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Anne said:
In a the Catholic Church gathering, I learned that the "laity" are just
ordinary Christians — meaning the people who are not priests, brothers or nuns.
Kindly shed more light on this — in simple terms.
I have been asked to go and explain to some
people what "laity" means, as I am part
of the Executive for "Council for the Laity"
in our community, and I am still new in the Executive.
As you were told, the laity, or in the singular, layperson, are those faithful Christians who are neither clerics (priests, bishops, or
deacons) nor religious (brothers and sisters, including monks and nuns,
who take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience). The job of the layperson
is to take the Gospel into the world, to soak the world as
it were with the light of Christ. In general, they are also the people who
raise families and communicate the Gospel to the next generation.
The Catechism (worth getting a copy and reading it if you don't have one)
defines laity this way:
"The term laity is here understood
to mean all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong
to a religious state approved by the Church. That is, the faithful, who
by Baptism are incorporated into Christ and integrated into the People
of God, are made sharers in their particular way in the priestly, prophetic,
and kingly office of Christ, and have their own part to play
in the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world." (CCC
#897)
It goes on to say:
By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek
the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them
according to God's will. . . . It pertains to them in a special way so
to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely
associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ
and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer.
* CCC
899 states:
The initiative of lay Christians is necessary especially when the matter
involves discovering or inventing the means for permeating social, political,
and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life.
This initiative is a normal element of the life of the Church:
Lay believers are in the front line of Church life; for them the
Church is the animating principle of human society. Therefore, they
in particular ought to have an ever-clearer consciousness not only
of belonging to the Church, but of being the Church, that is to say,
the community of the faithful on earth under the leadership of the
Pope, the common Head, and of the bishops in communion with him. They
are the Church.
In other words, lay people are the "soul" of society, the points
of contact between the secular world and the Church.
Besides the Catechism discussion of the laity (paragraphs 897-913, including the paragraphs
above), here are a couple of things you may find useful to read:
The lay people are an important part of the Church. Too often they are
defined as "everyone except the important people", or worse,
everyone other than the holy people. The Church is not just the clerics
and religious, but, as the Catechism says, the lay people as well. Too many
lay people take a passive role in Church life. This is not the call of
Jesus Christ. This is not the Gospel. All are called to holiness, all are
called to live and spread the Gospel.
Your job will be to communicate to
lay people the importance of their role. I hope what I've provided here
is a start.
Eric Ewanco
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