PART ONE:
THE CHURCH BEFORE VATICAN II
Introduction
I propose to take you on a history tour, the history of the Church, in order to discover what the Church wanted to achieve with the Second Vatican Council. After that, we will take a look at what we should do in AMM, following the lead of what the Church did.
SEARCHING FOR AND BRINGING ABOUT A NEW CHURCH
On 25th January 1957 John XXIII, in the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, announced that a Council was being called. This Council was to be held in the Vatican, and started on 11th October 1962 under the name SECOND EUCMENICAL VATICAN COUNCIL.
While in the preparatory stages there was much reflection on what the Council should be and do, it was only when the first sessions came to a close that it became clear what the Council really should be about.
As the first sessions came to an end, Cardinal Suenens, of Malines (Belgium) asked that the Council should reflect on the Church. This reflection should cover two aspects:
First of all, the Council should ask the question: Church, what do you say about yourself? (This means that the Church must look AD INTRA: what is its mysterious nature? What is its task: go and teach; consequently, these are the Church’s evangelizing tasks: evangelizing, catechetical and teaching, sanctifying and liturgical. All these elements were subsequently included in LG).
The second aspect of the reflection should be AD EXTRA: “ The Church in dialogue with the world”. Then comes the list of problems for which the world expects guidance from the Church: human life, social justice, evangelization of the poor, international war and peace; (All this is dealt with in GS). The Church of Christ is the light of the world, Lumen gentium.
Cardinal Suenens’ words were welcomed by Mons. Wojtyla, then cardinal of Krakow, and they were taken over by the then recently elected Pope Paul VI (elected 21st June 1963) when he inaugurated the second conciliar period (29.9.1963).
These are the THREE IDEAS which Paul VI proposed to the Council:
The Church in dialogue with mankind and the world (central theme of Ecclesiam suam).
The Church as mystery
The Church as Christocentric
In the light of these three categories, the Church looked away from herself to reflect on:
The people of our time, the recipients of the Church’s mission, accepted as free persons, capable of giving and adding to the Gospel (dialogue);
The Church’s ultimate roots and foundation (Trinitarian mystery manifested in history as instrument of salvation);
Her historical foundation, her founder in time (origin) and her continuing foundation in every generation and in every individual soul (Christ).
The way the Council Fathers looked at the Church resulted in a set of Council documents that transform the way the Church looked at herself and, consequently, at others.
In summary, we can say that the Second Vatican Council is an ecclesiological council. To quote Pope Paul VI (7th December 1965):
“The Church has tried to reflect on herself in order to know herself better, to define what she is, and to order its precepts in consequence. That is true. However, the aim of that introspection was not the Church herself…The Church reflected in order to find within herself the action of the Holy Spirit and the word of Christ, to ponder more deeply the mystery of God’s plan and the presence of God in her, to help her re-awaken the faith… The Council has taken a lively interest in the world. Perhaps this time more than ever before did the Church feel the need to get to know, to approach, to understand, to penetrate, to serve and to evangelize the world around her”.
Our aim today is not to set out all the issues and doctrines on which the Council has reflected, clarified and determined.
I will simply present the most relevant issues:
We have already said that the Church reflected on herself and on her mission. But, in this reflection, the Church never took her eyes off Jesus Christ:
Christ is our first principle. Christ is our life and our end ….Let no other light be shed on this Council than Christ himself, who is the light of the world; let no other truth attract us, other than the words of the Lord, our only Master; let us have no other aspiration than the desire to be faithful to Him; let no other hope sustain us than the hope that comforts our weakness with His words “I am with you till the end of times “ (Mt. 28:20)” (Paul VI, inauguration 2nd Conciliar period).
This Church that celebrates Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is presented as a MYSTERY, rooted in the Trinity. From this historical-salvific and Trinitarian vision, the Council situates the mission of the Church at the heart of God’s plan of salvation. Therefore it can be said that the Church is, by its nature, a missionary Church, and that all members of the People of God must take their own responsibility.
The order of the chapters of LG, the “backbone” of the Council, shows a real “declaration of intent”, since it is not the hierarchy (chapter III) that occupies the first place in the mystery of the Church, but the entire People of God (chapter II).
With respect to the laity, the Council did not simply give it its place in a Church that is both a mystery of communion and People of God. Apart from giving primacy to the simple fact of being a disciple and follower of Christ because of their baptism, the Council Fathers wanted to give a definition of “lay person” that affirms lay people as full members of the Church, with full rights and duties in the ecclesial community because of their participation in the priestly, prophetic and royal mission of Christ, because of their baptism. This means that, because of the first sacrament, every lay person is existentially and inseparably joined to Christ. Baptism thus came out of the shadows to become a frontline player in the history of the Church.
WORDS AND CHALLENGE FOR AMM
After this short overview of the new awareness of what it means to be Church, I now want to point out a few aspects that should make us reflect on how AMM must look at itself and the world around it.
