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The Christian priesthood differs essentially from the priesthood of the Old Law and from the ministry of the various sects.
The priesthood in the Old Law descended from father to son. It was an inheritance in the tribe of Levi and in the family
of Aaron. Therefore "there were many  priests," as St Paul says, "because by reason of death they were not suffered to
continue." 

The Protestant sects reject all idea of a true priesthood. To them the minister is the hired servant of the congregation.
He may have great talents and be able to command a large salary, but to his people he is merely an employee, the same as 
the artist that plays the organ or the sexton that rings the bell. 

The Catholic Church teaches that with the Old Law the Levitical priesthood passed away. The priest and the sacrifice go
together, and when the altar ceased to smoke in the temple court, the sons of Aaron ceased to be priests. Their priesthood 
was the type and figure of the priesthood of our Lord, even as their sacrifices were the type and figure of the sacrifice 
that was consummated on Calvary. Now, of Christ, God had said with an oath: "The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent:
Thou art a priest forever." Our Lord therefore has an everlasting priesthood, and, if an everlasting priesthood, he must
have an eternal sacrifice. That sacrifice is not the offering of the blood of goats or oxen in an earthly temple and on 
an earthly altar, but it is the offering of His own blood in a tabernacle not made by hands, in the holy of holies of 
heaven itself, and on the sublime altar that ever stands in the sight of the majesty of God. 

In the New Testament, then, there is only one priest and only one sacrifice. That priest is Jesus Christ Himself, and 
that sacrifice is the Sacrifice of the Cross, which was offered once to exhaust the sins of many. But it is also written
in the Scripture that Christ is a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek was king of 
Salem and priest of the Most High God who met Abraham and blessed him and offered up a sacrifice in bread and wine.
The bloody sacrifices of the priesthood of Levi, the offerings of sheep and goats and oxen, typified the bloody death 
of Christ upon the Cross; the unbloody sacrifice of Melchizedek typifies the clean oblation concerning
which the Prophet Malachi also spoke: "From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my Name is great
among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice and there is offered to My name a clean oblation, saith the Lord
of Hosts." 

For it is necessary that there should be sacrifice everywhere. Men are commanded by God to worship Him. The essential
elements of worship are prayer and sacrifice. We do not worship God by prayer alone, but by prayer and sacrifice. Man
also is composed of body and soul, not of soul alone, but of body and soul. Therefore his worship must be a sensible 
and external worship as well as an interior and spiritual worship. He must not only pray in his heart, but he must 
express his prayer in words. His sacrifice must not only be carried by the hands of angels to the altar on high, but
it must lie slain before the eyes of men on earth.

Now, the one sacrifice of the Christian dispensation is the death of Christ, and Christ is seated at the right hand of 
God's majesty, offering that one sacrifice for sin. What human eye is there so keen as to pierce the un-created glory,
and behold the print of the nails; what human hand so hardy as to dare to reach out and touch that wounded side? 

It is evident therefore that the death of Christ must be shown to men if we are to have a sacrifice at all. And we read
in the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, 
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and, giving thanks, brake, and said: “Take ye,
and eat: this is My body, which shall be delivered for you: this do ye for the commemoration of Me.” In like manner,
also, the chalice, after He had supped, saying: 'This chalice is the New Testament in My blood: this do ye, as often as 
ye shall drink, for the commemoration of Me. For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, ye shall shew 
the death of the Lord, until He come." 

This, then, is the divine plan by which the death of Christ, the Sacrifice of the Cross, is to be perpetuated among men. 
The Apostles were then and there constituted priests after the order of Melchizedek. They were then and there constituted
priests, not like the priests of Aaron, each offering a sacrifice of his own. They were constituted priests by being
indued with the priesthood of Jesus Christ, doing what He did, changing bread into the body that was broken for us and 
changing wine into the blood that was poured out for us, and thus really offering in an unbloody manner the same sacrifice
that He offered on the cross. 

Since our Lord ordered that the sacrifice of His death should be shown to men until His second coming, it was necessary 
that the Apostles should hand on the power that was given them. By the Sacrament of Holy Orders they provided not only 
for the due government of the Church, but for the perpetuation of the sacrifice. To some they give the power of the
priesthood in its fullness, that is, with the faculty of creating other priests, and these we call bishops; to others they
give the power of the priesthood without this privilege, and these we call simply priests. But in priest and in bishop the
power of sacrifice is the same, and it is the same Mass that is offered up by the humble missionary in the log hut under
the great pines of some northern wilderness as is offered up under the great dome of St. Peter's when the Pope himself 
stands at the altar and the silver trumpets sound. 

This, then, is the secret of the dignity of the Christian priest. 'He is indued with the priesthood of Jesus Christ Himself
and holy men have not hesitated to say: "Sacerdos alter Christus" — The priest is another Christ. 

