God's Particular Call Is Anything But Common
Continuing in the general vein of vocations, I felt the need to investigate the contribution of the laity. “The lay faithful” of the Church includes everyone who has not been graced by the sacrament of Holy Orders or a special dedication to the consecrated life, so it encompasses young and old, married and single. Because the laity is the majority, it is easy to forget its importance. What is common often seems less valuable by social standards, but the particular call of God is anything but common.Lay people have a role as essential as any, for we are to enforce the mission of the Church.
As Pope Pius XII said, “Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the Church is the animating principle of human society.” Paragraph 943 of the Catechism asserts, “By virtue of their kingly mission, lay people have the power to uproot the rule of sin within themselves and in the world.” Pope St. John Paul II wrote in paragraph 16 of the document Christifideles Laici, “The images taken from the gospel of salt, light and leaven, although indiscriminately applicable to all Jesus' disciples, are specifically applied to the lay faithful. They are particularly meaningful images because they speak not only of the deep involvement and the full participation of the lay faithful in the affairs of the earth, the world and the human community, but also and above all, they tell of the radical newness and unique character of an involvement and participation which has as its purpose the spreading of the Gospel that brings salvation.” That is powerful. In our daily lives we must recall our true purpose. The fulfillment of all our duties and responsibilities must point to God; we must be witnesses to Christ in all we do and say.
We like to look around the world and wonder why things are wrong, why people won’t fix it. We fail to see we are the “people”—we must fix it. The section of the Catechism titled “The Lay Faithful” (beginning with paragraph 897) and Christifideles Laici are great resources that apply this mission in practical terms in our individual states of life, as we should be “permeating social, political, and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life” (CCC 899). Jesus did not describe the Kingdom of God as some fairytale or magical adventure. In the Our Father, he taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Again, this is not simply a nice, flowery, empty sentiment. Jesus—God himself—challenged us to live the mission of the Church, to make God’s radical love present in every aspect of life at all times. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is only a dream insofar as we fail to make it reality.
As those living the consecrated life are lighthouses to orient the ships, priests and bishops are our captains and navigators; and we, the laity, are both crew and cargo. If we do not maintain the ship of the Church, the fleet of the world, it will fall into disrepair and crumble of its own accord. If the cargo is not stored in the right conditions, it will rot or break and become useless. What is the point in having excellent navigators, captains, and lighthouses if there is no cargo upon arrival, if a ship can’t even endure the journey; if ultimately, there is no mission?
Swab the deck, raise the sail, let’s tend to our duties…I would like to see this ship to shore.
