The Role of the Laity: An Examination of Vatican II and "Christifideles Laici" |
Carl E. Olson | IgnatiusInsight.com
The Role of the Laity: An Examination of Vatican II and Christifideles Laici | Carl E. Olson
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/colson_rolelaity1_oct06.asp
G.K. Chesterton once observed that the process of
"discovering" the Catholic Faith
is most enjoyable, "easier than joining the Catholic Church and much easier than trying to live the Catholic life."
How
right he was! It did not take much time, as a former Evangelical Protestant, to
see that no little confusion existed among many of my fellow Catholics about a
variety of issues, including essential matters like the nature of the Church
and what it means to be a Christian. And I did not have to wait long to stumble
upon an expression of this confusion. Following the Easter Vigil Liturgy in
1997, during which my wife and I were confirmed and received Holy Communion, there
was a reception in the parish hall. Jim, a cradle Catholic and a regular
extraordinary Eucharistic minister, introduced himself and offered his
congratulations. Upon discovering that both my wife and I were converts from
Protestantism and that our families had been less than pleased about our
decision to become Catholic, he shook his head sympathetically and offered this
thought: "I look at it like this: everyone in the world is in a different boat
on the ocean of life, but we are all going to the same place, regardless of
which boat we are in." He was visibly pleased with his analogy, apparently
missing the irony of his remark. If what he said was true, why did I bother
even becoming Catholic? And what was the point of being Catholic?
Subsequent
conversations with various Catholics have revealed that this sort of sincere
indifferentism is not only common, but is apparently considered by many to be a
good thing, the result of some strange entity called "the spirit of Vatican
II." Although most Catholics are bothered when their children or relatives
leave the Church, many see it as "none of our business" and carry on, perhaps
puzzled but quietly accepting the "private decisions" of those involved. Most
would never contemplate talking about the matter with the ex-Catholic; fewer
still would consider talking about their Catholic beliefs with non-Catholics.
Simply
put, far too many Catholics have bought into the modern perspective that
insists religious beliefs are private and the sharing of such beliefs should
not take place in public. According to this sentiment, discussions of such
"personal" matters in public are not only insensitive, they are also raw
displays of arrogance which decent people cannot tolerate. And this view, quite
common in American parishes, is even held by some as the official stance of the
"post-Vatican II" Church.
Paralleling
this indifferent attitude towards those outside the Church is an increased
insistence on lay involvement in the liturgy and in "ministry." Being an
extraordinary Eucharist minister is no long "extraordinary"; instead it has
become absolutely commonplace. In some parishes lay people give homilies, grant
blessings and even--with the priest's approval-- stand around the altar during
the consecration. While some of the abuses are obvious to even nominal
Catholics, most of the laity seem content to go with the flow, limiting their
public expression of faith to Sunday Mass and keeping silent the rest of the
week. It would seem that they should be doing more with their faith in the
"real" world--but exactly what?
What is the problem?
The Second Vatican Council repeatedly outlined and clarified
the role of the laity. But one hears very little, if anything, about it at a
parish level. The average lay person, it appears, vaguely perceives Vatican II
as a Council which opened the doors of the Church to the spirit of modern
world, especially in the areas of liturgy and ecumenism. While there is some
truth to this, the Council did much more. But first it is instructive to read
the warnings of the Council Fathers and Pope John Paull II regarding an
essential element at stake in this matter of the role of the laity: our
salvation.
Gaudium et Spes, the
Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, makes a clear and
serious connection between the laity's life as Catholics in the world and their
eternal destination:
This council exhorts Christians, as
citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties
conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who,
knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come, think
that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are
forgetting that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure
up to these duties, each according to his proper vocation. Nor, on the
contrary, are they any less wide of the mark who think that religion consists
in acts of worship alone and in the discharge of certain moral obligations, and
who imagine they can plunge themselves into earthly affairs in such a way as to
imply that these are altogether divorced from the religious life. This split
between the faith which many profess and their daily lives deserves to be
counted among the more serious errors of our age. . . . The Christian who
neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even
God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation.
(GS 43, emphasis added).
Two common errors are highlighted and discussed here: the
shirking of responsibilities by those who would focus on their heavenly home at
the expense of earthly duties, and those who, due to a legalistic understanding
of their faith, divorce it from their everyday life. It hardly takes a
sociologist to observe how common these problems, particularly the latter, are
in Catholic parishes in North America.