His dignity does not arise from the nobility of his birth, or from the fame of his name. His dignity does not arise from 
his natural talents or from his acquired learning. His dignity does not arise from the church in which he ministers or the
congregation that he serves. His dignity does not arise from his eloquence, though it is his duty to preach the word of
God in season and out of season. His dignity does not arise from the power to regenerate the children of God in the waters
of baptism, for even the heathen may use that power. His dignity does not arise from the jurisdiction he exercises in the
tribunal of penance over the mystical body of Christ, for a priest may go through life without hearing a single confession.
His dignity does not arise from the long history and splendid services of the order into which he ha« been incorporated. 
It is true he may look back for twenty centuries and behold the Christian priesthood march like the sons of Levi at the 
head of the Christian host carrying the Ark  of the Covenant. He may see their fame recorded in every department of human 
endeavor. In search of souls they have explored the trackless forests and navigated unknown rivers. To carry the word they
have gone to the ends of the earth and opened up new nations to science. They have descended into the dark places of great
cities to bind the wounds of the broken in spirit, to lift up the fallen, to visit them that are sick and in prison, to 
feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to harbor the harbor-less, and to bury the dead.
 They have braved the plague in tropic jungles or in stricken towns, not with parade and ostentation, but in the pursuit 
of their ordinary duty, and when the time came for them they lay down in simple dignity and died amidst their flock.
They have been the pioneers of education, the foster fathers of art, and there is no department of human learning or 
human science in which their names do not shine. They have been great writers, great musicians,
great orators, aye, even great statesmen, and some have not borne the sword in vain. Yes, it is an ancient and honorable
company into which a young priest is admitted at his ordination, and henceforth he walks forever a brother 
of the mighty dead. Yet it is not from all or from any of these things comes the dignity with which he is crowned; it
is not because of these things the people reverence him and his father's sons bow down before him. No, his dignity has
only one source, and only one justification, namely, the stupendous change that was wrought in him by the imposition 
of hands and the grace of ordination, when he put on the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ and stood before the world
another Christ: "Sacerdos alter Christus" — The priest is another Christ. 

This is why he did not presume to take this honor to himself, but waited to be called by God, even as Aaron was. This 
is why he comes to you now, not the nominee of a congregation, but sent even as the Apostles were. This is why there
is between you and him this altar rail, the symbol of the everlasting barrier raised between him and the world. That
is why he is clothed in the Mass vestments, the white garment that Christ wore, and the heavy cross that He carried
to Calvary. That is why he stands before you as a leader of his people, and he only turns his face to you now and
again, as a leader might turn to urge you on. That is why he prays in an unknown tongue to manifest to you that he,
not you, is the sacrificer, and that he, not you, has power to immolate the mystic victim. That is why, with raised 
hands and uplifted voice, he now prepares to enter the sanctuary alone. The solemn hymn of thanksgiving is, as it were,
the preface for the great mystery of the holy of hollies. He forgets the earth, he boldly faces the gates of heaven, 
he passes through the serried ranks of angels and archangels, of cherubim and seraphim, of principalities and powers,
of thrones and dominations, and as the thunder of the heavenly hymn, "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of hosts," moves the
lintels of the temple doors, he approaches the altar of the Lamb,and he alone standing begins the solemn words of 
consecration. Behold, it is now no longer a man that officiates at that altar. He takes the bread and he takes the wine.
Over them he speaks the words of Jesus Christ: "This is My body — this is My blood." The man has passed away. It is the
High Priest Himself that speaks. "This is My body — this is My blood." "Sacerdos alter Christus" — The priest is another
Christ. 

What mortal man could be worthy of so great dignity? It is one of the mysteries of God's dealings with mankind that
He did not commit this sublime office to His holy angels, instead of to sinful men. Yet, as Christ did not choose to
redeem mankind in the nature of an angel, but in the nature of a man, so He has ordained that His priests should be men,
not angels. Christ became a man that we might have a high priest who can have compassion on our infirmities, tempted 
in all things even as we are tempted, yet without sin. So He makes men His priests that, surrounded as they are with
weakness, they may have compassion on them that are ignorant and do err. 

It is a wonderful dignity, and would that we were worthy of it. It is something far above the strength of human nature,
and therefore only to be borne by the abounding and super abounding grace of God. Catholics know this, and therefore,
while to-day is a day of rejoicing, it is a day of earnest prayer and holy fear. Pour out your supplication for this
Levite who, in the gladness of his youth, for the first time goes unto the altar of God. Pray that God's angels may
camp around him even as they camped around the Prophet Eliseus, to protect him against the assaults of the enemy. Pray
that his sacrifice may be acceptable like the sacrifice of Abel the Just, and ratified like the sacrifice of Abraham,
our Patriarch, and holy like the sacrifice of the High Priest, Melchizedek. Pray that his ministry may bloom with
virtue like the rod of Aaron, and that his long service may be found without flaw like the service of Samuel.
May his heart be pure even as the heart of John, who was worthy to lie upon the bosom of the Lord, and may he
show himself, like Paul, a minister of God in much patience, aye, even if necessary in tribulation, in necessities,
in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in sedition, May the grace which he has received not in vain manifest itself in
labor, in fastings, in watchings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost,
in charity unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of God, by the armor of justice on the right hand and on the
left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet known; 
as dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching
many; as having nothing and possessing all. 

Source: Altar and Priest, 1913 Peter Christopher Yorke