by Anthony Schratz
I do not pray that you take
them out of the world, but that you keep them from evil. Even as
you sent me into the world, so I send them into the world (John
17: 15-19)
As Pope John Paul II has taught (Christfideles
Laici #14-17) echoing Vatican II, to live our vocation as lay
people in the Church naturally means doing so with a lay
mentality or secular outlook. The consecratio mundi rather
than the contemptus mundi.
The role of the laity in the
Church is to sanctify the temporal order from within. By their
very vocation [lay Christians] seek the Kingdom of God by
engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to
the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in
all secular professions and occupations.. They are called there
by God … to work for the sanctification of the world from
within, like leaven by fulfilling their own duties (Vatican
Council II, Lumen Gentium, n. 31).
So the mission of the laity in the
Church is to sanctify secular structures, to act as salt, light
and leaven, seeking to restore all things in Christ from within
the very heart of civil society. By virtue of their Baptism, all
Christians, including the laity, are called to participate in the
Church’s mission to save all souls (cf. Vatican Council II, Lumen
Gentium, n. 33). This evangelizing action of making Christ
known to others is referred to as the apostolate.
What is particular to the layman
is the secular character of his apostolate, which derives from
his being an ordinary Christian immersed in professional, family
and social occupations. This allows the Catholic layperson to do
apostolate in places where the official apostolates of the Church
cannot reach: the board room, the factory, the law firm, the
business office, the university, the House of Commons, the stock
exchange, the film studio, the media, the world of fashion, etc.
If the Faith is going to permeate and influence the society, the
culture and public policy it is crucial for the laity to assume
their role. Furthermore, if they are truly going to be salt,
light and leaven, they must live out their secular vocation as
Christians with naturalness.
In an age of Faith, the Church has
an impact on the culture through its ordained ministers. People
go to Church and frequent the sacraments. They listen to the
teaching of the priest and generally try to ensure that public
morality respects the natural law. In such a society there are
many Christian politicians who form a bulwark against attempts to
undermine public morality. This was the situation that prevailed
in the United States and Canada until the mid nineteen-sixties.
In a pluralistic society and
secularized culture, however, it is all the more crucial for the
laity to assume their role as leaven, salt and light in the heart
of society; for in this kind of society and culture public
morality has ceased to reflect the natural law and far fewer
people listen to the Church’s teaching. This is the
situation in which we now find ourselves. And it is precisely in
this attempt to have a well formed laity assume their role that
the battle for the Faith and for the Catholic Church is being
fought and will be fought in the 21st Century. The arena or forum
for that battle has shifted from the church building to the very
heart of secular society. And it is the laity and those who can
form the laity in this secular spirit and help them to live it
with naturalness who will be at the forefront of the battle.
For many centuries the laity have
been exposed to and encouraged to cultivate an adapted version of
the religious spirituality which fails to equip them to live out
their secular vocation as Christians with naturalness in the
heart of society. It leads them to act as semi-religious. Those
who wish to take their faith more seriously and provide a
Christian witness in their environment wear a cross or scapular
outside their shirt; they say God bless instead of goodbye;
they equate holiness with devotions and acts of piety and see the
rest of their day as filler, divorced from their effort to
be holy; they see the world as a place of temptation and fail to
love it passionately as something good coming from the hand of
God, something that they have been called to sanctify and bring
back to Christ.
How could this situation have come
about? It was not always so. The First Christians lived a secular
spirituality. As one example among many we can take this quote
from the Letter to Diognetus, written towards the end of the
Second Century:
Christians are not different from any other men,
either by their property or their way of speaking or their
customs. They do not live in cities of their own, nor do they
speak a strange language nor do they live in a way different from
other men. Truly, this doctrine has not been invented by them
thanks to the talent and speculation of curious men. Nor do they
profess, as others do, a human doctrine. But rather, living in
Greek or barbarian cities, as fate has decreed for each one, and
adapting themselves in matters of dress, food and way of life to
the customs and practices of each country, they give witness to
an admirable kind of conduct.