First of all, I propose to look at the issues highlighted by Vatican II, and then show how this is a challenge for us in AMM:
- To recover the Importance of the Word,
- Sometimes AMM has given more Importance to acts of piety than to the Word of God. It is the Word of God that must be the foundation of AMM’s piety, devotion and apostolate.
- The call to holiness: all the faithful are called to holiness,
- AMM is a way to holiness, by following Jesus, thorough love of Mary and service of the poor.
- Opening the Church to the action of lay people because of their common vocation and mission,
- Members of AMM must take part in the life and the mission of the Church.
- De-center the Church to centre it and understand it within the mystery of the One and tri-une God,
- AMM living as a gift of God.
- The Church rediscovers Mary as part of the Church, as a Daughter of the Church,
- AMM must overcome the tendency to take Mary out of the Church, to isolate her from the People of God.
- Giving its true value to the different vocations within the Church,
- Our secular vocation in the Church, as AMM, is to be the light of families and secular society.
- The Church as charism and sacrament of unity,
- AMM, with its devotion to Mary, the Mother of us all, is called to be a source of union in the Vincentian Family.
- The Church as “People of God”,
- AMM must live the reality of being “people”: bishops, religious, lay people. Not only women, but also men. Not only adults – older people, but also young people.
- The Church is in the world and for the world, not segregated from the world,
- AMM, when fulfilling its mission, must be active more in the middle of the world rather than merely in the ecclesial community.
- Baptism, sacrament of Christian initiation, faith itinerary
- AMM must be a road to deeper faith, not just devotion. AMM must teach and live our baptismal commitments.
AMM AND THE CHURCH AFTER VATICAN II
PART II:
VOCATION AND MISSION OF LAY PEOPLE
Now that we have looked at what the Church is and for whom she is, and what challenges this presents for us in AMM, and following on the idea of how the Church reflected on herself, let us now reflect on what the Church wants every baptised person to do at personal and community level (that is to say: in the group, in the association; in the movement, etc.).
The Church that is born from Vatican II continues to reflect on herself and on her mission in the world. It does so through reflection documents like Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi (Evangelizing in today’s world) and John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris missio (The Mission of the Saviour), and through Bishops’ Synods. I recall two of these synods:
1985, 20 years after the conclusion of the Council: “The Church, with the Word of God, celebrates the mysteries of Christ for the salvation of the world”.
1987: “The vocation and mission of the laity in the Church and in the world 20 years after Vatican II” which gave rise to John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici (ChL).
Let us also remember how the Jubilee Year (2000) was marked with three year celebrations, announced in NMA, and the Jubilee itself in Tertio Millenio Inuente.
In the various local Churches there was much reflection on what the face of the Church should be in this continent and what her mission should be. Lets us recall the Synods per Continent and the Conferences of Latin-American Bishops, such as Medellín and Puebla, and which had an influence on the rest of the Church.
All these events and reflections have made it possible to have a better knowledge of what the Church is and help us to transform the face of the Church.
In this second part I propose to reflect on how our AMM can focus on the nature and mission of the laity in the Church that was born from Vatican II. These are the elements of our reflection. I am using the words of ChL:
“I am the vine, you are the branches”. THE DIGNITY OF THE LAITY IN THE CHURCH – MYSTERY
Branches of the one vine. THE PARTICIPATION OF THE LAITY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH – COMMUNION
I want you to go and give fruit. THE CO-RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LAITY IN THE CHURCH – MISSION
THE DIGNITY OF THE LAITY IN THE CHURCH – MYSTERY
I.1. DIGNITY
A lay person is a baptised person. That is the most beautiful thing that can be said about the laity.
The Synod Fathers send the following message to the People of God (1987):
“We have tried to deepen the identity of the Christian lay faithful, their dignity and their responsibilities. All Christians, lay, clerics and religious, share the same dignity, that of being one single people gathered in the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”. This dignity stems from baptism, through which the person is incorporated in Christ and the ecclesial community and called to a life of holiness”.
The DIGNITY of the laity stems from its baptism, the sacrament of faith, source of the radical Christian novelty, and not fro, what he or she is doing in the Church or in the world. By his or her baptism, the person is incorporated into Christ and the Church, forming the one community of all who believe in Jesus. That is to say “Only from inside the Church's mystery of communion is the "identity" of the lay faithful made known, and their fundamental dignity revealed. Only within the context of this dignity can their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world be defined” (ChL 8).
When the Second Vatican Council presented the Church as the People of God, made up of all Christians, all called to the same holiness and to participate – in virtue of their baptism – in the triple function of Christ as prophet, king and priest, this resulted in a “new vision of the laity”.
We now have a Church that is, above all, People of God, and this people of God has a double structure: the “Guiding Ministry” (Pope, bishops, priests as assistants of the bishops), and the other Christians, the lay faithful. And just as the episcopal ministry has its own charism within the People of God, so also has the laity its own charism: The faithful are by baptism made one body with Christ and are constituted among the People of God; they 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. What specifically characterizes the laity is their secular nature. The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. (LG 31, GS 43).
