It was the Lord's will that everyone should be endowed with a “common priesthood” to trans­form the personal life of each one into an accept­able sacrifice, and the whole of history into a li­turgy of the living man. “The baptized, by regene­ration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are con­secrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, that through all the works of Christian men they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the perfection of him who has called them out of dark­ness into his marvellous light. Therefore all the dis­ciples of Christ, persevering in prayer and praising God, should present themselves as a sacrifice, liv­ing, holy, and pleasing to God. They should every­where on earth bear witness to Christ and give an answer to everyone who asks a reason for the hope of an eternal life which is theirs”.⁴ In fact, this is what the Decree on the ministry and life of priests affirms clearly when it says that “for in that Body all the faithful are made a holy and kingly priesthood”⁵

A wonderful goal indeed! To render this common priesthood visible and effective, the Lord made present his unique paschal sacrifice through the sacramental nature of the Eucharistic celebration. The common priesthood brings every generation, with its own works of love, into the supreme act of the liturgy of the Cross.

Rightly did the Council proclaim that the liturgy (and more precisely the Eucharist) is “the summit to which the activity of the Church is directed, and is also the fount from which all her power flows”.⁶

The tasks of evangelization and apostolic labors are essentially ordered to this: sharing in the priest­hood of Christ, fighting at his side for the defeat of evil, to love like him and to express in daily living what is experienced sacramentally through faith.

And so, the common priesthood, which we must all live as disciples of the Lord and living members of his Body is the highest expression of human dignity, the reintegration of his human mission in the world, the historical way which makes it possi­ble to feel involved in redemption and salvation.⁷

It is through the Holy Sacrament of Baptism that we are initiated into the common priesthood. It is precisely because of this that Baptism is one of the sacraments of initiation. “Baptism is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift...We call it gift, grace, anointing, enlightenment, garment of immortality, seal and precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring nothing of their own...”⁸ By faith we enter into a journey away from our own securities, into the challenge of a future that only God can create. It is a gratuitous gift.. We are Christians by His mercy and not by any right. "In order to be transformed into a new creature, man has to surrender himself to God through faith, but this opening of faith is itself a gratuitous gift from God. Unaided, man cannot possibly open to God. The very act of opening is God's gift. Man is simply powerless to believe in God without God's help. Man is there confronted, not with one but with two gifts from above: God invites him to share his own life and, in order to achieve this, gives him the preparatory gift of faith ...By grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God"(Eph.2:8)"⁹

Hence our first response that wells up in our hearts should be one of gratitude expressing our gratefulness to the Father of Mercies: “Thank you for making me what I am”. What should be our attitude towards those who have not received Baptism, then? There should not be any superiority complex on our part but a humble attitude of sharing the gift with others. Here we see how as missionaries we should approach others. As people graced by the immense bounty of God, who willingly, lovingly and affectionately want others to take part in this indescribable gift, "a pearl of great price" must have an attitude of service towards them..

"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6: 3 - 4)

"Baptism is the sacrament of Faith. But faith needs the community of believers. It is only within the faith of the Church that each faithful can believe."¹⁰ Hence our relationship with the other members of the Church must be one of deep love and understanding that we are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Not to love others is incompatible with the sacrament of Baptism which we have received through His bounty. "Faith is not a mere intellectual apprehension of a revealed truth, but rather man's willful entrance into the economy of the Gospel, a total gift of self whereby man surrenders to God and shares, in an anticipated manner, the plenitude of divine gifts"¹¹

A New Creature:

"Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte "a new creature", an adopted son of God, who become a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Cor. 5: 17) member of Christ and co-heir with him(Rom.8:17), and a temple of the Holy Spirit"

( 1 Cor.6:9)¹². It is the Holy Spirit that substantially and almost physically dwells in us, not Jesus of Nazareth with his glorified humanity"¹³