The Early Christians sought to be
salt and light, leaven in society. Early on, however, monasticism
developed. Inspired by God, certain men first fled alone to the
desert and then established monasteries and cloisters. These
religious were seen as the truly holy people. And so sanctity
gradually became identified with the religious life. It was
thought that the laity could be saved, but they could only aspire
to a second class or mediocre kind of sanctity. Those who wanted
to take their Faith seriously became religious or priests. The
notion of the universal call to sanctity was lost.
As Russell Shaw has shown in his
work, To Hunt, To Shoot, to Entertain, the religious life
came to be seen as the normative model for all Catholics. For
many centuries, preaching, spiritual direction and Confession of
the lay faithful were all in the hands of the religious orders.
For historical reasons, until the 16th Century the secular clergy
did not receive sufficient preparation to assume these tasks. So
the religious orders naturally passed on to the laity a religious
spirituality adapted to the needs of the laity. It was, however,
based on the contemptus mundi, which sees the world as a
place of temptation. This outlook calls for Christians to set
their sights on eternity and hold all the things of the world in
scorn. The religious dedicates himself completely to God by
renouncing the world and publicly professing the evangelical
counsels in order to signify and proclaim in the Church the glory
of the world to come. And he does this, of course, following a
divine vocation, in the service of the Church in order to
collaborate in the Church's mission of sanctifying the world.
However, since the member of the
religious order is the only one who can live this spirituality to
the full, it was thought that the lay person could only aspire to
a second-class kind of holiness. He could live this spirituality
only to the limited extent that his lay condition (marriage,
family, professional work, social life) would allow.
In this way of looking at things "the church
building becomes the forum or setting of Christian life. Being a
Christian means taking part in the liturgy, reciting the Rosary
and other devotions and helping out in ecclesiastical matters in
a sort of segregated world which is like the ante chamber of
heaven while the ordinary world follows its own separate
path." (St. Josemaria Escriva, Conversations #113)
However, since the laity are not
called to separate themselves from the world the way the
religious do, their role in the sanctification of the world
should not follow the model of the religious spirituality. As
Vatican II has stated, the role of the laity is to bring the
world to Christ, to sanctify temporal structures, to transform
the world in Christ from within the very heart of the world.
The Incarnation means that all
noble human realities can and must be divinized and sanctified. It
pertains to the laity in a special way to so illuminate and order
all temporal things with which they are so closely associated
that these may be effected and grow according to Christ and may
be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer. (Vatican Council
II, Lumen Gentium, n. 31).
As St. Josemaria Escriva, the
Founder of Opus Dei taught, it is precisely by using
temporal realities, circumstances and interests that the layman
can and should seek and attain holiness. He can love God in and
through the world. The world has been created good by God; it has
been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, who assumed and
redeemed all human realities. So all these can be directed to
God. They become the prime matter of the layman’s
sanctification. Not in spite of his work, conjugal life, etc.,
but in and through them.
In a pluralistic society and a
secularized culture the priest can only reach people who come to
him (i.e.; those who come to Mass or to Confession or go to
consult him for spiritual direction). He cannot go into the heart
of downtown and start preaching in the park and he would not be
effective if he were to do so. The worker priest experiment in
France and Catholic Action were attempts to overcome this
difficulty. However, they could not be very effective because the
priest always felt himself to be an intruder, a foreign element.
And the lay person involved in Catholic Action was acting on a
mandate from his priest in an official apostolate of the
hierarchy; so he too felt he was infiltrating, embarked on a
mission rather than present in his own place.
If he is going to be salt, light
and leaven in the heart of civil society, the Catholic lay person
must not be perceived by those in his milieu as a foreign
element. He should not be seen as someone who has come in from
another planet. Because in fact he has not. He belongs there, in
the university, in the law firm, in the pub, in a family
gathering as much as anyone. And he has every right to do
apostolate with his colleagues, friends, neighbours and
relatives, not because he receives a mandate from his bishop, but
in virtue of his baptismal vocation.
Imagine a reunion of your extended
family. Some cousins are divorced or on drugs. Others have
stopped practicing. You, on the other hand, are practicing your
Catholic Faith and try to take it seriously. Could anyone
correctly maintain that you do not belong in that family reunion?
Of course not. You have every right to be there, and to try to
help your cousins, though always respecting their freedom. And
you will not stop loving your family because of their problems.