These texts of the Magisterium highlight some innovations compared with the theology that was used before Vatican II:
Baptism is the source of the Christian dignity. As the arrangements of the chapters of LG show, it is the People of God, and not the Hierarchy, that takes the first place in the mystery of the Church.
The entire Church has one and the same mission, and the laity takes fully part in that mission. The laity does not take part in the mission of the hierarchy, but has its own specific mission, but it must be remembered that all – hierarchy and laity – share in the one mission of Christ.
To be a Christian means to have the Lord of all life as the Lord of one’s life. It does not mean to be the one who executes the decisions of the hierarchy. Laity is not defined as belonging to a group in the Church, but as belonging to God, in the Church.
I. 2. SHORT HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE NOTION OF “LAITY”
The New Testament did not use the word “lay person”, but the words kleros (the entire community) and laos (chosen people, gathered for worship).
The early Church did not make a difference between clergy and laity, but between baptised (Christians) and non-baptised, between those who could take part in the Eucharist because they accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and those who did not have this faith in the God of Jesus-Christ.
All the baptised consider themselves chosen for service or ministry, although they do not all provide the same service or exercise the same ministry. Neither do people who provide a service find themselves in a privileged positions, since the only hierarchy that is recognised is the hierarchy of holiness.
Already in the Church of the New Testament, under the influence of paganism and of the Old Testament, there was a tendency to “clericalise ministry”. Thus we see a new class of people appearing: the clergy, which distinguishes itself by the power to bring the sacred to the people. They become pontifexes, bridge builders. The people become the recipients of the religious services administered by the clergy.
This distinction increases with the birth of monasticism (6th century) and, subsequently, of religious life. Masses of people joined the Church without proper conversion to the Gospel, and monks started thinking that only they could live the Gospel perfectly. From then onwards the lay faithful are considered as passive beneficiaries of the service and care provided by religious and clergy.
With Vatican II we see a radical reversal of the situation, when the Church is presented as the People of God, a Community made up of all Christians, all called to holiness and to participate – in virtue of their baptism – in triple prophetic, royal and priestly function of Christ. This new presentation supersedes the idea of the Church centered on the Hierarchy as the only actor in the Church’s missionary activity. When the Council Fathers debated the scheme of LG and put the chapter on the People of God before the chapter on the hierarchy, Congar commented: “this is the most decisive prophetic step forward in ecclesiology when primacy is given to the essence of being a Christian and to the grace given in baptism, over any hierarchical structure.
The Magisterium’s final position on the laity is clearly set out in John Paul II’s Christifideles laici (1988), the result of the Synod of 1987.
It recognises the priestly function of all baptised, “including” the laity.
The content of ChL highlights the positive aspects of the theological reality of the laity:
The laity fully belongs to the Church and its mystery (8)
The laity is truly the Church (9)
The Importance of baptism and Christian innovation (10)
The laity’s participation in Christ’s royal, prophetic and priestly function (14)
The secular dimension of the Church (15)
The validity of the different ministries and the new charisms (21)
THE PARTICIPATION OF THE LAITY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH – COMMUNION
ChL uses the image of the vineyard to describe the mystery of the Church as a mystery of communion. And points out that
“The lay faithful are seen not simply as labourers who work in the vineyard, but as themselves being a part of the vineyard” (8).
The image of the vine not only speaks of the intimacy of the disciples with Jesus, but also of the vital communion that exists between the disciples: all are branches of the same vine. And this communion becomes visible in the Church, the community of believers. The Church herself is the mystery of communion, “because the very life and love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the gift gratuitously offered to all those who are born of water and the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 3:5), and called to relive the very communion of God and to manifest it and communicate it in history” (ChL 8d).
II. 1. MEANING OF “COMMUNION ECCLESIOLOGY”
II. 1.1. What does communion mean?
“What, then, does this complex word 'communion' mean? Its fundamental meaning speaks of the union with God brought about by Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit. The opportunity for such communion is present in the Word of God and in the Sacraments. Baptism is the door and the foundation of communion in the Church. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the whole Christian life. The Body of Christ in the Holy Eucharist sacramentalizes this communion, that is, it is a sign and actually brings about the intimate bonds of communion among all the faithful in the Body of Christ which is the Church" (ChL 19a).
Therefore we can say that communion ecclesiology is a projection of the Church which covers the following aspects:
- Intra-Trinitarian communion as the model for all human relations and as internal, founding principle of the Church (cf. LG 2-4);
- Transition from the Church as a society to the Church as a community
- Relationship between universal Church and particular churches
- Responsible participation of the People of God in the life of the Church as expression of its various charisms and ministries.
II. 1.2. Richness and plurality of the notion of communion
The extraordinary Synod of 1985 (20 years after the end of the Council) replaced the category of PEOPLE OF GOD, which predominates in LG, with that of COMMUNION, which is used in ChL.
