What is the correct understanding of the leadership of clergymen, fathers, servants, and all Church leaders?
Q816 · The Sacrament of Priesthood
It is the work of the leaders to create a spirit of leadership in others, so that the ministry might not be concentrated in them alone: “But note that God said to Moses in this place, ‘Go before the people and take with you men advanced in years, that is the elders of the people’ (Ex. 17:5). Moses alone does not lead the people to the waters of the rock, but also the elders of the people with him. For the Law alone does not announce Christ, but also the prophets and patriarchs and all ‘those advanced in years’”1609
1605 Origen, Homilies on Isaiah 6.1 (ACW 68:908; PG 13.239); see also Thomas Halton, The Church (Message of the Fathers of the Church, vol. 4) (Wilmington, Del.: M. Glazier, 1985): p. 21.
1606 Origen, Homilies on Leviticus 1–16 2.3.1 (FOTC 83:44; PG 13.239).
1607 Ernest Latko, Origen’s Concept of penance (Laval, 1949): p. 78.
1608 Origen, Homilies on the Psalms On Psalm 37, 1.1 (FOTC 141; PG 12:1369); Ernest Latko, Origen’s Concept of penance (Laval, 1949): p. 74.
1609 Origen, Homilies on Exodus 11.2 (FOTC 71:357).