On the contrary, it is because you love them that you will try to
help them.
The lay Christian is to take his
place in the heart of civil society. That is where he belongs. He
is not like the others. That expression already implies a
difference. They are his peers, his equals. The street is his
rightful place.
Since he belongs there; since it
is his home, his milieu, he will naturally have an operative
concern to build up the earthly city from within, passionately
loving the world, the way he loves his family. Of course, he will
bring a Christian perspective to all his endeavours, seeking to
contribute to the Christian transformation of his society. But he
will also strive to make a contribution to human progress, which
is a way of living charity and serving his fellow men. Someone
who is not concerned about human progress lacks a lay mentality.
He is a poor example of what the modern lay Catholic apostle
should be.
Those who lack this lay mentality
may well belong to 10 confraternities, attend daily Mass and
recite all 20 decades of the Rosary every day. They will know the
latest episcopal appointment but not the latest ministerial
appointment. Lacking this love for the world and this desire to
contribute to human progress, they are often not competent in
their work and have no interest in their job. In addition, they
frequently fail to live many of the human virtues that are basic
to both social intercourse and to professionalism in one's work.
These would include such virtues as order, cheerfulness,
temperance, humility, affability, patience, loyalty, optimism,
generosity, elegance, industriousness, good manners, etc.
Lay Christians who have this
secular mentality will take their rightful place as citizens.
After all, they have as much right as anyone to express their
ideas about the best way to order the society and to shape the
culture. And their proposals deserve as much of a hearing in the
market place of ideas as those of anyone else. The Christian
will, however, never fall into the trap of thinking that his
proposals constitute the official Catholic position or that he is
somehow representing the Church when he makes them. The Church
has no official position on temporal issues such as politics,
economics, social questions, etc. Her social doctrine sets out
broad principles; but it is up to each layman to find the best
way of implementing those principles in the precise circumstances
of each time and place. And different Catholics may legitimately
propose different solutions to a given social or political
problem, and all these solutions may well be in conformity with
the principles enunciated by the Magisterium.
Since the lay Christian does
belong, he will avoid doing, saying or wearing anything that
might suggest he has come from another planet. He will not place
a holy water font in his office nor wear a visible cross or
scapular or a T-shirt announcing 10 good reasons for being
Catholic. He will not say God Bless whenever he takes
leave of someone. People who do these things are courageous and
devout and truly believe that by doing so they are giving an
effective witness to their Faith. However, we would contend that
this kind of external witness in a university or professional
milieu is not effective. It is once again an imitation of the
religious spirituality, which is public. By doing this Christians
marginalize themselves and they de facto withdraw themselves from
that battle to evangelize the society and the culture from
within, which is the specific role of the laity. With the
best of intentions they abandon that secularity proper to their
condition as lay persons.
Public witness is proper to
priests and members of religious orders who are called by God to
sanctify themselves in that way. One might say that they are
called to imitate the public life of Christ. However, this is not
the way of the lay person, who is called to imitate Christ's
Hidden Life. We recall that when Christ began his public life the
people of Nazareth were astounded. He had lived among them for 30
years with such naturalness that they had never suspected that he
was the Messiah. He was undoubtedly an exemplary and virtuous
figure in Nazareth; but since his time had not yet come, he never
did anything out of the ordinary. The same may be said of The
Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. They were the two greatest
saints in the history of the Church and yet they achieved great
holiness by sanctifying their daily duties without any show or
fanfare.
When the lay person imitates the
priest or religious by giving a public, external witness to his
Faith, he is undoubtedly showing courage. After all, he risks
ridicule and will be marginalized by his peers. And yet, even
though it takes courage to give this public witness, the bottom
line is that the lay person who does this is unwittingly escaping
from the more difficult task of doing a far more effective though
less spectacular apostolate. He may succeed in engaging some
people in dialogue about the Faith, but never as one more among
his colleagues.
So the layman will live his Faith
in his daily life with naturalness and secularity, but without
external signs. These can put people off. If he enters a new
environment and comes on strong from the beginning through the
use of external signs (“here is where I stand, so watch
out”) he will turn off many people whom he might otherwise
have been able to help.
