the sign, criterion, and guarantee of the uninterrupted transmission of the apostolic faith.” He said that every church, to be one, has to be in harmony with this Church in Rome.

Thus, Benedict concludes that from the very beginning of the Church, the Apostles and their successors, identified through Apostolic succession, have been seen as the sure sign and guarantee of Apostolic faith. The Catholic Church today, exists and guarantees the purity of the faith not because of a “mere material concatenation” but because of the Holy Spirit who makes present Jesus Christ as the Head of His Bride, in the person of His priests and bishops. This gift of the Holy Spirit is transmitted through the sacramental matter of the laying on of hands.

Here Benedict makes it clear again: Apostolic succession is guaranteed through Holy Orders which are valid only with the proper sacramental form and matter. This prerequisite is completed by the assurance of being in union with one’s bishop who in turn is in union with the Bishop of Rome.