5 L. Pray, have you not read what is said concerning the bishops, “You are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of man.” And then there is the fact that the priest intercedes with God for the sinful people, while there is no one to entreat for the priest. Now these two passages of Scripture tend to the same conclusion. For as salt seasons all food and nothing is so pleasant as to please the palate without it: so the bishop is the seasoning of the whole world and of his own Church, and if he lose his savour through the denial of truth, or through heresy, or lust, or, to comprehend all in one word, through sin of any kind, by what other can he be seasoned, when he was the seasoning of all?
The priest, we know, offers his oblation for the layman, lays his hand upon him when submissive, invokes the return of the Holy Spirit, and thus, after inviting the prayers of the people, reconciles to the altar him who had been delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might he saved; nor does he restore one member to health until all the members have wept together with him. For a father easily pardons his son, when the mother entreats for her offspring.
If then it is by the priestly order that a penitent layman is restored to the Church, and pardon follows where sorrow has gone before, it is clear that a priest who has been removed from his order cannot be restored to the place he has forfeited, because either he will be a penitent and then he cannot be a priest, or if he continues to hold office he cannot be brought back to the Church by penitential discipline. Will you dare to spoil the savour of the Church with the salt which has lost its savour?
Will you replace at the altar the man who having been cast out ought to lie in the mire and be trodden under foot by all men? What then will become of the Apostle's command, “The bishop must be blameless as God's steward”? And again, “But let a man prove himself, and so let him come.” What becomes of our Lord's intimation, “Neither cast your pearls before the swine”? But if you understand the words as a general admonition, how much more must care be exercised in the case of priests when so much precaution is taken where the laity are concerned? “Depart, I pray you,” says the Lord by Moses, “from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins.”
And again in the Minor Prophets, “Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted.” And in the Gospel the Lord says, “The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.” For when the bishop preaches the true faith the darkness is scattered from the hearts of all. And he gives the reason, “Neither do men light a lamp, and put it under the bushel, but on the stand; and it shines unto all that are in the house.”
That is, God's motive for lighting the fire of His knowledge in the bishop is that he may not shine for himself only, but for the common benefit. And in the next sentence “If,” says he, “your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you be darkness, how great is the darkness!” And rightly; for since the bishop is appointed in the Church that he may restrain the people from error, how great will the error of the people be when he himself who teaches errs.
How can he remit sins, who is himself a sinner? How can an impious man make a man holy? How shall the light enter into me, when my eye is blind? O misery! Antichrist's disciple governs the Church of Christ. And what are we to think of the words, “No man can serve two masters”? And that too “What communion has light and darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial?” In the old testament we read, “No man that has a blemish shall come near to offer the offerings of the Lord.”
And again, “Let the priests who come near to the Lord their God be clean, lest haply the Lord forsake them.” And in the same place, “And when they draw near to minister in holy things, let them not bring sin upon themselves, lest they die.” And there are many other passages which it would be an endless task to detail, and which I omit for the sake of brevity. For it is not the number of proofs that avails, but their weight. And all this proves that you with a little leaven have corrupted the whole lump of the Church, and receive the Eucharist today from the hand of one whom yesterday you loathed like an idol.
Source: The Dialogue Against the Luciferians (New Advent)