In his book, Search and Rescue,
Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid gives a good example of the
effectiveness of naturalness. He says that he does a great deal
of traveling and this often gives him the opportunity to engage
in apostolic conversations with the person sitting beside him.
When he is asked his profession by his fellow passenger he says
that he is a writer. And when he is asked what he writes about
the subject of the Faith quickly comes up. This often leads to
interesting and fruitful conversations. On the other hand, when
he is tired and does not wish to engage in conversation he
follows a different plan. When asked what he does, he reaches
slowly into his briefcase, pulls out his Bible, leans towards his
neighbour with an intense gaze, and says with a smile "I'm
glad you asked. I'm a Catholic Evangelist." This almost
always has the effect of ending the conversation.
It is preferable that his
colleagues to come to know the Christian over time and be
impressed with his professional competence and the way he lives
the virtues in daily life. As they come to know him they will
learn that he is a practicing Catholic who takes his faith
seriously. People should encounter Christ in us and through us.
Our aim should never be to intimidate anyone into an encounter
with Christ, since by its very nature intimidation is
incompatible with that encounter.
There is a deeply rooted prejudice
to the effect that people who take their faith seriously do so as
a sort of escape because they cannot succeed in the real world. A
successful professional who also takes his faith seriously is
seen as a rare exception. Christians have to overcome that
prejudice, not by externals (since this will only reinforce the
prejudice that men of faith are strange) but by living their
faith with naturalness.
How will the Christian who has
this lay mentality stand out? He will be the friendliest person,
always cheerful, serene, optimistic and in a good mood. He will
be the one who is most sensitive to the needs of others, with a
great spirit of service, generous, patient and understanding with
everyone. He will be one who works hard and well, is temperate
and sober in his conduct, one who lives a refined and exquisite
chastity which is noticed. He will be loyal to his employer, to
his friends and to everyone, never speaking badly about anyone
who is not present. He is someone who is not vain and does not
boast. He will be known as a man of character, one who is
principled, standing up for what he believes in without being
belligerent, abrasive or aggressive, but without compromising.
And it is precisely the good example that the Christian gives in
living these virtues that will lead others to be attracted to the
Faith.
So, anything that makes it look
like he comes from another planet is inappropriate and a lack of
naturalness for the Christian. He fits right into his milieu, but
he does not partake in conduct he considers inappropriate. He is
in the world, but he is not worldly. Do not be conformed to
this world, but be transformed in the newness of your mind
(Romans 12: 2). If his colleagues go out to a pub on Friday night
after work he can join them, but he leaves after he has had a
beer or two. We have testimonies from the first centuries showing
that the Early Christians lived in the heart of society but did
not attend the games in the forum or take part in the orgies or
other forms of immoral behaviour. All of this is not secrecy. By
acting in this way the Christian is not hiding anything. He is
simply living out his Christian vocation with naturalness and a
secular outlook.
Naturalness, secularity and lay
mentality are shown not only by the Christian’s presence in
the heart of civil society but by his attempts to influence his
milieu for the good - to restore all things in Christ. He works
so that the laws respect the sanctity of human life and the
natural law. He works to create an environment conducive to
raising a family. And this does not only mean an environment
clean of pornography but a society that is not imbued with
hedonism and a contraceptive mentality. He strives to create a
more Christian society where Christian values are taught and
lived.
And the way he goes about this
will be determined by his own formation. That formation will be
received from the Church. But the specific solutions he envisions
to help create this kind of society will be his own. And he will
often arrive at these solutions by integrating his professional
formation with his spiritual and doctrinal formation.
He doesn't throw up hands and
abdicate his responsibility. Some families withdraw from the
battle. They move out to the country, form a sort of bunker or
ghetto and home school their children. This is understandable and
at times it is the only possibility open to parents. But it is
not the best way if it can be avoided. It is preferable, for
example, for these parents to start a school with other like
minded parents. In other words, it is far more effective for
Christians not to limit themselves to moving in a protected
orbit, but rather to get out there and engage in the battle to
imbue the culture with those values they hold so dear.