This second problem, along with a newer and equally serious
concern, was addressed by John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation
Christifideles
Laici, written immediately after the 1987
Synod of Bishops. The late Holy Father stated:
At the same time, the Synod has pointed out that the
post-conciliar path of the lay faithful has not been without its difficulties
and dangers. In particular, two temptations can be cited which they have not
always known how to avoid: the temptation of being so strongly interested in
Church services and tasks that some fail to become actively engaged in their
responsibilities in the professional, social, cultural and political world; and
the temptation of legitimizing the unwarranted separation of faith from life,
that is, a separation of the Gospel's acceptance from the actual living of the
Gospel in various situations in the world. (CL 2)
The reference to an unbalanced focus by the laity on "Church
services and tasks" is directed, at least in part, at the often hotly contested
issue of "ministry." While Vatican II encouraged the laity to participate in
ministry, the misuse and abuse of the term meant that a serious admonition and
clarification was in order:
In the same Synod Assembly,
however, a critical judgment was voiced along with these positive elements,
about a too-indiscriminate use of the word "ministry", the confusion and the
equating of the common priesthood and the ministerial priesthood, the lack of
observance of ecclesiastical laws and norms, the arbitrary interpretation of
the concept of "supply", the tendency towards a "clericalization" of the lay
faithful and the risk of creating, in reality, an ecclesial structure of
parallel service to that founded on the Sacrament of Orders. (CL 23)
In some circles the word "ministry" has taken on a quality
strongly resembling the all-encompassing and ambiguous use of it by certain
Protestants. The desire to be associated with--or to even compete with--the
ordained ministry has led to an abundance of "ministries" among the laity. What
is particularly noteworthy is how so many of these ministries are focused on
those people already in the Church and
how so few look outward to those who are outside of the Church. With so many lay ministers alongside
the priest it was inevitable that the lines between the priesthood common to
all believers by virtue of baptism and the ministerial, ordained priesthood
would become blurred.
And while Vatican II and the 1983 Code of Canon Law allowed,
in cases of serious need, lay involvement in such acts as distributing Holy
Communion, such involvement instead became the norm and, in some parishes, a
seemingly sacred right. For example, a priest recently told me about his experience
while filling in at Mass at a local parish. A few minutes prior to Mass the
priest was approached by a layman who matter-of-factly stated that he was the "Eucharistic minister" and would be up at
the altar with the priest. When the priest flatly told him that he was not, in
fact, a "Eucharist minister"--only the priest can claim such a title--and that
he would not be needed (since the parish was fairly small), the man left in fit
of anger!
Episodes such as this reflect an inadequate, distorted or even nonexistent understanding
of the laity's proper role within the Church. Unfortunately, many Catholics
who desire to somehow be involved in their local parish immediately single out
"ministries" that are visible and "up front", perceiving them to be the singular
means of involvement available in their parish. In light of this it is little
surprise to hear of small parishes where the number of extraordinary Eucharist
ministers is quite disproportionate to the number of people in the pews.
Meanwhile, those who remain outside of a "ministry" are left with the
impression that there exists only a certain number of such positions and since
those are filled, they are out of luck. Resigned (perhaps happily) to not
having such a position and commitment, they incorrectly believe that weekly
attendance of Mass is "good enough." But this is not the case at all, according
to the Holy Father, since a "new state of affairs today both in the Church and
in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular
urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always
unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. It is not permissible
for anyone to remain idle" (CL 3).
The necessary context
If the laity are called to be active, but there exists only
so many positions within a parish, what are they to do? What is their role? In
order to answer this question the identity of the laity must first be seen
within the contexts of four important realities: the Eschaton, the Church, the
true nature of ministry, and vocations.
The eschatological principle
When
we step back and views history and eternity from the perspective given by
divine revelation and the Church, we see there exists two cities, or kingdoms:
the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God. The Christian is a citizen of both
and as such has responsibilities to both. He is a member of the Church, which
is the "on earth the seed and beginning of that kingdom" (CCC 541), that is,
the kingdom of God. And he is also a human being, born into time and space and
living in the kingdom of man. So the Christian lives in a certain tension,
knowing his final end is with God but strongly aware of how real and serious
life is in the temporal order.
But
this temporal order will eventually pass away at the eschaton, the end of time, when the kingdom of God will at
last be fully revealed. The relationship between the temporal order and the
eschatological character of the Church is one of tension, but not of conflict.
Because Christians are citizens of both kingdoms their actions in the temporal
order have results and meaning for the eschatological end of the Church. Thus Lumen
Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the
Church, asserts the importance of the laity's life and work within the temporal
order in relation to eternity:
But by reason of their special
vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in
temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will. They live in the
world, that is, they are engaged in each and every work and business of the
earth and in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life which, as it
were, constitute their very existence. There they are called by God that, being
led by the spirit to the Gospel, they may contribute to the sanctification of
the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular
duties. Thus, especially by the witness of their life, resplendent in faith,
hope and charity they must manifest Christ to others. It pertains to them in a
special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are
so closely associated that these may be effected and grow according to Christ
and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer. (LG 31).
The
laity are called to work in the temporal order in a specific manner befitting
their "secular character." The word "secular" is used by the Church to
recognize that the laity are "in the world" and have--as members of the
Church--a specific and unique role in the kingdom of man, as John Paul II explained:
To understand properly the lay
faithful's position in the Church in a complete, adequate and specific manner
it is necessary to come to a deeper theological understanding of their secular
character in light of God's plan of salvation and in the context of the mystery
of the Church. Pope Paul VI said the Church "has an authentic secular
dimension, inherent to her inner nature and mission, which is deeply rooted in
the mystery of the Word Incarnate, and which is realized in different forms
through her members". The Church, in fact, lives in the world, even if she is
not of the world (cf. Jn 17:16). She is sent to continue the redemptive work of
Jesus Christ, which "by its very nature concerns the salvation of humanity, and
also involves the renewal of the whole temporal order". Certainly all the
members of the Church are sharers in this secular dimension but in different
ways. In particular the sharing of the lay faithful has its own manner of
realization and function, which, according to the Council, is "properly and
particularly" theirs. Such a manner is designated with the expression "secular
character." (CL 15).
The distinction between the two kingdoms is essential for a
proper understanding of the unique nature of the ordained priesthood and the ministry
of priests. Priests, by virtue of their ordination, are a living witness to the
sacramental realm and the reality of the Incarnation. In addition, priests and
religious give witness to the eschatological character of the Church, as John
Paul II also discussed:
In turn, the ministerial priesthood
represents in different times and places, the permanent guarantee of the
sacramental presence of Christ, the Redeemer. The religious state bears witness
to the eschatological character of the Church, that is, the straining towards
the Kingdom of God that is prefigured and in some way anticipated and
experienced even now through the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. (CL
55).
So while the ministerial priesthood is focused upon the
sacraments and, together with the religious, shows forth the eschatological, or
supernatural, character of the Church, the laity are to be focused on the
temporal order in keeping with their "secular character."
But doesn't this threaten the laity's status in the Church?
How can the laity be important to the Church if their work is supposed to be
mostly outside of it?
The context of the Church
It seems that not a few Catholics view the Church--as they
know it in the form of their local parish--as a sort of companion piece to the
schools, the clubs, and the various institutions they involve themselves in.
For example, a priest who was asked to fill in at a mission parish (where the
only Mass was on Saturday) during the Fourth of July weekend, tells of this
experience: as he prepared for Mass a lady approached him and kindly informed
him to not expect much of a crowd. "Why?" he asked. "Well, there's a special
Fourth of July baseball tournament and fireworks display and many of the
parishioners will be there" she replied. "But this is the only Mass around here
this week!" he exclaimed, "How can they miss it? Where are their values?" She
did not know what to say, but admitted that she "hadn't thought of it like
that"!
This
compartmentalized view of the Church, which often relegates one's duties as a
Catholic to the same sphere as sporting events and social activities, is hardly
uncommon. The local parish (and by extension the universal Church) is seen as a
"community"--but in what sense? The Church is a community, but what kind
of community and for what purpose does it exist? The Second Vatican Council
answers these questions in many places, including in Gaudium et Spes, which states:
While helping the world and
receiving many benefits from it, the Church has a single intention: that God's
kingdom may come, and that the salvation of the whole human race may come to
pass. For every benefit which the People of God during its earthly pilgrimage
can offer to the human family stems from the fact that the Church is "the
universal sacrament of salvation", simultaneously manifesting and exercising
the mystery of God's love for man. (GS 45).
