Christus begroeten in de gelovigen

The Second Vatican Council’s ecclesiological renewal has affected – and should affect – theology and spirituality of ministry. While preconciliar ecclesiology stressed the difference between (hierarchical) ministry and the laity, such as in the division in ecclesia docens and ecclesia discerns, conciliar ecclesiology highlighted also, and primarily, the royal priesthood dignity and mission shared by all believers. Examples include the notions of the faithful's sense of faith (sensus fidei fidelium) and of charismas. This has consequences for conceiving the role of hierarchical ministry in the Church, and for living it. A priest is not only himself an alter Christus, yet the parishioners whom he is serving are too. His calling, therefore, is to foster a culture in which the faithful live out their royal priesthood. In other words, he should ‘welcome Christ in the faithful’ (as the title of my contribution reads).