Our common priesthood in Christ

Fr. Michael Sweeney, O.P., Director

All Catholics participate in the common priesthood of Christ.

Earlier this week I had to renew my passport. This involved filling out a form which demanded, among many other things, my occupation. With some reluctance I dutifully wrote the words, "Catholic priest." Why the reluctance? First, because I am morally certain that, unless the application is read by a well-catechized Catholic, my "occupation" will be very much misunderstood. The reader will make all sorts of assumptions about me that are untrue as, for example: that I am the purveyor of dark medieval superstitions; that I am tirelessly dedicated to the enslavement of women; that I am in an emotional wilderness seeking clandestine relief from celibacy.

There is yet another reason for my reluctance: there are very nearly one billion Catholics in the world, and every one of them could truthfully report his or her occupation as "Catholic priest." The magisterium (the bishops in their role as teachers of the faith, united with the Holy Father) clearly teaches that every Catholic is a priest. A reporter is really a Catholic priest, cleverly disguised as a reporter. An accountant is really a Catholic priest who happens to function as an accountant. A mother is a Catholic priest who presents the love of the risen Christ to her children. A student is a Catholic priest under the guise of one who pursues a degree. The title, "Catholic priest" really no more describes my occupation than it does yours.

Certainly, there is a difference between our offices, yours and mine. But the difference is not that I am a priest and you are not. Instead, we both participate in the same priesthood, but in essentially different ways. I belong to the "ministerial priesthood" in the Church. Through the sacrament of Holy Orders I am a member of the hierarchy (a word which means "Holy Order" in Greek). I belong to the order of presbyters, or

"elders" of the Church. To me has been entrusted a participation in the teaching, sacramental and governing offices of the Church. It is my office to make Christ present to his people: Christ teaching, Christ sanctifying and Christ governing his own community. Yet, were I to write the word "presbyter" on the application I might well be taken for a Presbyterian; were I to write "Catholic hierarch" I would possibly be mistaken for the patriarch of some Eastern rite. Bowing, therefore, to social convention I wrote the words, "Catholic priest" with the mental reservation that I do not intend the misunderstanding which is bound to result.

I am fully aware that many—perhaps most—Catholics are unaware of their own priesthood. But when the magisterium speaks of the one priesthood of Christ, in which all of us—lay and ordained—participate, we should pay attention. When you were anointed at Baptism, and the celebrant prayed: "As Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king, so may you live always as a member of his holy people, sharing everlasting life," you received, in that moment, a real participation in the priesthood of Christ. You are truly a priest; your priesthood is, in a very real way, what is to shape your other occupations and relationships in this world.

What, then, does your priesthood entail? In what ways are you a priest? Every priest offers sacrifice to God on behalf of himself and others. The sacrifice that Christ offered was himself, for the life of the world. Your first act as a priest is to recapitulate the sacrifice of Christ, by offering yourself to God for the sake of the world: offering your goods, your work, your relationships, your very self to God for the life of the world. When you approach the altar to pray, you come as a priest: you bring, not just yourself, but all with whom you live and work and recreate. When you go to work, you go as a priest: you offer your work to God. No matter how menial or ordinary our work may appear to others, it has the dignity of being the work of a priest. In this way every human endeavor is offered to God for his blessing.

But a priest has a second function: not only does the priest offer sacrifice to God, the priest also brings the salvation of God to others. So it is that we have all been anointed —every Catholic without exception—for the sake of bringing the salvation of God to those with whom we live and work and recreate:

With this spiritual "unction," [anointing] Christians can repeat in an individual way the words of Jesus: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk 4:18–19; cf. Is 61:1–2). Thus with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, the baptized share in the same mission of Jesus as the Christ, the Savior-Messiah (John Paul II, Christifideles Laici "Christ’s Lay Faithful People," 13).

Have you ever repeated these words of Jesus as your own, as the Holy Father suggests? For the Spirit of the Lord is upon you (and not only upon members of the hierarchy like me), because he has anointed you to preach the good news to the poor (not just presbyters like me). He has sent you to proclaim release to captives…. And he has gifted you for this purpose. This is why we place so much emphasis upon the charisms. Christ has bestowed supernatural gifts upon you so that, through his people, others may encounter Christ: teaching, encouraging, interceding, healing; Christ: the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God, the mercy of God; Christ: the craftsman, the prophet, the servant. Each of the charisms makes present a facet of Christ’s work in the world.

Your priesthood is directed most particularly to the secular world: offering all of the myriad human relationships and endeavors to the Father in your own person, as did Christ, and bringing to all of humanity the salvation of God in Christ. My priesthood is directed most particularly to the community of the Church: offering the Body and Blood of the Lord to the Father as an acceptable sacrifice, and bringing the forgiveness and life of the Risen Lord to his own people. These are not two priesthoods, but rather the one priesthood of Christ expressed in two essentially different manifestations. Both of us—lay and ordained—have been anointed as priests; both of us—lay and ordained—participate in the common priesthood of Christ.