Sunday, December 17, 2023

(Pseudo) Dionysius's Theology of Ordination to the Priesthood in "The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy"

  

3. The imposition of hands by the hierarch demonstrates that those being consecrated receive their attributes and powers, together with their freedom from opposing powers, from the covering who is the source of every consecration. They are like sacred children cared for by their father. The rite also teaches them to do all their clerical work as if they were acting on the orders of God and have him as guide in all their activities.

 

. . .

 

5. The sacred announcement by the hierarch concerning the rites of consecration and those being consecrated denotes the mystery that the performer of consecration in his love of God is the exponent of the choice of the divinity, that it is not by virtue of any personal worth that he summons those about to be consecrated but rather that it is God himself who inspires him in every hierarchic sanctification. Thus Moses, the consecrator in the hierarchy of the Law, did not confer a clerical consecration on Aaron who was his brother, whom he knew to be a friend of God and worthy of the priesthood, until God himself commanded him to do so, thereby permitting him to bestow, in the name of God who is the source of all consecration, the fullness of a clerical consecration. And yet our own first and divine consecrator—for Jesus in his endless love for us took on this task—“did not exalt himself,” as scripture declares. Rather, the consecrator was the one “who said to him: . . . ‘Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.’” Furthermore, when he bestowed sacred consecration on his own disciples, even though as God he was the source of every consecration, still in hierarchic fashion he referred this act of consecration to this most holy Father and to the Divine Spirit. As scripture shows, he told his disciples “not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which ‘you heard from me, . . . you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’” Similarly, when the chief of the disciples gathered around him his peers the ten hierarchs so as to consecrate a twelfth disciple, he wisely left the choice to the divinity, saying “Show whom you have chosen.” He welcomed as a hierarch in the assembly of the twelve the one designated by divine choice. And what of the divine choice which fell on Matthias? There are many explanations of this which I find unsatisfactory and so I will set down here what I myself think of it. It seems to be that what scripture means by “choice” of the divinity is a certain gift revealing to the assembly of hierarchs the one selected by God, since it is not by his own personal activity that a divine hierarch should work sacerdotal consecration. Rather, it is under God’s impulse that he should perform these sacred rites in a way that is hierarchic and heavenly. (The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, 5.3.3, 5 in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works [trans. Colm Luibheid; The Classics of Western Spirituality; New York: Paulist Press, 1987], 240, 241)

 

Commenting on Dionysius’ theology of holy orders/the priesthood, Anthony Pavoni and Evangelos Nikitopoulos (who themselves believe the writings of “Pseudo-Dionysius” are actually that of Dionysius himself), wrote:

 

Clerical and Lay Orders

 

Dionysius speaks of the orders of hierarchs (ιεραρχαι), priests (ιερεις), and attendants (λειτουργοι). The hierarchs represent the high grade in the church, imparting grace to all the lower orders through teaching and the laying of hands; the priests are responsible for the administration of the sacraments; and the attendants perform various ancillary functions like reading from Scripture, guarding the doors of the temple, and preparing candidates for baptism. (See Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1.2, 2.2.6, 3.2, 4.3.1-2, 5.1.5, 5.3.1) All three of these orders can be found in Apostolic witnesses. Although the names used in these sources are sometimes different, the functions assigned to them are substantially the same as we find in Dionysius.

 

The first class, that of hierarchs, appears in the Book of Acts and in the Pauline Epistles where they are variously called “overseers,” (Acts 20:28) “elders,” (Acts 21:18) and “bishops,” (Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:7; 1 Timothy 3:1) and are described as having the power of ordination. (1 Timothy 4:4: “Neglect not the gift that is in three, which was given by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.”) Saint Ignatius of Antioch writes: “Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude also be; even as, wherever Christ is, there is the Catholic church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid.” (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, section 8) The second-century moralizing text known as the Shepherd of Hermas speaks of bishops as the foundation-stones of the Church. (Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 3, Section 5.1) As for the laying of hands, it is a well-attested ancient practice referred to in the Old Testament, (Deuteronomy 34:9: “And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him”) the Book of Acts (Acts 6:6), and the Epistles of Saint Paul. (1 Timothy 4:14, cited above)

