Definition

An authorized mediator who offers a true sacrifice in

 acknowledgment of God's supreme dominion over 

human beings and in expiation for their sins. A 

priest's mediation is the reverse of that of a prophet,

 who communicates from God to the people. 

A priest mediates from the people to God. 

Christ, who is God and man, is the first, last, and

 greatest priest of the New Law. He is the eternal 

high priest who offered himself once and for all

 on the Cross, a victim of infinite value, and 

he continually renews that sacrifice on the altar 

through the ministry of the Church. 


Within the Church men who are specially ordained

 as priests to consecrate and offer the body and

 blood of Christ in the Mass. The Apostles were

 the first ordained priests, when on Holy Thursday

 night Christ told them to do in his memory what

 he had just done at the Last Supper. All priests

 and bishops trace their ordination to the Apostles.

 Their second essential priestly power, to forgive 

sins, was conferred by Christ on Easter Sunday, 

when he told the Apostles, "For those whose sins

 you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose 

sins you retain, they are retained" (John 20-22,23).

 

All the Christian faithful, however, also share in

 the priesthood by their baptismal character. They

 are enabled to offer themselves in sacrifice with

 Christ through the Eucharistic liturgy. They offer

 the Mass in the sense that they internally unite

 themselves with the outward offering made by

the ordained priest alone.