Seeing the Church as "the universal sacrament of salvation"
(a reference to Lumen Gentium 48) and
those in the Church as participants in the salvation of the world should cause
us to consider the implications. Does this mean that being the "People of God"
might not be quite as comfortable as we would like? Could it be that attending
Mass once a week might not be enough? John Paul II noted that this fact about
the Church carries great responsibilities, for "all the members of the People
of God--clergy, men and women religious, the lay faithful--are laborers in the
vineyard. At one and the same time they all are the goal and subjects of Church
communion as well as of participation in the mission of salvation. Every one of
us possessing charisms and ministries, diverse yet complementary, works in the
one and the same vineyard of the Lord" (CL 55).
It is understandable that people lose sight of the bigger
picture in the midst of their daily lives. It is easy for us to set aside this
evangelistic mission of the Catholic Church because we have a difficult time
relating it to our particular parish. But the late Pontiff stated that for "an
adequate participation in ecclesial life the lay faithful absolutely need to
have a clear and precise vision of the particular Church with its primordial
bond to the universal Church" (CL 25). The parish is not some fragment of the
universal Church, nor is the universal Church the sum of all the parishes added
together.
Rather, the Church--at both the parish and universal
level--is a communion with Christ and each member of the Body whose totality
can never be seen in the sum of its parts. And it is this mystery which must be
encountered and entered into in order for the role of the laity can be further
clarified: "Only from inside the Church's mystery of communion is the
'identity' of the lay faithful made known, and their fundamental dignity
revealed. Only within the context of this dignity can their vocation and
mission in the Church and in the world be defined" (CL 8). This mystery of the
Church is rich and dynamic, demanding full and active participation. As
Apostolicam
Actuositatem, the Decree on the Apostolate
of the Laity, explains, "the organic union in this body and the structure of
the members are so compact that the member who fails to make his proper
contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither
to the Church nor to himself" (AA 2).
The meaning of ministry
What of the term "ministry"? We have already seen that the
1987 Synod of Bishops was concerned with the sloppy and ambiguous manner the
term was (and is) being used, often due to a specific agenda (CL 23). It is
apparent the bishops recognized that there exists a lacking comprehension of
the eschatological principle and the difference between the priesthood common
to all believers--realized in the sacrament of baptism--and the ministerial
priesthood found only in ordained men and rooted in the sacrament of holy
orders. Whether due to lack of knowledge or an overt agenda, this blurring of
lines leads to disorder since a false structure of authority based in a sloppy
understanding of "ministry" can develop and even result in opposition to the
legitimate authority found in the hierarchical structure of the Church. Some of
those involved in opposition incorrectly see everything within the context of
"power," again demonstrating their skewed understanding of the Church and her
authority. This "structure of parallel service" usually shows itself in abuses
centered on the Mass, with lay people acting the part of the priest in a
variety of ways, often with the permission or encouragement of the priest!
Most
lay people who do such things have little understanding or interest in the
Church's "single intention" of salvation for all of humanity (GS 45). They see,
in their local parish, a certain number of actual or potential positions
(including that of the priest) and believe they have as much of a right to such
positions as any other person. Because they do not appreciate the difference
between the sacramental and secular realms they miss how those in the ordained
priesthood and those in the common priesthood compliment one another in their
respective states and should be working together towards the common goal. This
complementarity is not a side effect, but is an imperative for the Church:
In Church Communion the states of
life by being ordered one to the other are thus bound together among themselves.
They all share in a deeply basic meaning: that of being the manner of living
out the commonly shared Christian dignity and the universal call to holiness in
the perfection of love. They are different yet complementary, in the sense that
each of them has a basic and unmistakable character which sets each apart,
while at the same time each of them is seen in relation to the other and placed
at each other's service. (CL 55).
