Nov 28 Thu
Are all human occupations paths to holiness?
Sixty years ago, the second Vatican Council ended. Among the most prominent declarations, we can mention the role of the lay people in the Church.
“Everything that has been said of the People of God applies equally to the laity, the religious, and the clergy. However, certain things pertain specifically to the laity because of their situation and mission.”
The Second Vatican Council described thus the laity and their ‘specific’ mission:
“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 in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life, which, as it were, constitute their very existence.”
And it specifies; “Besides this apostolate …, the laity can also be called in various ways to a more direct form of cooperation.”
Yet how many, even churchmen, are not convinced of this? Some concede that, yes, a layman can be holy, but to be a full Christian a layman should be somehow involved in the apostolate of the Hierarchy, like some diocesan commission.
We need to remind Christians of the layman’s mission.
St. Josemaría wrote in 1932: “There is an inexplicable, centuries-long gap, during which it was, and continues to be, virtually unknown that people could seek Christian perfection by sanctifying their ordinary work, each in their own profession and state in life. For many centuries, work had been seen as something despicable; it had been considered, even by theologians of great ability, as a hindrance to the holiness of men."
For the layman to be a good Christian he must be a good member of the earthly society; the catholic doctor has a serious duty to be a good doctor, the farmer has to be a good farmer, etc. Hence also, since a man is good because of his virtues, the layman must have and practice the human, natural, virtues –which are the basis of the supernatural virtues– and know as much as possible, within his capabilities, about his secular function, that is to say his occupation.
In addition, laymen must be apostolic in their own environment. The lay apostolate is not a participation in the apostolate of the hierarchy, rather, is a participation in the salvific mission of the Church herself. Through their baptism and confirmation, all are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself.
“Lay people, moved by the Holy Spirit, are the Church, and they have a specific and sublime mission to which they feel committed because they have been called to it by God himself. And they know that this mission derives from the very fact of their being Christians.” Thus, as every faithful, the lay people have the right and the duty to spread the divine message of salvation.
In God's service, no job is of lesser importance: all are very important. The importance of a job depends on how each person carries it out: the seriousness they bring to it and the love for God they put into it.
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