Biblical Foundation of Jesus' Priesthood Vis-A-Vis Inculturation Of Ministerial Priesthood In The Democratic Republic Of Congo.
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Date
2000-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
We are presently experiencing a religious crisis where priesthood seems to be rejected by the
challengers of the priests of the Catholic Church. The Church meets serious objections and challenges
in this area. The objections are caused by a secularized mentality. Some people think that to talk of
priesthood today is meaningless; and others claim that the Church has no right to insist on it because
its founder was not, according to them, a priest.
If we go back to the ancient Jewish religion, the ministers were called "priests". Today, in our
century there are many religions and sects, whose number grows every year in the world, but only
few of these religions and sects use the term "Priest". Some religions and some sects use the term
"Pastor ", others" Mtumishi " ( Kiswahili word meaning" Servant" ), some use" Apostle ", others
" Shepherd ", " Evangelist "and some others use similar words to these. Only a few religions use the
term" Priest ". One could ask him/herself: what is the meaning of" priest", why do many religions
avoid the use of this term, what is its foundation, is this term understood by people or does it have
a negative background? How can our priesthood be justified today?
This work will have four chapters which are connected to one another. The first Chapter aims
at discovering the history of priesthood and its divine institution in the Old Testament. The aim of the
second chapter is to examine the priesthood in Jesus' time and its relationship with him. And we will
see the judgement of Christ on the priests of his time and his correcting behavior toward them. The
third chapter is to analyze the priestly function of Jesus.
The priesthood of Christ remains a very complex mystery: we can not exhaust all its aspects,
because we have also to leave space for faith. If we want to talk of this mystery at the present
moment, it is to enlighten the greatness and the seriousness of the Christian priesthood as it is
exercised by our priests, because to deny Christ' priesthood, is to cut the root of the ministerial
priesthood of the Church. To reject the ministerial priesthood of the Church is to ignore its initiator, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Priest.
The fourth chapter about inculturation will tell us how every culture exercises the ministerial
priesthood according to its genius without neglecting the place of Jesus the founder of the true
priesthood and of all cultures. The final point is to show that inculturation should go beyond its own
external or ritual form.
At the end of our work, we don't claim to have said everything, or to have said exactly what
we intended to say. We are aware of our limits in this matter, trusting that the Lord himself will add
to our contribution the necessary elements which are missing, and doing all this for his own glory.
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Keywords
Biblical, Inculturation, Priesthood, Oracular, Cult, Ritual