SALT LAKE CITY — "What does it mean to be ‘priest?’ With this provocative question, Friar Paul J. Philibert, O.P. began a discussion at Saint Vincent de Paul Catholic Church on The Priesthood of the Faithful. Fr. Philibert explained how each of us can "live, no longer I, but Christ who lives in me...." (Gal 2:20) Fr. Philibert’s Nov. 7 seminar was open to all through the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Office of Religious Education. As background, Fr. Philibert explained that in the Old Testament, God set the people of Israel apart from the rest of the world and provided leaders, prophets, judges, and kings. God gave laws written on stone and the people were bound to God by these laws. God allowed "substitution sacrifices," precious gifts repeatedly offered by cultic experts, human hereditary priests, in out-of-the ordinary places such as the "high" places or temples. Throughout the old tovenant, God was revealing himself to his chosen people, pointing them toward the new covenant in Christ; a covenant not according to the flesh, or stone tablets, or temples that can be destroyed, but according to the Spirit. Through the Incarnation, God, in Jesus, the Son, took on human flesh and transformed it into an instrument of salvation for all humanity and, Christ’s sacrifice is not a "substitution" sacrifice; it is a sacrifice of "solidarity." Jesus’ sacrifice was his self-giving of everything to the Father. But Fr. Philibert explained that this self-giving is Trinitarian: Jesus’ self-giving started with the Father’s self-offering of the gift of his Son to humanity (and that Christ returned to the Father so that he could send the "Advocate," the Holy Spirit to us.) After his resurrection and Pentecost, Christ exists as only the whole Christ, the head and members together. Christ is the perfect head. By intentionally joining our ordinary words and actions with the sacrifice of Christ, we, his Body, allow the Holy Spirit to transform these spiritual offerings of ourselves to be transformed into Christ’s present-day witness to God’s divine reality. We, his Body, make God’s love visible and real in the world today. In discussing the structure of the liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist, in which this sacrifice of "solidarity" is re-enacted, Fr. Philibert described three interrelated stages: the "symbolic matter" of the bread and wine, which are transubstantiated into the "graced sign" of the Body and Blood of Christ that then lead to the "realized mystery" of the transformation of those who eat and drink into the Body of Christ. Although an ordained priest must preside at the liturgical Eucharist, Fr. Philibert reminded those at the presentation that, through baptism, each person is anointed so as to belong to the Body of Christ. but the ordained priest also receives anointing through Holy Orders to the order of headship, a leader of prayer and liturgy, and the laying on of hands in the invocation of the Holy Spirit. An ordained priest is called (and ordained) to be "at the service of the common priesthood." Priestly ministry is "directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians." It is through the ordained priest, that "the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made visible in the midst of the community of believers." (CCC 1546) Although ordained priests are anointed through Holy Orders, the faithful layperson is also called to a common, non-liturgical priesthood. Christ didn’t come to transform the Temple; he came to transform the world. The mission of the Church doesn’t end at the altar in the celebration of liturgy; it ends with the transformation of the world. It’s for this transformation of the world that each layperson is called to be priest. Fed by the Eucharist, transformed into the Body of Christ by the Eucharist, the layperson is sent ("Go in peace to love and serve the Lord") to be Eucharist, to be Christ, to the world. For a more complete text, visit www.dioslc.org/ministries/education.
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