Let us delve deep into this mystery of God's infinite lave. I am a member of a family . Father, Mother, brothers and sisters. Think of ourselves when we were small. We were the centre of the family. The closeness we enjoyed. The love that we had from our parents and brothers and sisters; the care we had in sickness and health, in our various needs. What appreciation! The birthdays and feast days we celebrated. Much more than this is the intimate and indescribable closeness we have received at Baptism; we became pets in the Family of God. We are His children. The apple of His eye. In this context we understand more deeply what Isaiah says: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget yet I will not forget you” ¹⁴ “Abide in me and I in you” (Jn .15: 4) “So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba Father" it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow' heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may all be glorified with him" (Rom. 8: 12-17). "Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of His body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father", in union with His only Son He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes into him who forms the Church"¹⁵ "Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself" (2Cor. 5:17-18). The new creation means we have within us the "uncreated gift of God and the “created gift”, the sanctifying grace. Where does grace dwell? It is so intimate with our soul that it is difficult to distinguish. Gregory of Nyssa says: it is like the anointing of the body with oil. The oil so closely adheres to the body that it is difficult to separate one from the other. So it is with grace.

Grace sanctifies the whole person, every faculty of soul and body. "For a Hebrew, a body anointed with oil gains strength, health, joy and beauty, for oil penetrates deep into the body. Similarly now, Jesus is metaphorically anointed with the Holy Spirit,(so also we), who penetrates and possesses him fully"¹⁶. We become really "gods". This is an important concept to be borne in mind. We must also try to experience this relationship with the triune God.

"Man the whole man, is the temple of the Holy Spirit, the body included. This is but a touch of Hebrew realism from which the New Testament, particularly Paul, does not fail to draw important ethical conclusions. Given the rampant vice of debauchery in Greek society at that time, Paul lays heavy stress on the fact that it is precisely the body, seat of passion and lust, that is sanctified by the permanent presence of the Spirit. Paul makes use of the fundamental truth to convince his Corinthian Christians that the human body - one's own body or that of the neighbour, whether man or woman, for homosexuality was apparently as widespread as fornication - is sacred, sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God and carrier of the divine presence. Hence, improper use of the human body - any human body - amounts to shameful desecration of God's temple."¹⁷

Relationship with God is never broken. "Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself, but to him who died for us. Blood relationship ends with death. Blood and flesh decay. "And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection"(Lk. 2):34-37). Grace is life. "But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him .The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:8-11).Grace is the energy which makes us work for God and our neighbour.

Our whole being is changed

Our whole being is transformed. We have the face cut of our parents. We have the face cut of God, Jesus. "Created in the image and likeness of God"¹⁸.We have become priests by which we can take part in the priesthood of Christ; we can not only offer gifts but our very selves. This then is the beginning of our priesthood. Royal in as much as we are able with the help of His grace to control our own selves; we are able to rule over our faculties and make them submissive to the demands of the Gospel. The basis of our ministerial priesthood is here. Without then deepening our baptismal commitment we shall never be good ministers of God. The Lord had told Moses “you shall be for a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” and this was realized tangibly in the coming of our Blessed Lord.¹⁹ We have become branches that are alive attached to the wine in an inseparable manner²⁰. We defend the good name of our natural Family so too we defend the name of the One to whom we belong "Do not touch me” we can say to the archenemy of God “ I belong to God". "No one knows the Father" (Mt.11.27).

We entered into the Family of God. "It can never be sufficiently emphasized that the Spirit takes firm hold on the entire man, spirit, body, superior and inferior faculties, intellect, will, memory, imagination, heart and affectivity: there is absolutely no psychological area in man which can escape the hold of the indwelling Spirit. Consequently the entire realm of feelings, pleasure and sensible delectation is also drawn into the sanctifying touch and all-embracing influence of the Holy Spirit acting from within man. This being the case, it would be certainly be surprising if the intimate experience of his action did not leave any trace in man's affectivity, even in his body"²¹ Saints are those who have the face cut of God very similar to that of Jesus. In fact, what G.K Chesterton seems to have said: “A saint is a man who knows that he is a sinner”²² is perceived as one comes to know God intimately. He realizes how different he is from God even though he belongs to God’s family. We are plunged into the Trinitarian life. This life we began by our justification by Baptism. The Holy Spirit had united us to the Risen Lord and in him made us brothers and sisters of Jesus and enabled us to call God the Father very intimately “Abba Father”.

