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INTENTION : |
That by virtue of baptism, the laity, especially women, may participate more in areas of responsibility in the Church.
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Laity in the Joy of the Gospel
"Lay people are, put simply, the vast majority of the people of God. The minority - ordained ministers - are at their service.
There has been a growing awareness of the identity and mission of the laity in the Church. We can count on many lay persons, although still not nearly enough, who have a deeply-rooted sense of community and great fidelity to the tasks of charity, catechesis and the celebration of the faith.
At the same time, a clear awareness of this responsibility of the laity, grounded in their baptism and confirmation, does not appear in the same way in all places. In some cases, it is because lay persons have not been given the formation needed to take on important responsibilities. In others, it is because in their particu- lar Churches room has not been made for them to speak and to act, due to an excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making.
Even if many are now involved in the lay min- istries, this involvement is not reflected in a greater penetration of Christian values in the social, political and economic sectors. It often remains tied to tasks within the Church, without a real commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society.
The formation of the laity and the evangelisation of professional and intellectual life represent a significant pastoral challenge."
Pope Francis,
The Joy of the Gospel,
Passion for God: laity called to holiness
The vocation of the laity in the Church is not pure activism, in the same way that "spiritual things" are not only for priests and men and women religious.
The Christian experience of the laity is not reduced to encountering humanity. It takes place at the same time within an intimate encounter with God. The spiri- tual experience of the laity is an experience with Christ and that experience cannot be separated from the laity's experience with the poor.
The spiritual life that each baptized person is called to develop is not a running away from the world! It is essentially to come back to the universal call addressed to all and therefore to each faithful lay person, for this call implants its roots in baptism and is strengthened by the other sacraments.
The baptised must therefore be a passionate person of God, steadily advancing on the road of evangelical renewal.
The Response
The response to the call to holiness is not an abstract path, lost in the clouds. It is not a far-off and trivial desire. It is a true searching for the perfection of being, the fulfilment of the total person, such as God created him/her, such as God desires to see him/her fully develop.
It is the search for true goodness for oneself, and also with and for others in a specific way; a goodness, a perfection that is found in authentic un
ion with God and our brothers and sisters.
Therefore, it is something very concrete that takes a lifetime and affecting all areas of life, not only what we strictly call spiritual life.
In the search for holiness, the Christian want to find his/her full development, his/her full accomplish- ment in conformity to Christ. The road is not easy. But it is essential to offer it as the heart of the Christian vocation from which all the rest follows, and to show that the journey on this path is not alone but in solidari- ty, with Christ and with other baptised persons.
Vocation and Mission
This lay vocation to holiness is expressed in a particular way in the laity's insertion within temporal realities and their participation in the world's activities. This signifies that the vocation to holiness is intimately linked to the vocation to the mission.
It is everyday life, with all its commitments, in particular in service to others in the Church and in the world, that must become an occasion of union with God and accomplishing God's will. In this way the laity con- tribute to the building up of the Kingdom of God.
In summary, as John Paul II reminds us in his apostolic letter at the close of the Great Jubilee year, to put pastoral life under the sign of holiness is a choice of great consequence. "It implies the conviction that, since Baptism is a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of God's Spirit, it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity" (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31).
Jean Landousies, CM
Laity in the Church Today
Vincentiana De Paul University
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