Priest, Prophet, and King - Who? Me?

Homily for the Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we hear the Prophet Malachi using very strong, critical language as he rails against the shepherds of Israel. Then we hear St. Paul compare himself to a nursing mother in his care of the community of Thessalonica. Finally, we hear Jesus criticize the Pharisees because they do not practice what they preach. It may seem that the readings for this Sunday are meant only for those who are in positions of leadership within the church. As I have said before, the readings from the lectionary are not meant for only one group of people but for us all.

At the time of our Baptism, we are anointed on the crown of the head with the oil of Chrism, symbolizing our participation in the three offices of Christ: priest, prophet, and king. I suspect that many baptized Christians never think about the fact that baptism confers the three offices of Jesus upon each of us. If I were to give a title to this homily, it would read something like this: “Priest, prophet, and king – who me?” However, it must be said that this anointing is a stirring reminder of the sublime dignity conferred on us. All of us must embrace these shared offices of priest, prophet, and king. Through each of our lives, we are called by Christ to shoulder the responsibility for the Body of Christ, of which each of us is a member through baptism. Since this body is an organic whole, each of us is a part of the other and, therefore, we are to be caretakers of each other. It is together, in other words, that we are Christ for the world in which we live. That being the case, when any one of us engages in behavior incompatible with the Gospel, incompatible with being a member of the Body of Christ, we diminish Christ and his ministry in the world of our time.

Through baptism, each of us becomes a member of the common priesthood. It surprises some to learn that the common priesthood is not a reference to the clergy. Ordained priests, by Holy Orders, become members of the ministerial priesthood. Yet the common priesthood designates all the baptized. Sharing in the priesthood of Christ begins at one’s Baptism. The common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood worship together at Mass. We are a priestly community. The lay faithful worship alongside the ordained priest(s). Both make offerings to God. The priest is specifically ordained to confect the Eucharist — to offer and consecrate the bread and wine — on behalf of those gathered. The laity, too, actively participate by offering themselves and their gifts and sacrifices to God.

God’s Word today challenges all of us who are priests, prophets, and kings by Baptism, but especially the ordained leadership of the Body of Christ, to reflect deeply on what it means to be Christ for others today. We are most the Body of Christ in the celebration of the Eucharist, which the Second Vatican Council calls “the center and summit of the Christian life,” and therefore, each of us individually and together must be Eucharistically focused. Malachi, the messenger, chastises all of us priests, but especially those who preside at worship, for not living up to the calling that Christ has made due to our immorality and our false teaching. Jesus, in today’s gospel, chastises us as well, because we have not practiced what we have preached, and have considered titles and honors more important than being witnesses of Christ.

If the Eucharistic celebration is truly the center and summit of our lives, then every dimension of our lives must be influenced to the depths of our beings by the Eucharist. Since we are taught by Christ in the Word, and we eat and drink the God who sacrificed himself for us in the humanity of Jesus, then our lives must be true to Christ. If we are genuinely priests, prophets and kings, true to ourselves and to one another, then we are responsible for manifesting Christ in a world that most needs him, and yet finds it hard to see him, because we, the church, have failed Christ miserably. We have done so because we have not been Eucharistically centered and, therefore, have not made Christ’s life and teaching our own. The love of Christ calls us to conversion, that we might become the Eucharistic people he wants us to be.

The liturgy defines our participation in both the common and ministerial priesthood. However, the question remains, how do laypeople exercise their role as prophets and kings?

As a member of the ministerial priesthood, my role of prophet is exercised through my preaching and teaching. For the members of the common priesthood – namely the laity – the office of prophet is fulfilled when you engage in temporal affairs and make every effort to guide them according to God’s will.

As a member of the ministerial priesthood, my role of King is exercised through the governance of the Church. Our present Holy Father, Pope Francis, has been seeking ways to involve the laity in the same governance of that Church. In the synod that was concluded earlier this past week, several laypeople were included in the meetings and given a full vote in accepting all of the documents that will soon be published as a result of that synod. At the same time, it must be said, that the common priesthood also exercises the role of King by leadership in temporal affairs such as those that are included in our heads of state, our legislatures, in our judicial proceedings, and in our local communities.

Consequently, it must be said that while the readings for today’s liturgy from the prophet Malachi as well as the First Letter to the Thessalonians of St. Paul seem to be pointing directly to the members of the ministerial priesthood, they are meant to be applied to every baptized Christian. Both the ministerial and the common priesthood are summed up quite eloquently in the final line of today’s Gospel reading: “The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." By virtue of our baptism, each of us is a servant of the Body of Christ.