The ecclesiology of communion is the foundation of the right relationship between unity and plurality, which brings together the doctrine of participation and co-responsibility of all the faithful, thus incorporating all the aspects of an ecclesiology of People of God.
II. 1.3. Ecclesial communion: GIFT AND TASK
* GIFT: “Church communion then is a gift, a great gift of the Holy Spirit, to be gratefully accepted by the lay faithful, and at the same time to be lived with a deep sense of responsibility” (ChL 20d).
* TASK: the laity is called to participate ever more deeply in the mission of the Church, in her various charisms and ministries.
II. 2. THE VOCATION OF THE LAITY WITHIN THE CHURCH AS “MYSTERY OF COMMUNION”
II. 2.1. The centrality of baptism
All baptised take part in Christ’s priestly function. This is where we find the roots of the positive theology of the laity: the laity’s participation in the priesthood of Christ, fully belonging to the Church and its ministry. In the words of ChL 15a: “Because of the one dignity flowing from Baptism, each member of the lay faithful, together with ordained ministers and men and women religious, shares a responsibility for the Church's mission”.
It is good, at this point, to remember that taking part in the mission of the Church is not the same as taking part in the mission of the Priest.
All baptised take part in the triple function of Christ:
Just like priests and religious take part in this triple function, but each one in his or her own way, because in the Church all vocations are complementary, “As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the laity have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the Church. Their activity is so necessary within the Church communities that without it the apostolate of the pastors is often unable to achieve its full effectiveness.”(AA 10).
Once again let us look at the “dimension of unity” from the depth of the Christian vocation, from which the various charisms and ministries in the Church, and the “multiplicity of spiritualities” flow. We are all Christians and baptised within the Church; we all take part in the common priesthood of Jesus-Christ, and in love and freedom we belong to the kingdom of grace; we all belong to the one people of God, where we are rooted, united, transformed, but each one of us does it from within his or her own condition as a lay person, a cleric or religious.
Lay people participate in Christ’ triple munus from their “secular character”
The exhortation (ChL 15b-c,f) clearly states that what is proper to the laity is precisely the secular dimension of their mission:
“Among the lay faithful this one baptismal dignity takes on a manner of life which sets a person apart, without, however, bringing about a separation from the ministerial priesthood or from men and women religious (…) their secular character in light of God's plan of salvation and in the context of the mystery of the Church (…) All the members of the Church are sharers in this secular dimension but in different ways. In particular the sharing of the lay faithful has its own manner of realization and function, which, according to the Council, is "properly and particularly" theirs. Such a manner is designated with the expression "secular character".
II. 2.2. The lay faithful in the world
To order and throw light on temporal realities
But the laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God (LG 31).
Besides the word “lay”, we use the word “secular”, to describe the baptized person who is not a cleric or religious. The word “secular” expresses the relation of the lay person with the “saeculum”, the world. Lay people live in the world, they have a family and a social life, they exercise a profession and they contribute to the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven. Since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs (LG 31).
The secular character of the lay faithful is not therefore to be defined only in a sociological sense, but most especially in a theological sense (cf. ChL 15).
What characterizes the laity has nothing to do with its “secular character”, but everything to do with establishing in this world the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus, the ordering of all temporal and secular things in accordance with the divine plan of salvation, and with promoting those values that characterise a Christian society: peace, justice, freedom, belonging to a community, having a sense of family that is welcoming and sharing, a sense of responsibility in society and at work, caring for the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society, etc.
Consequently, the secular character of the laity, as the “place” where the Christian and ecclesial vocation is to be lived out, is a theological and not a sociological concept. It is the place where the ecclesial and apostolic dimension is realized under the action of the Spirit, who gives to each one the gifts and charisms for the good of the community. What identifies the baptized person is not whether he or she is a cleric, but rather the function/vocation that he/she fulfills, in the world and in the Christian community, as member of the Church and for the edification of the Body of Christ.
How should we look at the world? ( A “new” look at the world)
The Church is God’s gift to the world. More than that even: the Church is the world. We do not say: the sinful world as opposed to Christ, grace and the Church, but the world as the human family, as God’s creation, as a reality to be redeemed and sanctified.
If the world does not identify itself with the Church, the Church cannot look at the world from outside or from above, or from a dominant position. She has to look at itself as God’s gift to the world. She may be misunderstood or rejected, but she can never cease to be gift to the world, in the world. (E. Bueno, 275).
In history we have seen this paradox:
The world considers itself as non-Church,
The world considers the Church as outside its sphere of influence, and therefore it wants to configure itself as “world in opposition to the Church”.
The estrangement between Church and world was examined by the Council Fathers. The outcome of their reflection can be found in Lumen gentium and in Gaudium et spes. After centuries of mistrust and misunderstanding – not to say confrontation – we now have a new way of looking at the human condition through Christian eyes: the world, work, history, progress … all these things have a theological and soteriological relevance.
