(Meditation on the Priestly Mission of the Baptized)
“God did not hesitate to beg the Samaritan woman for a little water,” notes Little Therese during her reflection on the Gospel, the meaning of which she understood very well: “He was thirsty (…) But in the words ‘give me a drink’ the Creator of the world was actually asking His unworthy creation only for love. He thirsted for love…”1 Therese of Lisieux lived at a time when very little was said about the mission of the baptized as a royal priesthood. However, she felt within herself a calling of “warrior, priest, apostle, doctor, martyr…”: Therese's noble heart thirsted greatly to bring others onto the path of salvation, to teach, to gather. To all who “seek their place in the Church,” she gives good advice through her own testimony: “I found my place in the Church: I will become love…” Perhaps it is thanks to Therese that Cardinal Stepinac could call during his trial: “Church, my love!”
1) In the Heart of the Church…
Therese rightly understood that the heart of the Church burns with love. We enter it through the sacramental gate, baptism, and become kings, prophets, and priests. For the Father to receive the honor due to Him, human strength alone is not enough. “(For without me you can do nothing)”2. What is needed is what theologians unpoetically call the “deputation (mandate) for worship,” which presupposes the sanctification of our being in Christ by the Holy Spirit. How else to worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth?
But just as Christ received the new outpouring of the Spirit after His baptism in the Jordan, so too should the baptized be confirmed to truly affirm their mission of the royal priesthood. The sacrament of confirmation, which unfortunately many baptized individuals do not receive in today’s time, perfects the “character traits” received in baptism and confers a new priestly anointing for the mission of intercession in liturgical and personal prayer, proclaiming the Truth, and spiritual combat. Little Therese did not understand “why this sacrament of Love is not given great attention”!3
2) “To love is to give everything and to give oneself”
Our common priestly mission is to follow Jesus Christ, in other words, to live a mystical life and the universal call to holiness, which means living the Beatitudes, the dimension of sacrifice in union with Christ the Priest and the Victim cannot be overshadowed, for it is about being “the Lamb’s companions”4 and following Him wherever He goes.
Because, according to the words of the Apocalypse, Christ has conquered, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the descendant of David, by the quiet offering of the sacrificed Lamb, the royal power of the Christian is a consequence of the priestly mission, (and thus also sacrifice), and not the other way around. As a result, the fruitfulness and the action of believers in the plan of testimony, apostolate, mission, and the royal dimension of their priestly mission will be like a flood of their contemplative life of prayer and hidden sacrifice for mystical evangelization.
Since we are called to perfect self-giving, our life takes on a liturgical, worshipful, Eucharistic character: “Let us not forget also to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”5
For both pillars of the Church, the apostles Peter and Paul, it is clear that if believers have been given the opportunity and grace to offer sacrifices, it means sacrificing themselves!
Peter writes: “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”6
And Paul: “I urge you (…) to present your bodies as a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice to God.”7
“The whole life is the Holy Mass, and all souls in this world are guests,” said Marta Robin, who was at the forefront of creating numerous spiritual centers for lay people, charitable homes, long before the Second Vatican Council and at the beginning of recognizing the value of the priestly mission of the laity.
Therese of Lisieux offers this definition of love in her last poem about the Virgin Mary: “to love is to give everything and to give oneself.” But she also provides guidance in another place: “The Lord loves those who give with love!” The Apocalypse, without ever excluding the way of suffering that leads to glory, presents the development of royal and priestly dignity as the peak of joy and Christian holiness: “Blessed are those who are called to the wedding of the Lamb.”8
3) “Praise of Glory”
This motto of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity reminds us that the second dimension, equally inseparable from sacrifice as the Cross, is true Joy, it is praise: “but you are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,’ that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”9 The letter to the Hebrews also speaks to believers with the words of Psalm 50: “Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God; that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name.”10
Giving oneself and proclaiming the miraculous works of God, whether personal or related to the community, are two inseparable expressions of the mystical priestly mission of believers called to sing a new song.11 One cannot choose, Father Louis Boyer believes, “between the mysticism of the Cross and the mysticism of the Resurrection, as some occasionally imagine. Christianity knows only one mysticism, the mysticism of the Ascension. But the Ascension presupposes the lifting up on the cross” (which is also the meaning of religious life). Let us not strive to elevate ourselves, as New Age gurus suggest: there is no other way to be raised up than the trust in the One who humbled Himself!
The active participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic sacrifice is the climax of the encounter of these two dimensions of adoration in spirit and truth, which are sacrifice and praise. Although not every Christian has received the power to serve the Eucharist, everyone indeed has the opportunity and calling to offer themselves with Christ. When they do so, they offer Christ to the Father not only through the hands of the priest, but also with Him, uniting their intentions of praise, intercession, reparation, and works of mercy with the intentions of the priest and of Christ Himself present on the altar. Marta Robin states that spiritual weakness (asthania) deprives many Christians of the effects of the Eucharist, who are by the well but die of thirst.
Eucharist makes the Church, and furthermore, as Blessed Edith Stein expressed it:
“If we could experience the liturgical seasons, feasts, or vigils in the spirit of the Church, our souls would soon begin to turn, year by year, to eternity, like fruit that ripens before it falls into the rest of eternal Sabbath.”
(Brother Etien)