In
his critique of the situation, John Paul took both the laity and clergy to task,
demanding care, attention and wariness in the difficult but necessary task of
rightly defining ministry and how any particular ministry should be exercised:
Precisely to overcome these dangers
the Synod Fathers have insisted on the necessity to express with greater
clarity, and with a more precise terminology, both the unity of the Church's
mission in which all the baptized participate, and the substantial diversity of
the ministry of Pastors which is rooted in the Sacrament of Orders, all the
while respecting the other ministries, offices and roles in the Church, which
are rooted in the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. In the first place,
then, it is necessary that in acknowledging and in conferring various
ministries, offices and roles on the lay faithful, the Pastors exercise the
maximum care to institute them on the basis of Baptism in which these tasks are
rooted. It is also necessary that Pastors guard against a facile yet abusive
recourse to a presumed "situation of emergency" or to "supply by necessity",
where objectively this does not exist or where alternative possibilities could
exist through better pastoral planning. (CL 23).
The vocation crisis isn't just for priests!
We
often hear about the "vocation crisis" and how it could potentially be solved
in a number of ways: ordaining women, allowing priests in the Roman rite to
marry, or allowing lay people do even more, such as actually presiding over
Mass. Although there is a real crisis in regards to the number of priests,
there is an equally grave--and related--crisis in area of lay vocations. The
very fact that many Catholics do not know they have a vocation (or if they do
know, they have no idea how to find out what it is) is proof of the problem.
A teaching and emphasis of the Second Vatican Council often ignored or pushed to
the side is the call--the vocation--to holiness. A continual emphasis on
holiness as the essential basis for the Christian life permeates the writings
of the Council and is summed up well by the Holy Father:
We come to a full sense of the
dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation
that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy
Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity. Holiness
is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ. The
Second Vatican Council has significantly spoken on the universal call to
holiness. It is possible to say that this call to holiness is precisely the
basic charge entrusted to all the sons and daughters of the Church by a Council
which intended to bring a renewal of Christian life based on the gospel. (CL
16)
This
vocation to holiness orients the laity towards their proper role: working in
the temporal order for the kingdom of God. It is their duty to engage in a sort
of sacred subversion by which they, grounded in holiness and filled with the
Holy Spirit, change the world from the inside, permeating it with truth and
light, just as Lumen Gentium indicates:
But by reason of their special
vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in
temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will. . . . It pertains
to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with
which they are so closely associated that these may be effected and grow
according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer. (LG
31)
Again, this engagement of the laity with the temporal order
is not an option, but an appointment given by God, who desires all men to come
to salvation. It is also the way in which the laity fully realize their true
place and role in the Church. By bringing the Church to the world, the laity
brings the world into contact with the Church, the Body of Christ:
The apostolate of the laity is a
sharing in the salvific mission of the Church. Through Baptism and Confirmation
all are appointed to this apostolate by the Lord himself. Moreover, by the
sacraments, and especially by the Eucharist, that love of God and man which is
the soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished. The laity, however,
are given this special vocation: to make the Church present and fruitful in
those places and circumstances where it is only through them that she can
become the salt of the earth. Thus, every lay person, through those gifts given
to him, is at once the witness and the living instrument of the mission of the
Church itself "according to the measure of Christ's bestowal." (LG 33)
In
light of this, one does not have to look far to see that matters are often not
as they should be. Almost inevitably, the person who states "I want to do
something for the Church" will look to do something in the local parish--not out in the daily grind of work, home and family.
Certainly there is nothing wrong with being involved in the life of the parish.
But the common assumption is that by being involved in various parish
activities a lay person has done their duty and has, perhaps, even gone beyond
the call of duty. But have they? Have the laity endeavored to do what John
Paull II exhorted them to do?
It is no exaggeration to say that
the entire existence of the lay faithful has as its purpose to lead a person to
a knowledge of the radical newness of the Christian life that comes from
Baptism, the sacrament of faith, so that this knowledge can help that person
live the responsibilities which arise from that vocation received from God. In
arriving at a basic description of the lay faithful we now more explicitly and
directly consider among others the following three fundamental aspects: Baptism
regenerates us in the life of the Son of God; unites us to Christ and to his
Body, the Church; and anoints us in the Holy Spirit, making us spiritual
temples. (CL 10)
The laity also need to recognize that ignoring the call to
holiness and the specific, personal vocation which comes from it contributes to
the crisis in vocations to the priesthood. Growth in holiness means aligning
and ordering one's whole being to the divine life given to us at baptism. Without
such an ordering of the heart, soul and mind, one cannot begin to discern the
will of God or be open to his call, including the call to the priesthood or the
religious life. Holiness leads to wholeness, and true vocations are based in
the wholeness of recognizing who we are
and whose we are: "Above all,
each member of the lay faithful should always be fully aware of being a 'member
of the Church' yet entrusted with a unique task which cannot be done by another
and which is to be fulfilled for the good of all. . . . Such an individual form
of apostolate can contribute greatly to a more extensive spreading of the
Gospel, indeed it can reach as many places as there are daily lives of
individual members of the lay faithful" (CL 28).