In order to understand the union we have with Christ let us take an example. My mother is now physically absent from me now. But because of my love for her and my affectionate memories I have of her she is very close to me, she is very present to me I may say, almost physically present to me though actually she is physically absent where as you my friends are really physically present to me. My love for my absent mother is true and genuine and real but her absence reduces this love to a psychological level, whereas the bodily proximity of my friends places our mutual love rather on the physical level. ! "The glorified Jesus is not physically present in us as in a temple, he is rather physically absent. And yet according to the authoritative testimony of the NT, the union of the Christian with Christ should almost be described as physical. To equate this union with that between my mother(absent)and me is to minimize, to water down unduly the rich doctrine given to us by John and Paul. The baptized Christian is permanently united with the Christ of Easter in a manner and with an intimacy that far exceeds the intimacy he can feel towards his absent mother. The union with the risen Christ is of a superior kind, it belongs to an incomparably higher level of closeness and intimacy. And yet Christ is physically absent, not present"²³

"This union with Christ is not fleeting but permanent, it lasts. Eucharistic communion offers a type of union which is even more intense, more intimate and absorbing, but also much shorter, for it does not last, it is transitory. Although this immanence in Christ which is the result of baptism may be weaker, it is much more durable. It lasts as long as grievous sin is avoided, and in this sense it is permanent."²⁴

With this background only we can in some way fathom the immense love God has for us: “The common priesthood of all the faithful and the ordained, hierarchical priesthood differ not only in degree, but also in essence.”²⁵ These are men who, through absolutely no merit of their own, have been chosen and set apart from the service of God. In relation to the laity they have become “holier than thou”.²⁶

The Danger

We priests must often meditate on this stupendous reality which God in his mercy has conferred on every baptized Christian. But this unimaginable gift as Paul says is in fragile clay. The clay can easily be broken. "Man is the son of God, and yet a potential betrayer of God; beckoned to the summits, and yet constantly dragged down to the depths; with his mind and heart bathed in the light of God, and his affectivity and body often sucked up by the morass of sin; genuinely longing for God, and secretly thirsting for the flesh; outstretching one arm to God and the other to the sinful world around him. Such is the complexity of man"²⁷ Just as we are very careful to uphold our earthly family’s name and fame so also or much more should we be careful to uphold the name of the Family of God, the Church by our conduct and behaviour.

We must be convinced that our call to be Christians and then to be priests are based on sheer grace. God is the Master and no one else. “The fundamental structure of the Christian ministries becomes clear once this understanding which Jesus had of himself and the insight of New Testament belief in him are firmly grasped. These ministries are also grounded not in self-authorization, nor in simple expediency, nor in mutual agreement, but rather on a being called to him who is himself the call of God, the “Word”. It is from this Christological centre that the essential features of the Christian concept turns on the mission of Christ and the Christian’s co-mission with him.”²⁸.

“It is by living our commitment with deep gratitude and at the same fulfilling the obligations imposed upon us by this sacrament that we are able to live our ministerial priesthood. To bring about this universal participation in Christ's priesthood, he himself instituted the or­dained ministry. This he did by choosing and con­secrating the Twelve, who continue through the centuries by means of the apostolic succession. The sacrament of Order consecrates their successors (the bishops) and provides them with a special power of service which makes possible the exercise of the priesthood of the community: he himself calls them and qualifies them by the “anointing” of the Holy Spirit.”²⁹