In a New Light

Pope Leo has asked the church to undertake a rereading of the documents of the Second Vatican Council to see them in a new light, and at his Wednesday General Audiences throughout 2026, his sermons are gradually making their way through the documents, teaching and interpreting the documents and how they can be applied today.

The Second Vatican Council's Sacrosanctum Concilium (SC) and Lumen Gentium (LG) stand out as a great clarion call for the laity's participation in the victimhood of Christ by virtue of their membership in the Mystical Body. Lumen Gentium's chapter titled "The People of God" claims that this people "has for its head Christ" (LG, 9) and then discourses on the hierarchical nature of the Church, noting that the ministerial priesthood (of the clergy) and common priesthood (of the laity) differ "in essence and not only in degree" (LG, 10), but share a common mission.

The lay faithful are said to "join in the offering of the Eucharist by virtue of their royal priesthood" and are "consecrated by baptismal character to the exercise of the cult of the Christian religion" (LG, 10). Moreover, lay participation in the "Eucharistic Sacrifice" is to "offer the divine Victim to God, and offer themselves along with it" (LG, 10). One could say, then, that the People of God are gathered by the Lord precisely so that they may assemble as the Mystical Body and act as Christ, offering themselves together with the Immaculate Victim to die and rise again with him.

Sacrosanctum Concilium confirms and develops this idea, clearly defining the sacred liturgy not as an action of the People of God per se, but as an action of Christ exercising his priestly office (SC, 7). And since Christ's nature includes his Mystical Body, consequently "in the liturgy full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and His members" (SC, 7). Now the subsequent claims of the document become clear. Mother Church desires "that the faithful be led to that full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations" precisely so that they may share in the action of Christ.

By exercising their newly-discovered dignity as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, they would participate in Christ's own action "by offering the Immaculate Victim, not only through the hands of the priest, but also with him ... [ and ] offer themselves, too" (SC, 48). As Lumen Gentium notes, "it pleased God to bring men together as a people" (LG, 9), but this gathering was not an end in itself. Rather, it was a preparation for the "new and perfect covenant, which was to be ratified in Christ," making humanity a "royal priesthood" (LG, 9) which could then offer true and acceptable sacrifice when united to the headship of Christ.