As this year began, Pope Leo insisted that the teachings of the Second Vatican Council are still “the guiding star” the Catholic Church is meant to follow today. Rereading all of its teachings “is a valuable opportunity to rediscover the beauty and the importance of this ecclesial event,” he said in January and its work remains “a guiding principle for us today.” His Holiness said that Vatican II looked at the Catholic Church “as a mystery of communion and sacrament of unity between God and his people; it initiated important liturgical reforms, placing at its center the mystery of salvation and the active and conscious participation of the entire people of God.” The Pontiff urged all to reread the Council’s documents and directly “reflect on their content.”
The insistence of Pope Leo that Catholics worldwide attain a fuller appreciation of what “active and conscious participation of the entire people of God” means applies to the whole Christian life certainly but perhaps most practically to the Church’s liturgical celebrations, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The first reading at Mass this Sunday happily recalls the early Church’s introduction of the diaconate, an office re-introduced by the recent Council. And the second reading at Mass boldly promotes the belief that all the baptized share somehow in the priesthood of Jesus Christ, a principle highly appreciated by the Fathers at Vatican II. St. Peter wrote, “...let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” And the same author goes on to insist, “You are ‘a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises’ of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
As these Scripture readings indicate, the priesthood of Christ extends beyond the ordained clergy to include all believers, all the baptized. The Council clearly taught, “Liturgical services are not private functions, but are celebrations of the Church, which is the ‘sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united and ordered under their bishops. Therefore liturgical services pertain to the whole body of the Church; they manifest it and have effects upon it; but they concern the individual members of the Church in different ways, according to their differing rank, office, and actual participation.” The official teachings continue: “Servers, lectors, commentators, and members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical function. They ought, therefore, to discharge their office with the sincere piety and decorum demanded by so exalted a ministry and rightly expected of them by God’s people. Consequently they must all be deeply imbued with the spirit of the liturgy, each in their own measure, and they must be trained to perform their functions in a correct and orderly manner.” And this assorted exercise of the priesthood is broadly promoted: “To promote active participation, the people should be encouraged to take part by means of acclamations, responses, psalmody, antiphons, and songs, as well as by actions, gestures, and bodily attitudes. And at the proper times all should observe a reverent silence.”
Mass by its very nature is a communal celebration of the victory of Christ over sin and death and this is why the Council renewed and stressed the active participation of all the varieties of the Christian life. Mass is not a private devotion but a gathering and an exercise of the whole Church in all its assorted and beneficial roles. The Council Fathers further taught, “It is to be stressed that whenever rites, according to their specific nature, make provision for communal celebration involving the presence and active participation of the faithful, this way of celebrating them is to be preferred, so far as possible, to a celebration that is individual and quasi-private.” Yes, the Mass by its very nature is participatory, communal and shared. The whole people of God, exercising their own offices and talents, contribute to the worship of God first celebrated at the Last Supper, made effective on the Cross at Calvary, and continued endlessly by the priestly people assembled at the Church’s many altars.
As Pope Leo honestly acknowledged, “We have yet to achieve ecclesial reform more fully in a ministerial sense and, in the face of today’s challenges, we are called to continue to be vigilant interpreters of the signs of the times, joyful proclaimers of the Gospel, courageous witnesses of justice and peace.” Embracing the Church’s liturgy actively as well as devoutly was certainly the Council’s intention.
