Apr 6 Mon
What does it mean that the Church is a priestly and prophetic people?
All Christians must make the faith known, spread Christ’s teaching, and bring all people under the mantle of the Church.
However, there are specific tasks for each segment of the faithful within the common apostolic mission.
The PRIESTLY task of the Church is her task of sanctifying people. Pope Leo XIV explains it:
“The Lord Jesus, through the new and eternal Covenant, has established a kingdom of priests, constituting his disciples as a ‘royal priesthood’. "
“This common priesthood of the faithful (also called baptismal priesthood) is given with Baptism and strengthened in the sacrament of Confirmation. This common mission unites the ordained ministries and the lay faithful."
The laity are called, as living members, to contribute with all their strength to the building up of the Church and to her continual sanctification. All the lay people, then, have the exalted duty of working for the spread of the divine plan of salvation to all men, of every epoch, and all over the earth. All their works, prayers and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of body and mind, 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.
But mostly, in the celebration of the Eucharist, they offer everything to the Father along with the body of the Lord. In so doing, the laity consecrates the world itself to God.
The holy People of God also participate in the PROPHETIC mission of Christ (also called the office of teaching).
This prophetic nature is shown in the supernatural appreciation of the faith (sensus fidei) of the whole people of God, whereby his children unfailingly adhere to the faith.
This sensus fidei “is like a faculty of the whole Church, by which she, in her faith, recognizes the revelation handed down, distinguishing between true and false in matters of faith, and at the same time penetrates it more deeply and applies it more fully in life.”
To guide the faithful in this growth and to teach the truth, Christ endowed his Church with a living Magisterium. The Church’s Magisterium, even though carried out through human instruments, is not a human magisterium: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
The totality of the faithful possesses a supernatural sense of faith. They are infallible when they unanimously believe that a truth has been revealed by God. Thus, the sense of faith belongs to individual believers not in their own right, but as members of the People of God as a whole.
The laity—part of the Church—also teaches, announcing Christ with their words, the testimony of their lives, and their speech. Thus, they teach their children, relatives, and friends “so that the power of the Gospel may shine out in daily family and social life.”