Baptism: Common mission that unites ordained ministers, lay faithful

Pope Leo XIV says Christian faithful are united in faith by baptism, which enables ministers and lay faithful to worship God in spirit and truth, and also confess before men the faith which they have received from God through the Church.

Pope Leo made this known during his weekly audience, where he highlighted that the common priesthood of the faithful is given by baptism through the new and eternal covenant to establish a kingdom of priests, constituting his disciples as a ‘royal priesthood.’

“Every baptized person is an active agent of evangelization, called to bear consistent witness to Christ in accordance with the prophetic gift which the Lord bestows upon His whole Church. It follows that every baptized person is an active agent of evangelization, called to bear consistent witness to Christ in accordance with the prophetic gift which the Lord bestows upon His whole Church.”

He reminded the faithful that the Holy Spirit distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank, and that it is through these gifts that the Holy Spirit makes Christians fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church.

Pope Leo noted that a particular demonstration of this charismatic vitality is offered by consecrated life, which continually germinates and flourishes through the work of grace. “Ecclesial associations, too, are a shining example of the variety and fruitfulness of spiritual fruits for the edification of the People of God.”

The Pope invites Catholic faithful to rekindle the awareness of and gratitude for having received the gift of being part of God’s people, and also the responsibility that being baptize in the faith entails.

Pope Leo recalled that the exercise of the royal priesthood takes place in many ways, all aimed at our sanctification, first and foremost through participation in the offering of the Eucharist. “Through prayer, asceticism and active charity, we thus bear witness to a life renewed by God’s grace. It is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of the priestly community is brought into operation.”

The Pope emphasized that the sense of faith belongs to individual believers not in their own right, but as members of the People of God as a whole. He recalled that the doctrinal commission of the Council specified that ‘sensus fidei’ is like a faculty of the whole Church, recognizing the revelation handed down, distinguishes between true and false in matters of faith, and at the same time penetrates it more deeply and applies it more fully in life.