II. 2.3. The laity in the Church
The lay faithful are members of the Church who live in the world.
The vocation of the laity must not be defined only by their situation in the world, but rather by their situation in the Church, by virtue of their being members of the Church, in so far as this affects their position in the world.
Consequently, the laity must not only understand what their position is in the world; but also what is in the Church, and what, as members of the Church they can contribute to their situation in the world because of their being Christians.
The laity, children of God, contribute to the Church’s “epiphany”.
We know that the laity take part in the life of the church: in its sacramental life, its holiness, in its task of evangelization, etc. But we must no forget that, because of their Christian life in the world, they are part of the manifestation of the Church, and that they contribute to make the Church what it always is and must be: the historically conditioned presence in space and time of God’s redeeming grace in Jesus-Christ.
The laity has charisms.
The Church, with its hierarchical structure and organization, also lives the experience of the Spirit in the form of charisms (1 Cor 12:4-31; Rom 12:6-8). The laity also have charisms. And because the laity have charisms, they do not cease to be laity or change their position in the world.
It is the task of the hierarchy to discover the Spirit. It is the duty and the task of the hierarchy to discern the works of the Spirit and the charisms. And the lay faithfulwho have charisms do not cease to be laity nor does it change their position in the world.
If we look at the description given in Christifideles laici 24, we read that:
Charisms are always graces given by the Spirit, which have an ecclesial purpose: they are given for the good of mankind and for fulfilling the needs of the world.
Charisms must be gratefully accepted, both by the beneficiary and by the Church, because they are a source of grace that gives apostolic vitality and leads the entire body of Christ to holiness.
Among the many charisms that the laity have, we must today consider that of being integrated in the world (the “secular character”), of social action, of being at work, of being politically committed, of pacifism, of ecological concerns and of the new types of service (R. Berzosa).
II. 3 “CALLED TO HOLINESS”
II. 3.1. “The universal call to holiness”
The universal call to holiness is one of the recurring themes of the Second Vatican Council (LG Chapter V, nos. 39-42).
The call to holiness is an integral part of the vocation of the laity.
We come to a full sense of the dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity. Holiness is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ (ChL16a).
The call to holiness is rooted in baptism and demands that all baptized: follow and imitate Jesus Christ, in embracing the Beatitudes, in listening and meditating on the Word of God, in conscious and active participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, in personal prayer, in family or in community, in the hunger and thirst for justice, in the practice of the commandment of love in all circumstances of life and service to the brethren, especially the least, the poor and the suffering(ChL16f).
When the Council speaks about the holiness of the various states, it does so from the existential and theological perspective, and it says: The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one-that sanctity which is cultivated by all who are moved by the Spirit of God ... Every person must walk unhesitatingly according to his own personal gifts and duties in the path of living faith, which arouses hope and works through charity (LG 41).
II. 3.2. The urgent need for holiness for the evangelical renovation of the Christian life
It is ever more urgent that today all Christians take up again the way of gospel renewal, welcoming in a spirit of generosity the invitation expressed by the apostle Peter "to be holy in all conduct" … Men and women saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult circumstances in the Church's history (ChL 16c).
II. 3.3. Holiness is possible in a secularized world
The Extraordinary Synod of Bishops (1985), which influenced Christifideles laici, puts great emphasis on what we have just said.
About secularism:
One of the signs of the times is the phenomenon of secularism … it consists of a self-determining vision of mankind and of the world, which ignores, or even denies, any attention to the mysterious. This leads to a less than integral vision of mankind which can never bring freedom, but rather leads to a new idolatry, to slavery to ideologies, to a narrow and often oppressive vision of the world (II A, 1a).
In the midst of this secularism there is a strong desire for the sacred and the holy: “Precisely at this time, when many men and women experience an inner vacuum and a spiritual crisis, the Church must maintain and stress the need for penance, prayer, adoration, sacrifice, self-respect, charity and justice” ( II A,4.).
John Paul II gave many Christians, including lay people, as examples for the Church and for the world, people who lived the ideal of holiness to the full. He considers holiness so necessary that he sees it as the central axis, the foundation of the pastoral planning in which we are involved at the start of the new millennium (NMI 31).
The new movements, the communities of lay people are making an effort to convince their members that holiness is an achievable ideal. And not only on a personal level, but on a collective level also.
III. SHARED RESPONSIBILITY OF THE LAITY IN THE CHURCH – MISSION
The vocation of the laity is inseparably linked to its Mission. Christifideles laici talks about “shared responsibility of the laity in the Church – its mission”, based on communion with Jesus, like branches that give fruit, and on communion with other Christians, leading to a common missionary calling: “I chose you and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16).
