Feb 14 Fri
What is the specific way for lay people to participate in the mission of the Church?
The apostolic mission is the concern of all the faithful of the Church.
Christ passed on to the apostles a triple office, or authority (in Latin munus; plural munera): the office of sanctifying, the office of teaching, and the office of ruling. All Christians must make the faith known, spread Christ’s teaching, and bring all people under the mantle of the Church.
However, there are specific tasks for each segment of the faithful within the Church; today we will refer to the tasks of the laypeople.
SANCTIFYING
The Church participates in Christ’s priesthood, mainly through the sacraments. The lay people, by the common priesthood (also called baptismal priesthood) of all the faithful, actively participate in the sacraments in their proper way.
All the lay people have the duty of working for the spread of the divine plan of salvation to all men. All their works, prayers and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of body and mind, if they are accomplished in the Spirit –indeed even the hardships of life if patiently borne– all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. In the Eucharist, these works are most fittingly offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. Thus, the laity consecrate the world itself to God, leading people to the sacraments.
TEACHING
The laity –part of the Church– also teaches, announcing Christ with their words, and the testimony of their lives. Thus, they teach their children, relatives, and friends so that the power of the Gospel may shine out in daily family and social life.
Lay people with sufficient knowledge may impart catechetical formation, teach the sacred sciences, and collaborate in the means of social communication. According to their knowledge, they also have the right and the duty to manifest to the pastors (and to the other faithful) their views on matters that concern the good of the Church, always respecting the integrity of faith and morals.
This evangelization by the lay people acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.
Married and family life have a special importance in this prophetic office of the Church. In it, the married partners have their proper vocation: they must be witnesses of faith and love of Christ to one another and to their children.
Therefore, even when occupied by temporal affairs, the laity can, and must, do valuable work for the evangelization of the world.
RULING
Because of their special vocation, it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs (business, politics…) and directing them according to God’s will.
The laity is 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.
By their competence in secular disciplines, they must work earnestly so that created goods may serve the utility of all men. By so doing they impregnate their family, culture, and human works with a moral value.
If appointed to certain ecclesiastical offices (for tasks that do not require priestly ordination), the laity can also collaborate in the hierarchy's mission.
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