One Response to Priest as Icon

I forwarded Steve's post to several priest friends of mine asking for their reactions.  One of them sent the following:

"The interpretation of the priest as icon of Christ is much too literal. The priest does not "become" Christ. God forbid! Who would be worthy? No, the priest stands "in persona Christi." That is, he stands in the person of Christ. The priest is called to reflect the presence of Christ in word and action. While not losing his individual personality or neglecting his unique gifts, which are in themselves a gift from God, he is to become transparent - pointing only to Christ. In fact, the priest is one of the four presences of Christ in the Mass, the others being the Word, the species (bread and wine) and, of course, the congregation.  The worst criticism of a priest I ever heard was from an old nun as she was leaving a Mass celebrated by a very popular priest who had a distinctive style of celebration that included many personal adaptations, "He gets in the way of God."

"The stuff about the vestments strikes me as wrong. I have never heard that they refer to Christ as King."