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THE LAITY SHARE IN TH E PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST

General Audience — December 15, 1993

In the preceding catecheses on the laity we have alluded several times to their service of praising God and to the

other duties of worship that are their responsibility. Today we wish to develop this theme more directly, taking asour starting point the texts of the Second Vatican Council, where we read: "The supreme and eternal priest,

Christ Jesus, since he wills to continue his witness and service also through the laity, vivifies them in this Spirit and

increasingly urges them on to every good and perfect work" (LG 34). Under this impulse of the Holy Spirit, the

laity come to share in the priesthood of Christ, in the form we earlier defined as common to the whole Church, in

which everyone, lay people included, are called to give God spiritual worship. "For besides intimately linking

them to his life and his mission, he also gives them a sharing in his priestly function of offering spiritual worship for 

the glory of God and the salvation of men. For this reason the laity, dedicated to Christ and anointed by the Holy

Spirit, are marvelously called and wonderfully prepared so that ever more abundant fruits of the Spirit may be

 produced in them" (LG 34).

We note that the Council does not merely describe the laity as sharing in the "priestly, prophetic and kingly

functions of Christ" (LG 31), but specifies that Christ himself continues to exercise his priesthood in their lives.

Hence their participation in the common priesthood of the Church occurs through the commission and action of 

Christ, the one eternal high priest.

Moreover, this priestly action of Christ in the laity takes place through the Holy Spirit. Christ "vivifies them withhis Spirit." This is what Jesus had promised when he stated the principle that the Spirit gives life (cf. Jn 6:63). He

who was sent on Pentecost to form the Church has the perennial task of developing Christ's priesthood and

 priestly activity in the Church, including the laity, who are fully-fledged members of the corpus Christi by virtue o

Baptism. With Baptism, Christ's presence and priestly activity is initiated in every member of his body, in whom

the Holy Spirit instills grace and on whom he impresses the character. This enables the believer to have a vital

share in the worship given by Christ to the Father in the Church. In Confirmation he confers the ability to be

committed adults in the faith, actively involved in the Church's mission of giving witness to and spreading the

Gospel [1] .

By virtue of this sharing in his priesthood, Christ gives all his members, laity included (cf. LG 34), the capacity of 

offering in their lives that worship which he himself called "worshipping the Father in Spirit and truth" (Jn 4:23).

By carrying out this worship the faithful, enlivened by the Holy Spirit, share in the incarnate Word's sacrifice and

in his mission as high priest and universal Redeemer.

According to the Council, in this transcendent priestly reality of Christ's mystery the laity are called to offer their 

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whole lives as a spiritual sacrifice, thus cooperating with the entire Church in the Redeemer's continual

consecration of the world. This is the laity's great mission: "For all their works, prayers and apostolic endeavors,

their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in

the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne--all these become 'spiritual sacrifices acceptable to

God through Jesus Christ.' Together with the offering of the Lord's body, they are most fittingly offered in the

celebration of the Eucharist. Thus, as those everywhere who adore in holy activity, the laity consecrate the world

itself to God" (cf. LG 34; CCC 901).

Spiritual worship implies the laity's participation in the Eucharistic celebration, the center of the whole network of

relationships between God and human beings in the Church. In this regard, "the lay faithful [too] are sharers in the

 priestly mission, for which Jesus offered himself on the cross and continues to be offered in the celebration of the

Eucharist for the glory of God and the salvation of humanity" (CL 14). In the Eucharistic celebration the laity

share actively by offering themselves in union with Christ, priest and victim. Their offering has ecclesial value by

virtue of the baptismal character that equips them to give the official worship of the Christian religion to God with

Christ and in the Church [2] . Sacramental participation in the Eucharistic banquet motivates and perfects their 

offering, instilling in them the sacramental grace that will help them to live and work in accord with the demands

of the offering made with Christ and the Church.

At this point we must stress the importance of participating in the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist prescribed

 by the Church. For everyone it is the highest act of exercising the universal priesthood, as the sacramental

offering of the Mass is for priests in exercising the ministerial priesthood. For everyone, participation in the

Eucharistic banquet is a condition for vital union with Christ, as he himself said: "Let me solemnly assure you, if 

you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (Jn 6:53). The Catechism

of the Catholic Church reminds all the faithful of the importance of participating in Sunday Mass (cf. CCC 2181-

2182). Here I would like to conclude with the well-known words from the First Letter of Peter, which describe

the image of the laity as sharers in the Eucharistic-ecclesial mystery: "You too are living stones, built as an edifice

of spirit, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 2:5).

[1] Â cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., q. 63, a 3; q. 72, aa. 5-6

[2] Â cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., III, q. 63, a. 3