The priest has a double task. One is to perform the sacraments and the other is to heal people so that they can worthily approach and receive Holy Communion. We have further pointed out that there are many priests who are priests outwardly and perform their function unhindered but in essence have defiled the priesthood, and that this is apparent from the fact that they are not able to heal. They perform the sacraments, and the gifts are sanctified through them, but they cannot cure others or save their own souls.
On the other hand, there are laymen and monks who do not have the sacramental priesthood but can heal people because they have spiritual priesthood. We should like to dwell briefly on this point. Through baptism and the effort to keep Christ’s commandments all Christians have put on Christ, and in this way we share the royal, prophetic and high priestly office of Christ.
This teaching is recorded in the texts of the New Testament. In the Book of Revelation John the Evangelist writes: To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father... (Rev 1:5). The Apostle Peter says: You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. (1 Pet 2:9). And the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians of Rome: I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Rom 12:1).
In many Fathers too we find this teaching that every person is a priest of Christ in the sense which we defined and will develop further later on. St. John Chrysostom presents Abraham too as a priest because where there is fire, an altar and a knife, why do you doubt his priesthood? Abraham’s sacrifice was twofold. He offered both his only-begotten son and the ram, and above all, his own will. With the blood of the ram he sanctified his right hand, with the slaying of the child (which he had decided to do) he sanctified his soul. Thus he was ordained a priest, by the blood of his only-begotten, by the sacrifice of the lamb. Just after this, St. John Chrysostom exhorts his listeners: So you too are made king and priest and prophet in the laver: a king, having dashed to earth all the deeds of wickedness and slain your sins, a priest in that you offer yourself to God and sacrifice your body, and are yourself being slain also.