Communion and mission are profoundly connected with each other, they interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission: communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion. It is always the one and the same Spirit who calls together and unifies the Church and sends her to preach the Gospel "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). On her part, the Church knows that the communion received by her as a gift is destined for all people. Thus the Church feels she owes to each individual and to humanity as a whole the gift received from the Holy Spirit that pours the charity of Jesus Christ into the hearts of believers, as a mystical force for internal cohesion and external growth. The mission of the Church flows from her own nature. Christ has willed it to be so: that of "sign and instrument... of unity of all the human race". Such a mission has the purpose of making everyone know and live the "new" communion that the Son of God made man introduced into the history of the world (ChL 32).
John Paul II called ALL the faithful to be part of the “missionary communion” to “announce the Gospel” to all mankind, serving all societies and persons. This service takes the concrete form of promoting gospel values, human, family, cultural, social and religious values, in order to make the temporal order conforming with God’s plan (cf. ChL 33-34).
III. 1. COMMUNION AND MISSION
III. 1.1. From an ecclesiology of communion to an ecclesiology of mission
Starting point:
Communion and mission are closely linked, they are mutually inclusive because communion and mission are linked to the person of Jesus-Christ (John Paul II).
The content of the Christian mission is the event of Jesus-Christ in its historical reality and Paschal Mystery. This event supersedes time and is an invitation to each of us. It is an event that calls on human freedom to transcend itself, to go beyond itself, to become total gift of self when welcoming Christ in his Paschal Mystery.
We cannot separate the laity from this mission, i.e. from Jesus-Christ, the source of human freedom. Otherwise it would mean reducing the Gospel to a series of intellectual statements or pious exercises or ethical behaviour. It would mean the separation of faith and life.
Jesus is the One sent by the Father to save the world, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is in the person-mission of Jesus that the person-mission of the laity takes form.
Ecclesiology of communion - Mission
There is no greater witness of faith than giving witness to the Paschal Mystery of Christ. It is in that mystery that the mission of the Apostles, who witnessed the death and resurrection of Christ, is based. In this mystery ecclesiology of communion and ecclesiology of mission come together as Saint John says: “what was from the beginning, what we heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands … we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us” (1 Jn 1:1-4).
COMMUNION, apart from ensuring the continuation of the Christ-event, is joined to the MISSION: “Go and make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit … I am with you till the end of time”.
To believe in Jesus-Christ is to be his witness, sent to proclaim the Christian message of salvation in word and deed (Pagola).
III. 1.2. From witnessing to proclaiming
How do we make the transition of the mission of the Church to the mission of each lay person?
When we ask this question, we are confronted with the question of how to witness, of method, not as a set of techniques used in ecclesial action, but as a method of Christian life, that is to say, in what form the Christ-event is announced to the world, by one person to another.
This form derives from the sacramental and Eucharistic reality of the Church, which is the instrument by which the Christ-event reaches all mankind.
The method implies missionary techniques. However, what is fundamental is holiness, which must be called a fundamental presupposition and an irreplaceable condition for everyone in fulfilling the mission of salvation within the Church.
That mission is not about transmitting doctrine or gain more members for the Church, but it is about being called to give witness to a new reality, a transformation and a new style, a new meaning and a new hope. We cannot rely on ourselves or on the Church. We need to have an attitude of on-going conversion because we are “clay jars” (2 Cor 4:7).
In the early Christian communities, the faith was not presented as a religious system, but as an invitation to get to know Christ, as a way to follow Christ, as the surest way to live a life of true meaning, commitment and hope. The Christian faith is more a way than it is a religious system (cf. Acts 10:25-26).
Paul VI said: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses” (EN 41, 21). A Christian is above all a disciple and witness of Jesus! Vocation and mission demand following Christ even to martyrdom, in a word, it demands holiness (ChL17).
III. 1.3. The logic of the Incarnation as sacramental evangelizing logic
God reveals himself in his humanity (Incarnation) and becomes “sacrament”.
“Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see and make others see the traces of his mystery in all his earthly life. From the swaddling clothes of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the shroud of his Resurrection, everything in Jesus' life was a sign of his mystery. His deeds, miracles and words all revealed that "in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." ( Col 2:9). His humanity appeared as "sacrament", that is, the sign and instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he brings: what was visible in his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery of his divine sonship and redemptive mission (Catechism of the Catholic Church 515).
The apostles met Jesus, the man, and the mystery of his death. In spite of the difficulties involved in following this msyterious man, they felt they could not leave him: ”Lord, where would we go? (Jn 6:68). By the strength of the Spirit they were able to believe that the one who rose from the dead was the Son of God.
That is to say that Jesus’ humanity is the means for recognising his divinity. The Incarnation is the method by which the Trinity chose to reveal itself; it is the method of mission. The logic of the Incarnation is always a sacramental logic. Therefore a Christian is called, wherever he is, to be the human sacrament of the Christ-event.
When answering questions like: how do we announce Jesus today? How can we imitate the Inimitable in order to become a disciple and a witness? We answer with the same sacramental logic, based on Baptism and the Eucharist.
