If today priesthood and prophethood are often presented to us as opposites--priesthood as what is ossified and institutional, prophethood as what is free, creative and renewing; if in addition worship and social action are contrasted--worship once again as mere pomp in which man establishes himself and clings to himself and social action as liberation and renewal; then here we see that this is not how it is. Only prophecy that springs from being moved by God, from God coming first, can really be from God. The reverse applies that priesthood too is only right when it is from the power of prayer that it comes to proclaim the word and thus change the world, because prayer extends farther than all our activities: it constantly embraces the whole world which we can then share in embracing if we regard it and affect it on the foundation of God.
For this reason, contrasts of this kind are misleading and mean that we do not grasp either priesthood or prophethood correctly any longer. Certainly, there is a degenerate form of priesthood, a danger--in the Old as well as in the New Testament--just as there are degenerate forms of prophecy. In the Old Testament, false prophecy is condemned by the prophets no less harshly than the priesthood. Priesthood falls into decay when it is seen only as an opportunity to earn one's living, when it is seen only as an opportunity to earn one's living, when it is only a job by which we have a position in the world and struggle along to maintain our social standing, when God becomes a means for us. Then it has become a complete caricature of itself and thus has turned into the opposite of the new departure of the New Covenant and the message of Jesus Christ. But this temptation exists in all ages.
--Card Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI), Homily, Feast of St John the Baptist, 1986, Ministers of Your Joy, pp 45-46
Priesthood and prophecy, worship and social action always go together