 

The word priest (ιερευς) occurs many times in the New Testament with reference to those who perform the Temple sacrifices. Saint Paul calls Christ “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” (Hebrews 5:6, 6:20, 7:17, quoting Psalm 109:4. Melchizedek was the priest-king in the Old Testament who offered Abraham bread and wine, foreshadowing the sacrament of the Eucharist that Christ told his disciples to perform “in remembrance of [him].” [Luke 22:19]) while Saint Peter calls believers “a royal priesthood.” (1 Peter 2:9) The early third-century text Refutation of All Heresies refers to the Apostles as “high priests.” (Refutation of All Heresies, Book I, Prologue) In addition, the New Testament employs the term “presbyters” to designate a special class of men who administer the sacraments. For instance, Saint James writes: “is any sick among you? Let him call for the presbyters of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” (James 5:14) All these features correspond quite closely with the description of priests one encounters in the Dionysian writings.

 

A third order that appears in the New Testament, mirroring Dionysius’ rank of “attendants,” is that of deacons (διακονοι). In the Book of Acts, the Apostles ordain “seven men of honest report” to minister (διακονειν) to the material needs of the congregation. (Acts 6:2-6) In his First Epistle to Timothy, Saint Paul says, “Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.” (1 Timothy 3:8-10) Saint Justin Martyr (c. 100-165) relates that deacons were responsible for distributing holy bread and wine to the faithful who were absent from the liturgy. (First Apology, ch. 65) This ministry is similar to the kinds of tasks that attendants perform in the Areopagitic corpus, namely assisting the priests during the various services.

 

In addition to the clerical orders, Dionysius mentions certain distinct groups among the laity, among catechumens, energumens, and penitents. The first are those who live as Christians but are not yet baptized; the second are individuals possessed by unclean spirits; and the third are baptized Christians who are excluded from the mysteries for having committed various sins. (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.6-7) These three groups also appear in ancient sources: the verb “to catechize” occurs in Saint Paul; (Galatians 6:6: “Let him that is catechized in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.”) Saint Justin Martyr describes a special class of people being prepared for baptism by prayer and fasting (First Apology, ch. 61: “As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them. Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated”); and the Apostolic Tradition describes the order of catechumens at length. (Apostolic Tradition, Chapters 17-20) As for the energumens, the Book of Acts records that the faithful would bring their possessed before the Apostles to be cured of unclean spirits; (Acts 5:16) the Apostolic Tradition states that such individuals were excluded from hearing the Gospel; (Apostolic Tradition, 15:8: “If there is someone who has a demon, such a one shall not heard the word of the teacher until purified”) and the seventeenth canon of the Council of Ancyra (A.D. 314) allots them a special space of prayer. (Council of Ancyra, Canon 17: “Differs of themselves with beasts . . . the holy Synod commands to pray among the sufferers.” The ancient scholiast to this canon identifies the “sufferers” with the possessed) Finally, the exclusion of penitents, from communion is mentioned by Tertullian (On Modesty, ch. 18: “Communion is indeed denied to sinners, very especially such as had been polluted by the flesh, but only or the present; to be restored, to wit, as the result of penitential suing.”), Eusebius, (Ecclesiastical History 6.34), and Saint Basil. (Canon 56, from Letter 217 [To Amphilochius]: “he who has committed voluntary murder and afterwards has repented shall not partake of the sacraments for twenty years. And the twenty years shall be divided thus in his case. For four years he ought to weep as a penitent of the first degree, standing outside the door of the house of prayer and asking the faithful who enter to pray for him, confessing his transgression”) (Anthony Pavoni and Evangelos Nikitopoulos, The Life of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite [Montreal, Quebec: Scriptorium Press, 2023], 34-37)

 

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