Christ wishes to continue his redemptive work also through the laity and thus they share in his priestly office of offering spiritual worship

The participation of the laity in Christ's priesthood was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis at the General Audience of Wednesday, 15 December. Quoting the words of the First Letter of Peter, the Pope stated that the lay faithful are called to offer "spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ", especially by participating in Sunday Mass. The Holy Father's talk was the 81st in the series on the mystery of the Church and was given in Italian. 

1. In the preceding catecheses on the laity we have several times alluded 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 as our starting point the texts of the Second Vatican Council, where we read: "Since he wishes to continue his witness and his service through the laity also, the supreme and eternal Priest, Christ Jesus, vivifies them with his Spirit and ceaselessly impels them to accomplish every good and perfect work" (Lumen gentium, n. 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. "To those whom he intimately joins to his life and mission he [Christ] also gives a share in his priestly office, to offer spiritual worship for the glory of the Father and the salvation of man. Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by the Holy Spirit, are marvellously called and prepared so that even richer fruits of the Spirit may be produced in them" (ibid.). 

2. We note that the Council does not merely describe the laity as "sharing in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ" (Lumen gentium, n. 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. 

Laity offer whole lives as spiritual sacrifice 

Moreover, this priestly action of Christ in the laity takes place through the Holy Spirit. Christ "vivifies them with his 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 of Baptism. With Baptism, in fact, Christ's presence and priestly activity is initiated in every member of his Body, in whom the Holy Spirit instils grace and on whom he impresses the character, enabling the believer to have a vital share in the worship given by Christ to the Father in the Church; while 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 (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., III, q. 63, a. 3; q. 72, aa. 5-6). 

3. By virtue of this sharing in his priesthood, Christ gives all his members, laity included (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 34), the capacity of offering in their lives that worship which he himself called "worshiping 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 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 undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit—indeed even the hardships of life if patiently borne—all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most fittingly be offered to the Father along with the Body of the Lord. And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world itself to God" (cf. Lumengentium, n. 34; cf. CCC, n. 901). 

4. Spiritual worship implies the laity's participation in the Eucharistic celebration, the centre 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" (Christifideles laici, n. 14). In the Eucharistic celebration the laity share actively by offering themselves in union with Christ, Priest and Victim; and 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 (cf. St Thomas, Summa Theol., III, q. 63, a. 3). 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 accordance with the demands of the offering made with Christ and the Church. 

Participating in Mass essential to union with Christ 

5. 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, nn. 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 Pt 2:5).