By DON FIER
Part 2
As baptized Christians, as we saw last week, each member of the lay faithful participates in the life and work of Jesus Christ and thus in His threefold office of priest, prophet, and king. As expressed by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC): “The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them (cf. Pope St. John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis, nn. 18-21)” (n. 783).
Moreover, as pointed out by St. John Paul II on December 15, 1993 during his series of general audiences on the Church, the Second Vatican Council “does not merely describe the laity as sharing in the ‘priestly, prophetic, and kingly functions of Christ’ (Lumen Gentium [LG], n. 31), but specifies that Christ himself continues to exercise his priesthood in their lives.”
“The lay faithful are sharers in the priestly mission,” affirms St. John Paul II, “[and]…are united to [Christ] and to his sacrifice in the offering they make of themselves and their daily activities (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)” (Christifideles Laici [CL], n. 14 § 5). This means that lay persons are called to sanctify all facets of their lives, making of them “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5), no matter what their station and/or phase of life.
Countless examples could be given: Husbands and wives are called to practice selfless love toward one another and their children; the sick and elderly are called to accept suffering with patient endurance and to spiritually unite it to Christ’s suffering on the cross; professional people are called to practice unbending honesty and steadfast witness to their faith even when the result is ridicule from more worldly minded colleagues and/or being unfairly passed over for promotions and salary increases; those afflicted with temptations are called to persevere and offer up their struggles.
The universal priesthood, then, entails uniting one’s prayers, works, joys, and sufferings — all aspects of one’s life — to Christ’s sacrifice so as to consecrate the world to God.
Nowhere is this more important than in the lay faithful’s fervent participation in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which can accurately be described the “source and summit” of the exercise of their common priesthood. Indeed, in his 1947 encyclical Mediator Dei, Pope Pius XII declared “that all the faithful should be aware that to participate in the eucharistic sacrifice is their chief duty and supreme dignity” (n. 80). In a way proper to them, the lay faithful make their offering through the hands of and with the priest, who through his hierarchical priesthood acts in persona Christi.
“The ministerial priest,” explains Vatican II, “. . . 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” (LG, n. 10 § 2).
It is only through union with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, made sacramentally present in an unbloody way in the Mass, that the lay faithful receive the grace to offer themselves and their activities “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1). The sacrifice of their daily lives is offered in the Eucharistic Celebration along with the Body of Christ (cf. CL, n. 14 § 5), and their mission is renewed with the ite missa est (“go, the Mass is ended”).
Before concluding its exposition on the lay faithful’s participation in Christ’s priestly office, the Catechism dedicates a paragraph to occasions when the laity are called to serve the Church in specific liturgical ministries (see CCC, n. 903). The 1983 Code of Canon Law (CIC) stipulates that laymen “can be admitted on a stable basis through the prescribed liturgical rite to the ministries of lector and acolyte” (CIC, canon 230 § 1).
Furthermore, “when the need of the Church warrants it and ministers are lacking, lay persons…can also supply certain of their duties, namely, to exercise the ministry of the word, to preside over liturgical prayers, to confer baptism, and to distribute Holy Communion, according to the prescripts of the law” (CIC, canon 230 § 3).
However, as noted in an earlier column, this is not the laity’s primary mission: Their fundamental call is to “consecrate the world itself to God” (LG, n. 34 § 2) through a holy life.
How do the lay faithful participate in the prophetic mission of Christ? A prophet, according to Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, is one who has as a “primary function to proclaim the word of God” (Modern Catholic Dictionary, p. 446). In other words, a prophet is one who announces the truth about God and man in imitation of Jesus, the great Prophet. “Christ, . . . [who] proclaimed the Kingdom of His Father both by the testimony of His life and the power of His words,” teaches Vatican II, “continually fulfills His prophetic office not only through the hierarchy who teach in His name and with His authority, but also through the laity whom He made His witnesses and to whom He gave understanding of the faith (sensus fidei) and an attractiveness in speech so that the power of the Gospel might shine forth in their daily social and family life” (LG, n. 35 § 1).
Clearly, then, the proclamation of the word does not fall solely on the clergy, for they do not have direct access to the vast majority of mankind. Therefore, as elaborated on further by St. John Paul II, “The lay faithful are given the ability and responsibility to accept the gospel in faith and to proclaim it in word and deed, without hesitating to courageously identify and denounce evil” (CL, n. 14 § 6).
This follows closely the words spoken by Jesus as revealed in Sacred Scripture: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).
How is this accomplished in the daily life of the lay faithful? It is closely related to and builds upon their priestly mission. Not only must the laity participate in the sanctification of the temporal order, but they must also engage in evangelization. As explained by the Vatican II fathers, “There are innumerable opportunities open to the laity for the exercise of their apostolate of evangelization and sanctification. The very testimony of their Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have the power to draw men to belief and to God” (Apostolicam Actuositatem [AA], n. 6, § 2), where a supernatural spirit infers being in the state of grace.
Most of the lay faithful are called to live their prophetic mission through the witness of holiness in the normal circumstances of family, professional, parish, and social life. The supreme realization of the Christian vocation, however, is the call to martyrdom. “Though few are presented such an opportunity, nevertheless all must be prepared to confess Christ before men” (LG, n. 42 § 2).
For all are called to what Fr. Hardon refers to as “white martyrdom,” or an unbloody “martyrdom of witness,” where one holds firm in the face of opposition and even persecution against the false tenets of the “culture of death” which pervades modern society.
What about the laity’s participation in Christ’s kingly mission? “[The lay faithful] exercise their kingship as Christians,” says St. John Paul II, “above all in the spiritual combat in which they seek to overcome in themselves the kingdom of sin (cf. Romans 6:12), and then to make a gift of themselves so as to serve, in justice and in charity, Jesus who is himself present in all his brothers and sisters, above all in the very least (cf. Matt. 25:40)” (CL, n. 14 § 7).
In a world that has lost its sense of sin this can be a daunting task, especially when one recognizes that “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness” (Eph. 6:12).
Renew The Temporal Order
Moreover, the kingship of the laity must be one of service in imitation of Christ, for “the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). As expressed by the Vatican II fathers, Jesus “shared this power so that serving Christ in their fellow men, [disciples] might by humility and patience lead their brethren to that King for whom to serve is to reign” (LG, n. 36 § 1).
In other words, the opportunity to serve others, especially the downtrodden and poor, represents the true place of power for the laity.
The lay faithful, furthermore, are called to exercise their kingship by ordering all things toward salvation in keeping with the first royal power they received, that of dominion over the earth (see Gen. 1:28).
They must strive always to renew the temporal order “in such a way that, without detriment to its own proper laws, it may be brought into conformity with the higher principles of the Christian life and adapted to the shifting circumstances of time, place, and peoples” (AA, n. 7 § 5).
+ + +
(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.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress