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Life Ways The Doors of the Millennium,
The Doors of Hope When we were children many of us lived a "Bells of St. Mary's" existence. Priests and religious were looked upon as the "ideal." The laity felt themselves to be, by default, second-class Christians. The most devout among the faithful were those whose lives resembled the lives of those who had given themselves "completely to God." Today we are witnessing the emergence of the lay faithful in the Church as a powerful force of holiness and evangelization. Let's look a bit at the history which has led up to this new awareness in the Church of the potential of the laity. Since the 1850s, historical and cultural transitions have had tremendous impact on society. New societies emerged in a process of growing dechristianization. There was a split between an increasingly materialistic, mechanized society and transcendent, sometimes distant, spiritual realities. The Second Vatican Council, a landmark in the Church's life, initiated the process of putting "the modern world into contact with the life-giving and enduring energies of the Gospel," as John XXIII put it back in 1961. As the Church assessed her presence in a world characterized by "modernity," and by powerful potentials and frightening possibilities, the Council Fathers reaffirmed the Church's capacity for hope. John Paul II writes that the Church can do nothing but hope because "the living and personal Gospel, Jesus Christ himself, is the `good news' and the bearer of joy that the Church announces each day, and to whom the Church bears testimony before all people" (Christifidelis laici, no. 7). Today the lay faithful are living and working with their feet solidly set on the ground and their minds occupied with immediate concerns. Precisely for this reason they can make the Church of Christ present in homes and factories, offices and hospitals, gas stations and homeless shelters where God's people live and suffer. Catholics who come face to face with the Jesus who bursts into the baptized person's life absorb and reflect the wonder and attraction of His presence. Like tiny raindrops that bend and reflect the sun's rays, they produce a band of color which splashes the mystery of the meaning of the good news and of Jesus' risen life before anyone who wants to see. The lay faithful are a colorful guarantee of hope as these "new men" and "new women" reach into every corner of society as "forces of communion and truth" (Carriquiry). These men and women of the covenant, bearers of the promise, living and working shoulder to shoulder with priests, and men and women religious, also know the brokenness and pain that crucifies so many in our world today. The dignity and integrity of the vocation of the lay faithful can sometimes seem overwhelming. Like St. Paul, all the Church's members are but earthen vessels in whose weakness is revealed the power and the glory of the Almighty and merciful Lord. That's the way he wants it to be. I've always been intrigued by Graham Greene's novel, The Power and the Glory, the story of a mercilessly hunted and inwardly tormented priest and his desperate attempt to escape the authorities of anti-clerical Mexico. A "whiskey priest," this lonely and fearful man became an alcoholic. He believed himself to be "a bad priest and a bad man," a mockery to the Church. As a friend put it, he knew "the frozen wound left by the knife of serious sin." He despaired of the infinite love and mercy of a God who could never betray his creatures. Perhaps all of us at some moment in our lives have felt ourselves to be living as tattered an existence. Christians and lay faithful, we possess a vocation to sanctity, but we may never seem to "measure up." We can only rely on the risen Christ's victory over our personal death. In this "empty-handed love" is perfect reconciliation and liberation. This shameless trust in the redemptive power unleashed in the Church's ministry is the secret of the liberation and transformation of the world: to proclaim Jesus free from bonds, present among us, who have been transformed and made a new creation. I recently met several women who head various pro-life offices around the country. I was humbled when I discovered that these radiant women carried within themselves the memory of having paid a doctor to kill their own baby. It was a memory no longer tinged with shame, a memory that had been healed and transfigured. Their peace-filled laughter witnesses to the power of hope in a Power and a Love greater than our sorrow. Today the lay faithful are being called forth in numberless ranks as never before. Not because of what they can do. Not because of the offices they can fill. Not because of what they can be. But because of what they are. Because the lay faithful are of key importance in building the Kingdom of God in the world today.
Copyright © 1999-2003, Daughters of St. Paul. All Rights Reserved.
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