The sacramental logic is the only one that does not reduce Christ to a mere material object transported in time and space, but makes the Christ-event happen here and now. Let us not forget that “logic of the Incarnation” in order that our own incarnation in the world may be a “sacrament” for SOMENONE.
III. 2. THE LAITY AND THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL
III.2.1. Evangelization, the mission of the Church
Let us remember two basic principles:
The entire Church is missionary.
Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize (EN 14). That evangelizing mission is the essential task of the Church; it is not an optional extra, but her deepest identity, what constitutes her and makes her the Church.
It is not the Church which, once constituted, has the mission to evangelize, but rather it is the mission that constitutes and constantly renews the Church. There can be no true “missionary spirituality” if within the Church there is no awareness of that mission as the central and founding principle of the Christian community.
The mission of the Church is united with the mission of the Son and the Spirit as they are sent by the Father. Before the mission of the Church there is God’s mission: each and every Christian community is called to serve the Father’s mission.
The laity is responsible for this mission:
“The whole Church is missionary, and the work of evangelization is a basic duty of the People of God” (AG 35).
“The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit” (ChL 33a).
It is impossible to encourage a “missionary spirituality” if not all the members of the Church are aware that every Christian, by the mere fact of being a Christian, must take part in the mission of Jesus-Christ, and must be apostle, evangelizer, bringer of the good news of God’s Kingdom.
III. 2.2. Evangelizing today
The world in which the Church is sent to bring that Good News, is full of indifference, secularism and atheism. In the words of the late Pope John Paul II:
This particularly concerns countries and nations of the so-called First World, in which economic well-being and consumerism, even if coexistent with a tragic situation of poverty and misery, inspires and sustains a life lived "as if God did not exist"… Sometimes the Christian faith as well, while maintaining some of the externals of its tradition and rituals, tends to be separated from those moments of human existence which have the most significance, such as, birth, suffering and death … Today this moral and spiritual patrimony runs the risk of being dispersed under the impact of a multiplicity of processes, including secularization and the spread of sects (ChL 34 a-b).
In Redemptoris missio we are told that in some Christian societies there are entire areas that have not been evangelized.
Faced with that situation:
The Church feels the constant need to evangelize:
“The present situation, not only of the world but also of many parts of the Church, absolutely demands that the word of Christ receive a more ready and generous obedience. Every disciple is personally called by name; no disciple can withhold making a response: "Woe to me, if I do not preach the gospel" (1 Cor 9:16) (ChL 33e).
The de-Christianisation of large areas and groups of people demands that we take a wider view of Mission and Evangelization, and that we bring the Gospel into every one of our activities, in order to:
° serve people and society;
° promote human dignity;
° respect the basic right to life;
° defend freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, so that all are free to invoke the name of the Lord;
° consider the family as the first place where the lay faithful evangelize;
° practice charity, alms giving and solidarity;
° are active in politics, to work for the common good;
° see the human person as the center of social-economic life;
° evangelize culture and the cultures of humanity
(cf; ChL (5, 36-44).
It is urgent that communities take action.
Without doubt a mending of the Christian fabric of society is urgently needed in all parts of the world. But for this to come about what is needed is to first remake the Christian fabric of the ecclesial community itself. The lay faithful must fully share in this task. Their responsibility, in particular, is to testify how the Christian faith constitutes the only fully valid response-consciously perceived and stated by all in varying degrees-to the problems and hopes that life poses to every person and society (ChL 34 b-c).
III. 2.3. Integral evangelization, not only spiritual
Missionary activity always must take into account the material needs of the beneficiaries of its mission, and endeavor to bring about a just world, even though this may not always seem to be the key element of salvation (cf. EN).
Salvation must not be limited to the spiritual: the temporal reality, the problems of the world, the fight against injustice and poverty take up a central place in the mission of the Church. Because, if God works through the Church, she must be present wherever human destiny is at stake. In this way it is the world, with its needs, that determines the agenda and priorities of the Church, since she is called to save people where they live, hope and suffer (E. Bueno).
III. 3. MISSION AND LAY MINISTRIES
We already talked about charisms as gifts of the Spirit to all the baptized.
Lay ministries also are gifts of the Spirit, for the sanctification of the Body of Christ, for the fulfillment of the Church’s saving mission in the world (cf. LG 4). They are given for the edification of the community and for the mission of the Church. They must be seen in the context of the Church as Communion and the Church’s mission.
III. 3.1. The ministry of the Church
Starting from the principle that all ministries are a participation in the one ministry of Christ (ChL 21), the Church discovered her own ministry and the meaning of all ministries within it.
While, at the start, the Church saw these ministries as a way for the lay faithful to participate and share in the mission of the Church, she later came to value them as an expression of the dynamic force of the Christian community (E. Bueno, Eclesiogénesis, p. 158).
When Paul VI first attributed “ministries” to the laity, and recognized lay faithful as “ministers” (Motu Propio Ministeria Quaedam), he did away with the distinction made since the Middle Ages between cleric and lay.
