On Maundy Thursday, Christ instituted two great sacraments: the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood. Both of them are interrelated and cause each other to come into being.

In his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis highlighted the medicinal aspect of the Eucharist when he said: “The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak” (§47).

Having said that, can we equally imply that the ministerial priesthood is also imbued with the same medicinal character that the Eucharist is infused with? And if yes, in what way?

This year, I have been personally blessed by attending to a series of lectures on Augustine for All as well as the lectio Augustini.

St Augustine depicted Christ as Christus Medicus. Augustine’s Christology presents Christ as a healer, doctor, physician, surgeon, therapist and pharmacologist. Why? Because these christological titles show the healing the Bishop of Hippo himself went through in the loving embrace and affectionate solicitude he experienced from Christus Medicus.

Where would Augustine have ended up had he not been unconditionally accepted by Jesus Christ? For Augustine, trusting God provides that much-needed cure the hurting soul direly needs. He used to say: “You’re willing to trust these doctors and you’re unwilling to trust God!”

Through the sacraments, Christ heals his body, the Church. Take, for instance, the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. In this beautiful sacrament Christ reassures us by his healing presence.

As Pope Francis said, “it is Jesus Himself who comes to relieve the sick, to give them strength, to give them hope, to help, even to forgive them their sins... The greatest comfort derives from the fact that it is the Lord Jesus Himself who is present in the Sacrament, who takes us by the hand, He caresses us as He did with the sick and reminds us that now we belong to him and that nothing - not even evil or death – can separate us from Him”.

Another example would be the Eucharist. According to one of the great apostolic fathers and student of John the Apostle, St Ignatius of Antioch, the Eucharist is “the medicine of immortality”.

When writing to his Ephesian community he exhorted them: “Come together in common, one and all without exception in charity, in one faith and in one Jesus Christ, who is of the race of David according to the flesh, the son of man, and the Son of God, so that with undivided mind you may obey the bishop and the priests, and break one Bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ” (§ 20).

However, if the sacraments are the healing manifestations of Christ, the priest is the officially-consecrated representative of the healing Christ.

Thus, as Lumen Gentium rightly teaches, “the ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people. But the faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join in the offering of the Eucharist” (§ 10).

Unfortunately, even we priests hurt others

Is the healing that emerges from the consecrated person of the priest solely bound to the sacramental ambit of his calling? Certainly not. In fact, the instruction ‘The priest, pastor and leader of the parish community’, appropriately points out that “because of the ministry entrusted to priests, which in itself is a holy, sacramental configuration to Jesus Christ... (every) priest... is motivated to strive for holiness... to be worthy of that new grace which has marked him so that he can represent the person of Christ, head and shepherd, and thereby become a living instrument in the work of salvation” (§10).

Unfortunately, even we priests hurt others instead of letting Christ’s healing power flowing through us to them to do its intended job.

In his rule, Augustine writes: “You should take care, then, not to use harsh words; but if they should have escaped from your mouth then do not be ashamed to let that mouth which cause the wound provide the cure”.

Let us be faithful representatives of Christus Medicus by curing whom we have wounded!