It is a tremendous privilege, as a priest, to preside at Mass and to serve in the person of Christ, the Head and Shepherd of the Church. I am grateful to God for the grace of remembering that often. I also remember, however, what a privilege and honor it was, as I grew in my faith in college, to go to daily Mass and to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. Before I ever became a lector or extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, and surely before I ever became a seminarian or deacon or priest, I was so conscious of Christ incarnate under the humble appearances of bread and wine, and of the awesome mystery of His presence that evoked in me feelings of awe and adoration. nbsp;    As we rightly encourage and develop lay ministries and shared responsibility in the Church, we can begin to forget that our primary privilege, given by our initiation into the priesthood of the faithful by our Baptism, is to honor and adore God at Mass, and to incorporate Christ into our daily lives. Our most important and fundamental right and responsibility is to worship: to offer ourselves, wholly and completely, to Christ on the altar in the Eucharist, who unites Himself wholly and completely with us. We don’t need to exercise any other liturgical functions and ministries in order to actively participate in this priestly act or to share in the mystery of the Eucharist.

Recent official documents emphasize this truth. In his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI states: 

The Second Vatican Council rightly emphasized the active, full and fruitful participation of the entire People of God in the eucharistic celebration . Certainly, the renewal carried out in these past decades has made considerable progress towards fulfilling the wishes of the Council Fathers. Yet we must not overlook the fact that some misunderstanding has occasionally arisen concerning the precise meaning of this participation. It should be made clear that the word "participation" does not refer to mere external activity during the celebration. In fact, the active participation called for by the Council must be understood in more substantial terms, on the basis of a greater awareness of the mystery being celebrated and its relationship to daily life.

. . . [I]t does not follow that everyone must necessarily have something concrete to do beyond the actions and gestures [of the Mass], as if a certain specific liturgical ministry must necessarily be given to the individuals to be carried out by them. Instead, catechetical instruction should strive. . . to instill anew in all of Christ’s faithful that sense of deep wonder before the greatness of the mystery of faith that is the Eucharist, in whose celebration the Church is forever passing from what is obsolete into newness of life: “in novitatem a vetustate”.  For in the celebration of the Eucharist, as in the whole Christian life which draws its power from it and leads toward it, the Church, after the manner of Saint Thomas the Apostle, prostrates herself in adoration before the Lord who was crucified, suffered and died, was buried and arose, and perpetually exclaims to him who is clothed in the fullness of his divine splendor: “My Lord and my God!”

Whether or not we exercise any of the liturgical ministries, we all enter into the wonderful and mysterious exchange of the Eucharist. We give our offering of all that we have and are, placing the whole of our lives on the paten with the unleavened bread, and pouring our blood, sweat and tears into the cup with the crushed fruit of the vine. And we receive God Himself, the flesh and blood of Jesus in the outward characteristics of bread and wine, who unites Himself as food to our own flesh and blood.

What reverence is owed this great mystery! How appropriate it is for us to enter into the Mass dressed tastefully and modestly, with silence and recollection. How appropriate it is for us genuflect to Christ in the tabernacle, and to show Him reverence with our demeanor and attitude in Church. How appropriate it is for us to receive the Sacrament with care; first, bowing our head to acknowledge His Real Presence, and then carefully accepting Him in our two open hands, one placed on top of the other, or on our tongues extended for Him as a “deer longs for running streams.” How appropriate it is that once we receive Him without delay, we return to our pews to kneel in contemplation at the nearness of God, and of the intimacy He has just invited us to in this communion.  How appropriate that we remain in contemplation, quiet or singing, until the Blessed Sacrament is returned to the tabernacle.