In Evangelii nuntiandi, he lists a series of ministries: catechists, directors of prayer and chant, Christians devoted to the service of God's Word or to assisting their brethren in need, the heads of small communities, or other persons charged with the responsibility of apostolic movements, and other services to the community (EN 73).
When we talk about the ministry of the Church, we repeat again that the laity participates in the mission of the Church: “The Church's mission of salvation in the world is realized not only by the ministers in virtue of the Sacrament of Orders but also by all the lay faithful; indeed, because of their Baptismal state and their specific vocation, in the measure proper to each person, the lay faithful participate in the priestly, prophetic and kingly mission of Christ” (ChL 23).
We must remember that lay ministries have their own ecclesiological basis, and are not ministries created to counteract the shortage of clergy. Consequently: we must not make these lay ministries into a surrogate priesthood, nor must we create a new clericalism by attributing to lay ministries those functions that are reserved for ordained ministries, such as presiding at the Eucharist. We must always remember the “secular character” of these lay ministries.
We must never forget this secular character, that is to say, we must remember the responsibility the lay faithful have in the world: they must bring their Faith into the various aspects of their life in society, and must put their experience of secular matters at the disposal of the Church.
The Conference of German Bishops sees the proper of lay ministries as ”bringing together faith and the situation in the world … Secularity and ministry are two dimensions of ecclesial life, different dimensions that are closely linked to the Church’s mission of salvation … It would be disastrous if lay ministries were understood as running away from the political and social, and were to be considered merely as ministries within the Church community”.
III. 3.2. At the service of the community and mission
Lay ministries are at the service of the community and mission.
Lay ministries are at the service of the community in three of the Church’s major functions: Word: teaching; Worship; Communion: sanctification, governance. However, unlike ordained ministers who include all three functions into their pastoral care, the lay faithful can fulfill just one of these functions and not the other two.
“The mission of the Church is the criterion for the theological essence of the ministries entrusted to the laity. It is not a sociological criterion, such as how much time should be spent on different tasks … Lay ministry is simply the consolidation, within the Church, of all that is proper to the lay faithful in virtue of their participation in the universal priesthood of Christ through Baptism, in order to work for the salvation of the world. Only a missionary Church will allow for the right development of lay ministries. And vice versa: only true lay ministries will make it possible for the Church to be a missionary Church” (Perea, 386).
The local Church decides these ministries.
Each Church must provide the services it deems necessary to follow Christ and to proclaim the Gospel of salvation. It is up to the Bishop to decide which ministries are to be established in the local Church in order to face local challenges.
Lay ministers must not resolve local administrative problems, but they must breathe new life into the community and its evangelizing mission.
A CHALLENGE FOR AMM
1. The Council asked us to return to the sources, to the Eucharist and Baptism, and that hierarchy and laity should look together at our only and common source, our Baptism, in order to discover what is proper to each.
AMM needs to know better what we are in the Church, what we are called to do in this post-conciliar Church that wants to remain faithful to Christ, so that we may be in the Church what we are meant to be and do.
If we do not recognize the dignity of the laity, its vocation and its mission, we prevent AMM from responding to the challenge of being a servant Church, mother and teacher at the beginning of the Third Millennium. We then keep the lay faithful in a situation of dependency and thus prevent them from taking the Church to the world and the world to the Church.
2. In the light of this doctrinal reflection of the Church on herself, let us consider that
Yes, AMM is faithful to its secular character when it does not seek refuge in the bosom of “mother” Church and does not limit its participation to the ecclesial community only.
Yes, we are faithful to the Virgin’s message that we distribute with the Miraculous Medal, when we make a special effort to work with the Church to “bring grace” to society.
Yes, we are in “communion” when we carry out our pastoral service in union with the diocesan or parochial Church, and when, in our apostolate, we seek to show the specific charism of our Association.
Yes, we are offering a spirituality that is suited to today’s world when we try to be holy in a secular society.
Let us remember that AMM offers the possibility of living in this world without being of this world, as we live in society, in our family and among families that are dysfunctional because of various spiritual and material poverties. Therefore we ask ourselves:
What type of holiness is pursued in our Association?
Is it holiness coming from the joy of living in the world, holiness coming from running away from the world, holiness as opposed to this world, holiness of “leaven in the dough”, holiness of the elected, or holiness given to me in baptism?
3. AMM must feel its sacramental dimension. Its devotion to Mary of the Miraculous Medal, its worship and devotional practices … do these take it closer to the world or do they separate it from the world? Are they a sacrament of a visit from God, from Mary, or are they simply yet another expression of a world that has no interest in others?
4. Another challenge facing AMM is how to live and how to transmit faith in Christ; the Son of Mary, in a secularized indifferent, atheistic world … Do we stick close to the shore, or do we set out for the high seas? Do we stay with the ninety nine sheep that are safe, or do go after the lost ones and those that are not yet part of the herd?
