Christ expressed Himself essentially in His priesthood through which He had redeemed mankind and become the principle of the economy of salvation. This priesthood realised the primitive paradigm of religion that consists in the relationship: God-man and man-God. Christ established the most ultimate and the most perfect bond between God and man, and between man and God: God-man in one person. It is in Christ’s priesthood that priests (bishops and presbyters) participate in a sacramental manner; the faithful participate in it in a broad sense. The two kinds of priesthood stem from one and the same source, from the priesthood of Jesus Christ, and they should coexist, but the hierarchic priesthood is superior and normative. It is in the priesthood that the whole man is expressed and fulfilled on the model of Jesus Christ.
