The two Sacraments that follow, which are to be briefly considered, do not pertain to all Christians: one pertains to clerics, namely the Sacrament of Order; the other to laymen, the Sacrament of Matrimony. Let us speak briefly of the first — not of all the things that pertain to this Sacrament, but only of those that are necessary for the art of living well and dying happily.
The Orders are reckoned seven in number: four minor and three major; the highest of which, which is called the priesthood, is divided into two — for there are the greater Priests, who are called Bishops, and the lesser, who are called Presbyters. Before all these Orders comes the first tonsure, which is, as it were, the gate to all the Orders, and properly makes a man a cleric. And since what is required of clerics in regard to living piously and religiously is required with still greater reason of those who are placed in the minor or major Orders — and most of all of Presbyters and Bishops — I shall be content to consider and explain briefly what pertains to clerics. There are two things that seem to require explanation concerning clerics: first, the rite itself by which clerics are made; and secondly, the office which they are to discharge in the Church. The rite by which clerics are made, as can be learned from the Pontifical, is this: first, the hair of the head is cut; by which rite is signified the laying aside of superfluous thoughts and desires, such as the thoughts and desires of temporal things — riches, honors, pleasures, and other things of that kind; and at the same time those who are tonsured are bidden to say that verse of the fifteenth Psalm: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; it is You who will restore my inheritance to me." Then the Bishop orders a white surplice to be brought, and with it he clothes the new cleric, saying those words of the Apostle to the Ephesians: "May the Lord clothe you with the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:24). Moreover, no office is properly assigned to the new cleric, but by custom his duty is to serve the priest in the performance of the sacred rite when he celebrates it privately.
Let us now consider how great an eminence of perfection is required in a cleric; and if so much is required in a cleric, how much in an Acolyte, in a Subdeacon, in a Deacon, in a Presbyter, in a Bishop? Surely my mind shudders even to think of it, since what is justly demanded of a simple cleric is scarcely to be found in many Presbyters. The cleric is bidden to cast away superfluous thoughts and desires, which belong properly to worldly men — that is, to men who belong to this world, who are of this world, who think on them and crave them unceasingly. The good cleric is bidden to seek no other portion or inheritance but God, that God alone may be his portion and his inheritance, and that he himself may truly be called, and be, the portion and inheritance of God alone. O the height of clerical perfection, which renounces the whole world that it may truly possess God alone, and itself be possessed by God alone! This is what those words of the Psalm signify: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup." That is called the "portion of the inheritance" which, when an inheritance is divided among many brothers, falls to the share of each one. And so the sense of those words is not that the cleric should wish one part of his inheritance to be God and another part to be earthly riches; but that he should long with all his heart to transfer his whole portion — that is, whatever could belong to him in this world — by a good affection entirely into God. Between the cup and the inheritance, however, there seems to be this difference: that the cup pertains to pleasure and delights, the inheritance to riches and honors. And so the full sense will be: O Lord my God, from this time forward, whatever in the world I could hope for — whether riches, or delights, or other temporal goods — all of it I desire to have in You alone; You alone are abundantly sufficient in place of all things. And since an abundance of heavenly goods cannot be had here on earth, the good cleric therefore continues in prayer and says: "It is You who will restore my inheritance to me." For the things I have despised and cast away for Your sake — whether by giving them to Your poor, or by forgiving those who despoiled me for Your sake — You faithfully keep for me, and will restore them in due time, not in corruptible form, but in Yourself, who are the inexhaustible fountain of all good things.