So the apostolate of the lay
Christian is most effective when it takes the form of a personal
apostolate of friendship and confidence with his peers. The
Christian will be involved in his milieu and will do apostolate
with all those with whom he works or studies, even though they
may be far from the Faith or of another faith. In all cases, he
will only be able to help them if they are impressed by his
example. Some people point to their involvement in institutional
apostolates to justify their lack of personal apostolate.
However, helping out in a soup kitchen, though indeed
praiseworthy, is not a valid excuse to escape from the more
challenging and more secular task of doing apostolate in one's
own difficult milieu.
Part of the good example that he
gives is that he is not superficial. He seeks to raise the level
of conversations without always turning them to a religious
subject and always avoids preaching or lecturing to his
colleagues. If he prays about professional, political, economic
and social issues and brings his doctrinal formation to bear on
them he will be able to offer his colleagues a more profound
reflection on these issues. If they see that he has a well
thought out approach to these questions and has resolved them in
his own mind they will be more likely to confide in him.
Part of lay mentality is to always
respect the freedom of others. As we mentioned above, the Church
has no dogmas on temporal issues. It has no official position on
social, economic or political questions. There is no Catholic
solution to free trade, campaign finance reform or term limits.
The Christian will avoid sectarianism and respect those who hold
different opinions while continuing to defend his own. If he
thinks someone wrong he always acts with great charity towards
that person.
Just as it would be wrong for the
Christian to announce where he stands on the day he meets
someone, it would be equally wrong if his colleagues did not come
to know about his Faith little by little over a period of time.
It is true that you have to
live among the people of your time, in accordance with their
mentality and customs, but always ready to give a reason for your
hope in Jesus Christ. It should never happen that, simply because
we have no need to adapt ourselves, being always among our peers,
that we cannot be distinguished as disciples of Christ. How much
sentimentalism, fear and cowardice there is in certain desires to
adapt oneself to one's environment. (Saint Josemaria Escriva,
Letter, January 9, 1959, n. 25).
The Christian never hides his
Faith. Although he never uses the excuse of his Faith to avoid
legitimate professional obligations there are times when it will
simply come out. If the group wants to meet on Sunday morning he
may have to say that he goes to Mass on Sunday morning. If he
tries to hide his Faith he will end up leading a double life.
Anyone who comes to know him well has to learn that he is a man
of Faith. Do I want to be the nice guy, well liked by all? Or do
I want to do apostolate? If we do apostolate we will not be well
liked by all.
When the defence of truth is at
stake, how can one desire neither to displease God nor to clash
with one’s surroundings? These two things are opposed: it is
either one or the other! The sacrifice has to be a holocaust
where everything is burned up, even the thought: “what will
they say?”, even what we call our reputation. (Saint
Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, n. 34).
If the Christian is struggling for
sanctity, trying to give good example, speaking with his
colleagues or classmates, his conduct will be a moral slap in the
face to some and they will react with hostility. In these
situations, the Christian is called to overcome vanity and human
respects and persevere in spite of opposition. He learns how to
face inappropriate remarks, conversations and situations with a
supernatural naturalness. He will be so convinced of his way with
such a self confidence, based not on any merits of his own but on
his Faith in God, that he can handle these things dispassionately
without doing anything strange.
He who truly strives to be a
good Christian will inevitably meet with difficulties and clash
with the paganized environment that is so prevalent today. The
same thing happened to Our Lord, and the disciple is not greater
than his master. We are in the world but we are not worldly. We
are in the world, we live in the world, in order to sanctify it
and guide it back to God. Thus we can never adopt the false
naturalness of someone who hides his Christianity when the
circumstances around him are not favourable; nor can we
camouflage ourselves by adopting habits or customs contrary to
our Christian vocation. We shun any kind of fanaticism (which can
never arise when charity abounds) but neither do we feel
inhibited by the clamour of those who behave as enemies of the
Cross of Christ, which many still regard as foolishness or a
scandal. Don't be afraid of clashing with the paganized morality
that so often surrounds you. Show clearly that you are Christian,
by your lives, your spirit of service, your hard work, your
understanding, your zeal for souls, your cheerfulness. (Alvaro
del Portillo, Letter, February 1, 1991).
Anthony Schratz
The Catholic Legate
February 15, 2003