A priestly people for the world

This Holy Thursday Pope Benedict XVI gathered the priests, religious and lay of his diocese around him in St Peter’s Basilica to celebrate Chrism Mass, the liturgy where the oils for the sick and catechumens and the chrism for the sacraments that will be used in every parish in Rome throughout the year, are blessed.

It is also the Mass when – in preparation for Holy Thursday’s memorial of the Institution of the Eucharist – priests renews their promises to conform themselves to Christ. Perhaps for this very reason it’s a mass that is usually associated with the ordained, but while Pope Benedict XVI spoke of Holy Thursday being ‘in a special way’ the priest’s day, his homily this Chrism Mass went beyond the 1600 concelebrating priests to embrace the ‘priestly people’ of his diocese and speak of the mission of all baptised:
“Christians are a priestly people for the world” he said. “Christians should make the living God visible to the world, they should bear witness to him and lead people towards him”.

But this task in which we share by virtue of our baptism, said the Pope poses a series of questions: “are we truly God's shrine in and for the world? Do we open up the pathway to God for others or do we rather conceal it? Have not we - the people of God - become to a large extent a people of unbelief and distance from God? Is it perhaps the case that the West, the heartlands of Christianity, are tired of their faith, bored by their history and culture, and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ?

Pope Benedict observed “We have reason to cry out at this time to God: "Do not allow us to become a 'non-people'! Make us recognize you again! Truly, you have anointed us with your love, you have poured out your Holy Spirit upon us. Grant that the power of your Spirit may become newly effective in us, so that we may bear joyful witness to your message!”

The Holy Father concluded “for all the shame we feel over our failings, we must not forget that today too there are radiant examples of faith" such as John Paul II," a great witness of God and Jesus Christ in our time ", and the many people he beatified and canonized who "give us the certainty" that " even today God's promise and commission do not fall on deaf ears". Listen to full report: