By DON FIER
Thus far in our examination of the vocation of the laity in the mission of the Church, it has become manifestly clear that theirs is a role that is distinctive and indispensable. Characterized especially by their secular nature, it pertains in a unique way to the lay faithful “to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 898).
Unlike clerics and consecrated religious, lay persons devote the majority of their time to day-to-day activities in the world. Yet, if true to the faith they profess, they are not of the world. Exemplary lay persons are oftentimes the only means by which countless souls have access to the Gospel message and are able to witness the peace and joy that radiate from one living an authentic Christian life.
Moreover, the call of the laity to the apostolate is not optional — it is both a duty and a right. As definitively stated in the Code of Canon Law (CIC), “Since, like all the Christian faithful, lay persons are designated by God for the apostolate through baptism and confirmation, they are bound by the general obligation and possess the right as individuals, or joined in associations, to work so that the divine message of salvation is made known and accepted by all persons everywhere in the world. This obligation is even more compelling in those circumstances in which only through them can people hear the gospel and know Christ” (canon 225 § 1).
Fundamental to the mission of the laity in the apostolate is the universal call to holiness. As taught by the Second Vatican Council, “the success of the lay apostolate depends upon the laity’s living union with Christ, in keeping with the Lord’s words, ‘He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5)” (Apostolicam Actuositatem [AA], n. 4 § 1).
In other words, it is only through personal holiness, or being united with Christ, that the lay faithful can lead others to sanctity according to the principle that “one cannot give what one does not have.” It is only in this way that the laity can effectively influence the world’s social, political, and economic realities to reflect the will of God.
The Catechism focuses next on the threefold office of Christ in which the laity participates as a result of being “baptized into Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:3), namely that of priest, prophet, and king. The Code once again is clear in stating that all the Christian faithful, including the laity, have been “made sharers in their own way in Christ’s priestly, prophetic, and royal function [and] are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world, in accord with the condition proper to each” (CIC, canon 204 § 1).
This closely parallels the teaching of Vatican II in Lumen Gentium [LG]: “[The lay faithful] are in their own way made sharers in the priestly, prophetical, and kingly functions of Christ; and they carry out for their own part the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world” (n. 31 § 1).
God initially established priests, prophets, and kings in ancient Israel. The pages of the Old Testament are literally teeming with examples of priests (e.g., Aaron, Joshua, members of the Levite tribe), prophets (e.g., Elijah, Jeremiah, Elisha), and kings (e.g., Saul, David, Solomon). In the New Testament, with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ perfectly fulfills all three offices: by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice on the cross, He is the perfect priest; as the Incarnate Word of God Himself, He is the perfect prophet; and He is the perfect king as “Christ the King” of the whole universe, a king who rules by serving (see Matt. 20:18).
To perpetuate His threefold mission and before ascending to the right hand of His Father, “Christ conferred on the Apostles and their successors the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in His name and power” (AA, n. 2 § 3). This, of course, refers to the threefold office of the hierarchy of the Church. But, as the Vatican II fathers continue, “The laity likewise share in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ” (ibid.). How are the common and hierarchical priesthood related and how do they differ? We turn to Lumen Gentium for an answer.
“Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated: each of them in its own special way is a participation in the one priesthood of Christ. The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice, and offers it to God in the name of all the people. But the faithful, in virtue of their royal priesthood, join in the offering of the Eucharist. They likewise exercise that priesthood in receiving the sacraments, in prayer and thanksgiving, in the witness of a holy life, and by self-denial and active charity” (LG, n. 10 § 2).
It can accurately be said that bishops and priests, through the sacramental character of Holy Orders, have the task of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the laity so that they, in turn, can go forth beyond the confines of the sanctuary to evangelize, sanctify, and renew the rest of world. It is within the hierarchical structure of the Church that there exists the divinely given power to teach the truth with inerrancy, to forgive sins, to make Jesus present on the altar through the words of consecration at Holy Mass, and to provide leadership to the members of the Mystical Body of Christ in an uninterrupted fashion through apostolic succession.
It is only by the grace conferred through the hierarchical ministry that the laity are given the strength to stand firm in the truth and to bear fruit. At the same time, it only through the lay faithful that the masses will be able to receive the Good News as proclaimed by the clergy in liturgical settings.
As fittingly expressed by Dr. Alan Schreck, “Any notion of competition — clergy versus laity — is excluded, since we are brothers and sisters working together as God’s family for the cause of Christ and his kingdom” (The Essential Catholic Catechism, p. 163).
Let us now look specifically at the priestly mission of the laity. How do faithful lay men and women exercise their common priesthood in day-to-day life in the world? According to Lumen Gentium, they do so by offering their daily life, in union with Christ, to the Father:
“All their works, prayers, and apostolic endeavors, their ordinary married and family life, their daily occupations, their physical and mental relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, if patiently borne — all these become ‘spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 2:5)” (n. 34).
Many readers will be reminded of the words they pray in the Morning Offering as they rise to begin their day: “O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys and sufferings of this day….”
Is this not precisely what St. Paul refers to in his Letter to the Romans? The Apostle to the Gentiles writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). It is by carrying out one’s duties faithfully and the patient endurance of the inevitable trials and hardships that enter his life that one lives out his priestly office in the midst of the world.
Selfless Care And Love
Christian marriage, the vocation to which the majority of the lay faithful are called, presents itself as a most admirable way to live out one’s common priesthood. Through selfless care and love for one another, through patience and forgiveness exhibited toward one another, husbands and wives are able to sanctify each another.
Likewise, they are responsible together for the sanctification of the children with whom they are blessed. They are their first and primary educators and have a solemn responsibility to form them in the Catholic faith.
“In a very special way,” the Catechism teaches, “parents share in the office of sanctifying ‘by leading a conjugal life in the Christian spirit and by seeing to the Christian education of their children’ (CIC, canon 835 § 4)” (CCC, n. 902).
So central is the Church’s teaching on Christian marriage and the common priesthood of the laity that in his 1981 apostolic constitution entitled “On the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World,” Pope St. John Paul II wrote:
“In effect, the baptismal priesthood of the faithful, exercised in the sacrament of marriage, constitutes the basis of a priestly vocation and mission for the spouses and family by which their daily lives are transformed into ‘spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 2:5)” (Familiaris Consortio, n. 59).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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