The Apostolic Succession

Last week we saw how the Apostles appointed the first bishops of the Church.  They, in their turn, appointed other bishops as they were needed, and in this way Our Lord gave to these bishops also the Apostolic Commission, that is, the power to act, as the Apostles themselves had done, as Our Lord’s personal representatives.

St Irenaeus

So St Irenaeus, writing about the year 190 AD, said, “…we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and [to demonstrate] the succession of these men to our own times”. (1) And he goes on to list the names. (2) Now, Irenaeus knew what he was talking about, because he had been taught the faith by a bishop called St Polycarp, and St Polycarp had learnt it from no less a person than St John the Apostle himself.  So Irenaeus wrote, “But Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the Church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true”. (3)

This line of bishops is called the Apostolic Succession and it remains unbroken in the Catholic Church to this day, like the branches of a great tree which, though they are spreading in every direction, all grow from the one trunk.

The Faith

It is by means of this succession of bishops in the Church as a whole that the full and original Christian Faith has been handed down, generation by generation, from the Apostles themselves.  So St Irenaeus writes, “Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church – those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father”. (4)

The Eucharist

It is also by means of this Apostolic Succession, this unbroken line, that Our Lord gave the right and power to the Church to celebrate the Eucharist today; and not only to celebrate the Eucharist, but also to administer the other Sacraments, such as Confirmation and the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance).

You’ll remember that when the Apostles formed the three-fold ministry of bishop, priest and deacon, they appointed bishops to take their place as Apostles of the whole Catholic Church.  But the presbyters, who were later called priests, had at that stage no authority outside their own town.

It was the bishop who normally celebrated the Eucharist, assisted by his presbyters and deacons.  He was the Christian high priest, acting on behalf of Our Lord himself who is the Great High Priest.  If he was ill or away, he made arrangements with one of the presbyters to take his place at the altar and gave him his own authority as Christian high priest so that he could consecrate the Eucharist.

Fourth century

Later, in the fourth century, when the number of Christians everywhere increased, many new churches were built in and around the cities and towns.  Obviously, the bishop could not celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday in so many extra churches, and so he appointed presbyters to do it for him as a regular thing.  So it was that the presbyters were called priests because they had received from the bishop a share in his own high priesthood and in his Apostolic Commission.  Thus the priests became officers of the whole Church like the bishops, though of course they did not share in the bishops’ Apostolic power either of admitting candidates to full membership of the Church by the Sacrament of Confirmation, or of ordaining new bishops, priests and deacons by the Sacrament of Holy Order.  These two Sacraments the bishops, as successors of the Apostles, kept themselves.

Great importance of the Apostolic Succession

The Apostolic Succession, that unbroken line going back to the Apostles, provides assurance that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, the gift of Our Lord himself in Holy Communion, and the gift of forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance).

St Augustine was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Gregory the Great in the year 597 AD, and at the Reformation in the 16th century, when the Church of England and the Pope parted company, the greatest care was taken to see that the line of bishops, reaching back through St Augustine to the Apostles was continued unbroken.

Thus bishops, like the Apostles before them, are meant by Our Lord, not only to govern the Church, but also to teach her Faith and to guard her Sacraments, and to hand them both safely on to the next generation.

SUMMARY

1. The unbroken line of bishops reaching back to the time of the Apostles and so to Our Lord himself is called the Apostolic Succession, and it is through this that the Apostolic Commission is given to the Church today.

2. The bishops, like the Apostles before them, are meant by Our Lord to govern the Church, to teach her Faith and to guard her Sacraments, and to hand them both safely on to the next generation.

References

1. Iranaeus of Lyons (died c 202 AD) Against heresies, Book III, chapter 3(1).  Available from: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm  (Accessed 14 August 2010) (Internet).

2. Iranaeus of Lyons (died c 202 AD) Against heresies, Book III, chapter 3(3).  Available from: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm  (Accessed 14 August 2010) (Internet).

3. Iranaeus of Lyons (died c 202 AD) Against heresies, Book III, chapter 3(4).  Available from: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103303.htm  (Accessed 14 August 2010) (Internet).

4. Iranaeus of Lyons (died c 202 AD) Against heresies, Book IV, chapter 26(2).  Available from: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103426.htm  (Accessed 14 August 2010) (Internet).