But lest anyone should doubt this explanation of ours, I will bring forward two witnesses greater than all exception: namely, St. Jerome and St. Bernard. St. Jerome, in his Epistle to Nepotian on the life of clerics, says: "Therefore let the cleric who serves the Church of Christ first interpret his own name; and when the definition of the name has been set forth, let him strive to be what it declares. For if in Greek it is called klēros, and in Latin sors — that is, a lot or portion — clerics are so called either because they are of the Lord's portion, or because the Lord Himself is the sors, that is, the portion of clerics. But whoever is himself the Lord's portion, or has the Lord for his portion, must so conduct himself that he both possesses the Lord and is possessed by the Lord. He who possesses the Lord, and says with the Prophet, 'The Lord is my portion' (Ps. 15:5), can possess nothing outside the Lord. But if he has anything else besides the Lord, the Lord will not be his portion; if, for example, he has gold, or silver, or estates, or costly furnishings — together with such portions the Lord will not deign to become his portion." So speaks St. Jerome; and if anyone will read his whole Epistle, he will surely find that an altogether great perfection of life is required in clerics. Now let St. Bernard come forward, who not only approves the teaching of St. Jerome, but sometimes uses his very words, although he does not name him. Thus he speaks in that very long discourse on the words of St. Peter, "Behold, we have left all things," which are recorded in St. Matthew: "A cleric," he says, "who has a portion on earth, will not have a portion in heaven. If a cleric has anything besides the Lord, the Lord will not be his portion" (Matt. 19:27). And a little further on, declaring what a cleric may retain for himself out of ecclesiastical benefices, he says:
"To withhold the goods of the poor from the poor is judged a crime equal to sacrilege; truly, whatever the ministers and dispensers — who are by no means lords and owners — take beyond food and clothing is stolen, with sacrilegious cruelty, from the patrimony of the poor and the resources of the Churches." So speaks St. Bernard, who together with St. Jerome utters not falsehoods but perfect truth.
There follows the rite of putting on the white surplice, with those words of the Apostle: "Put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth" (Eph. 4:24). For it is not enough for clerics not to abound in riches; they must also lead an innocent and stainless life, since they are dedicated to the ministry of the altar, on which the Lamb without spot is daily immolated. Moreover, to put on the new man is nothing else than to put off the ways of the old Adam, who corrupted his way, and to put on the ways of the second Adam — that is, Christ — who, born of the Virgin in a new manner, established a new life in justice and holiness of truth; that is, not only in moral justice, but also in that most true and supernatural holiness which Christ displayed in Himself, who, as the Apostle Peter bears witness, "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Pet. 2:22). Would that we had many such clerics, who would show forth in their conduct and in their life what they display in their white garment!
Finally, it is the duty of clerics to assist at the divine Sacrifice — in which the Lamb of God is daily immolated — with angelic purity, devoutly, gravely, assiduously, and diligently. I know that many devout clerics are to be found in the Church; but not only do I know it — I have also very often seen impudent ones serving at the Lord's altar with wandering eyes, as though the work being done were not only not full of holy dread, but something common and trivial. And perhaps so grave a fault rests not on the minister alone, but clings also to the priest who celebrates the Sacrifice, who sometimes hurries so much and conducts himself with so little devotion that he seems not to know what he is doing. Let such men hear what St. John Chrysostom says about the time of the celebration of Mass: "At that time," he says in the sixth book of On the Priesthood, "the angels stand beside the priest, and the whole order of the heavenly powers raises its cries, and the place near the altar is filled with choirs of angels in honor of Him who is immolated — a thing one may well believe even from the greatness of the Sacrifice which is then being offered."
Let them hear also St. Gregory, who says in the fourth book of his Dialogues: "Which of the faithful," he says, "can doubt that at the very hour of the immolation, at the voice of the priest, the heavens are opened, the choirs of angels are present, the lowest things are united to the highest, earthly things are joined to heavenly things, and one thing is made of the visible and the invisible?" If the priest, and the cleric who assists him, pondered these things seriously, how could it possibly be that they perform so great a work in the manner in which they perform it? O what a sad and deplorable spectacle it would be, if we had the eyes of the mind open, to see a priest celebrating, surrounded on every side by choirs of angels, who stand in wonder and tremble at what he is doing, and in their amazement raise spiritual cries — while the priest, set in their midst, all cold and as it were stupefied, pays no heed to what he is doing, does not understand what he is saying, and so hastens toward the end, muddles the signs, and rushes the words, that he seems not to know what he is doing; and meanwhile the ministering cleric looks about this way and that, or chatters with someone. Thus is God offended, thus the most sacred things are despised, and thus is matter for slander given to the heretics. Since these things are so, I admonish and exhort all clerics, both greater and lesser, that, dead to the world, they live to God alone; that they not covet an abundance of temporal goods; that they guard their innocence with great zeal; and that they handle divine things religiously, as is fitting, and see to it that others so handle them; that so they may gain for themselves great confidence before God, and continually fill the Church of Christ with a sweet fragrance.