Call, Renewal, Evangelization
Building upon what has been examined so far, the role of the
laity can be summarized in a three-part statement: The laity are called to
the vocation of holiness for the purpose of renewing the temporal order by
means of evangelization.
Called to the vocation of holiness
The
Second Vatican Council consistently emphasized holiness, as noted above. At the
heart of the Church's encounters with modernity, with other religions, and with
her own identity is the reality of holiness--and the call of everyone in the Church to the vocation of holiness:
"Therefore all in the Church, whether they belong to the hierarchy or are cared
for by it, are called to holiness, according to the apostle's saying: 'for this
is the will of God, your sanctification'" (LG 39). It is in holiness that the
members of the Church become who they are called to be, and it is in holiness
that all are equals:
Everyone in the Church, precisely
because they are members, receive and thereby share in the common vocation to
holiness. In the fullness of this title and on equal par with all other members
of the Church, the lay faithful are called to holiness: "All the faithful of
Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life
and to the perfection of charity"(43). "All of Christ's followers are invited
and bound to pursue holiness and the perfect fulfillment of their own state of
life." (CL 16)
Holiness
is the building block fashioned in the waters of baptism and meant for the good
of the Body of Christ. The Church, in baptism, works as the "sacrament of
salvation" and makes the sinner holy; the newly born child of God is called by
that same baptism to build up the Church. This gift and response is at the
heart of true community, rooted as it is in the divine life given to us by
Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the laity, as part of this
community of saints, are called to build the Kingdom of God in time and space:
The vocation to holiness must be
recognized and lived by the lay faithful, first of all as an undeniable and
demanding obligation and as a shining example of the infinite love of the
Father that has regenerated them in his own life of holiness. Such a vocation,
then, ought to be called an essential and inseparable element of the new life
of Baptism, and therefore an element which determines their dignity. At the
same time the vocation to holiness is intimately connected to mission and to
the responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful in the Church and in the
world. In fact, that same holiness which is derived simply from their
participation in the Church's holiness, represents their first and fundamental
contribution to the building of the Church herself, who is the "Communion of
Saints". The eyes of faith behold a wonderful scene: that of a countless number
of lay people, both women and men, busy at work in their daily life and
activity, oftentimes far from view and quite unacclaimed by the world, unknown
to the world's great personages but nonetheless looked upon in love by the
Father, untiring laborers who work in the Lord's vineyard. Confident and
steadfast through the power of God's grace, these are the humble yet great
builders of the Kingdom of God in history. (CL 17).
For the renewal of the temporal order
For
some Catholics the Second Vatican Council was an updating of the Church that
supposedly resulted in changes to the Church's goals and focus. This is a
drastic misreading. The Council was a renewal meant to aid Catholics in
reappropriating and rediscovering the Church's goals and focus in a world that
had changed dramatically in a short amount of time. The mission of the Church
never changes, but our understanding of how
to best live it in a specific culture does develop and change. That mission,
according to Apostolicam Actuositatem, is to proclaim Christ and to fill the temporal order with the light
and salt of the Gospel; the laity have an essential role in this task:
Christ's redemptive work, while
essentially concerned with the salvation of men, includes also the renewal of
the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the Church is not only to bring the
message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the
temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel. In fulfilling this mission of the
Church, the Christian laity exercise their apostolate both in the Church and in
the world, in both the spiritual and the temporal orders. These orders,
although distinct, are so connected in the singular plan of God that He Himself
intends to raise up the whole world again in Christ and to make it a new
creation, initially on earth and completely on the last day. In both orders the
layman, being simultaneously a believer and a citizen, should be continuously
led by the same Christian conscience. (AA 5)
We cannot overstate the importance and centrality of the
laity in this most pressing mission. According to Lumen Gentium, it is the laity's "special vocation . . . to seek
the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according
to God's will. . . . There they are called by God that, being led by the spirit
to the Gospel, they may contribute to the sanctification of the world, as from
within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular duties. . . . It
pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal
things with which they are so closely associated that these may be effected and
grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer"
(LG 31).
