Laity in the World
The laity have a special and primary role in the world, where they have distinct competence and presence: they are called to witness in the way they live their daily lives and to explicitly share their faith with others.
Key Insights
|
Presence
Lay people are the Church's presence within the world (the "temporal order") since they live and work within it. They are called to be salt and leaven, changing the world from inside it. Competence
The laity are the Church's experts on the world and act out this competence through their vocation. |
Two Goals
The laity seek to change the world in two interconnected ways: by the witness of the way they live their daily lives and by sharing their faith with others. |
Large Numbers
Whether evangelizing through the witness of living or by sharing one's faith more directly, the laity has more of an opportunity to spread the Gospel than the less than 1% of the Church that is ordained or religious. |
Quotations
It is the special vocation of 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, in each and every one of the world's occupations and callings and in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life.... There they are called by God to contribute to the sanctification of the world from within, like leaven, in the spirit of the Gospel, by fulfilling their own particular duties. [The laity] exercise the apostolate in fact by their activity directed to the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the penetrating and perfecting of the temporal order through the spirit of the Gospel. In this way, their temporal activity openly bears witness to Christ and promotes the salvation of men. Since the laity, in accordance with their state of life, live in the midst of the world and its concerns, they are called by God to exercise their apostolate in the world like leaven, with the ardor of the spirit of Christ. Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 2
(Apostolicam Actuositatem) Second Vatican Council Emphasis added ...the laity are uniquely present in and to the world and so bear a privileged position to build the Kingdom of God there. In this way the lay person engages himself wholly and actively in the reality of the temporal order and effectively assumes his role in conducting the affairs of this order. At the same time, as a living member and witness of the Church, he renders the Church present and active in the midst of temporal affairs. |
The laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation. Led by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church and motivated by Christian charity, they must act directly and in a definite way in the temporal sphere. Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, 7
(Apostolicam Actuositatem) Second Vatican Council Emphasis added Christian service in the world is represented in a preeminent way by the laity. It is sometimes called the “ministry of the laity” and balances the concept of ministry found in the ecclesial ministerial services. Because of lay persons, Christian service or ministry broadly understood includes civic and public activity, response to the imperatives of peace and justice, and resolution of social, political, and economic conflicts, especially as they influence the poor, oppressed and minorities. |