The Council Fathers taught that "the laity must take up the
renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation," being led by
the "light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church and motivated by Christian
charity." This involves a permeation of culture, of society and of all aspects
of the kingdom of man with the "higher principles of the Christian life" (AA
7). John Paul II wrote that "in particular the lay faithful are called to
restore to creation all its original value" (CL 14). This task is not the
priority of priests or religious; in fact, they are not qualified for, or
capable of, such activity! Only the laity, because of their skills in the
marketplace, in the institutions of society and in the everyday activities of
men, can properly perform this crucial activity: "The apostolate in the social
milieu, that is, the effort to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality,
customs, laws, and structures of the community in which one lives, is so much
the duty and responsibility of the laity that it can never be performed
properly by others" (AA 13). In other words, the laity need to realize they
have important work to do, and the time to start that work is now!
By means of evangelization
Many Catholic readily admit their reticence in sharing their faith and being a
witness to non-Catholics--or even to their own Catholic family and friends. But
John Paul II stressed repeatedly the need to evangelize, writing that the "The
entire mission of the Church, then, is concentrated and manifested in
evangelization" and "The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of
the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are
prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the
gifts of the Holy Spirit" (CL 33).
The
Holy Father's consistent call to evangelization did not come out of a
vacuum--it is a reiteration of the Council's repeated call for the same. Lumen
Gentium states that the laity "have the
exalted duty of working for the ever greater spread of the divine plan of
salvation to all men, of every epoch and all over the earth. Therefore may the
way be clear for them to share diligently in the salvific work of the Church
according to their ability and the needs of the times" (LG 33). Baptized into
Christ, we are filled with his life and are called to be little
christs--"anointed ones"--who, being fed by the Eucharist, go into the world
and make the Church visible. This is very challenging and forces us to leave
our comfort zones, as the Council Fathers indicate:
However an apostolate of this kind does not consist only in
the witness of one's way of life; a true apostle looks for opportunities to
announce Christ by words addressed either to non-believers with a view to
leading them to faith, or to the faithful with a view to instructing, strengthening,
and encouraging them to a more fervent life. "For the charity of Christ impels us"
(2 Cor. 5 :14). The words of the Apostle should echo in all hearts, "Woe to me
if I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor. 9:16). (AA 6).
This work of evangelization requires formation and training,
time and effort: "[T]he laity must be specially formed to engage in
conversation with others, believers, or non-believers, in order to manifest
Christ's message to all men" (AA 31). It takes many forms, from the silent
witness of one's actions to the use of modern media to the ordinary
conversations of daily living. Whatever the means, lay people are to "announce
Christ, explain and spread His teaching in accordance with one's status and
ability, and faithfully profess it" (AA 16).
The lived faith
brings life to the world
We can see, in looking at the documents of the Second
Vatican Council and the writings of the present Pope (especially Christifideles
Laici) that the laity possess a specific
and unique vocation that they must pursue and fulfill in order for the Church
to grow and to permeate the world. This vocation is rooted in the holiness
infused into us at baptism and nourished in the Eucharist; it shows us that we
are members of the Body of Christ, the Church, and that we belong to the Head
of the Body, Jesus Christ. And so while the laity are often called to help the
ordained in various ways within the Church, the central focus of the laity must
be the temporal world, the culture and society they live in, of which they are
an integral part. If the laity are not changing the kingdom of man,
they are failing the kingdom of God:
"Therefore, I have maintained that a faith that does not affect a person's
culture is a faith not fully embraced, not entirely thought out, not faithfully
lived" (CL 59).
A slightly different version of this article appeared in
the September/October 2000 issue of The Catholic Faith magazine.
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Carl E. Olson is the editor of IgnatiusInsight.com.
He is the co-author of The
Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code and author
of Will
Catholics Be "Left Behind"? He has written for numerous
Cathlic periodicals and is a regular contributor to National Catholic
Register and Our Sunday Visitor newspapers.
He resides in a top secret location in the Northwest somewhere between Portland,
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