(other articles by Fr. Michael)
Keynote address to the Annual Meeting of Lay Ecclesial Ministers of the Diocese of Oakland - October 13, 2005
Why Lay Ecclesial Ministry?
I was born and reared in Vancouver, Canada (should any of you be looking for the accent). My heritage was largely Irish, on both sides of the family. So it was that my mother (the Protestant side of the family) had a great grandmother from somewhere in the vicinity of Belfast, who was deceased long before either I or my sisters first saw the light of day. Her influence, however, was still very much felt in the family, most particularly in our use of language. My mother, after dinner, would give the instruction to her children to wash and “wape” (that is, dry) the dishes (w-i-p-e = wāp). My sister Marilyn still remembers her humiliation when, in first grade, she attempted to correct her teacher's pronunciation and discovered that the rest of Canada pronounced the word "wīp".
Our Church, which is the People of God, is in some respects like a family, with its own peculiar memories, customs and patterns of language. So it is that we, as a Church, due to our collective memory, have tended to skewer (in a sense, to mispronounce) certain significant words as, for example, the words "lay", "ministry" and "ecclesial". This presents something of a problem for me given that my topic is "lay ecclesial Ministry". It is my conviction that we have misunderstood what is "lay", what is "ministry”, and what is "ecclesial" and it follows, with awful necessity, that it is difficult for us to grasp what "lay ecclesial ministry" might be, let alone how to respect it. (I should add, at this juncture, that there is, indeed, lay ecclesial ministry in the Church, and that it is indispensable. It is therefore vital to understand what it is.)
Who are the laity?
Let us start with the word "lay". As a people – as a sort of family – how does the Church understands the word "lay"? Who are the laity of the Church? Ask any Catholic after Mass and (despite all that was said at Vatican Council II) he or she will likely reply, "a Catholic who is not ordained." In that case, a lay ecclesial minister is an ecclesial minister who is not ordained. For generations we have defined the laity in terms of the clergy. Father Yves Congar, the great Dominican who did seminal work on the theology of the laity, and whose work was embraced by the Council, cites the German theological dictionary of 1892 where, under the entry "laity" there was the instruction, "see clergy."
G. K. Chesterton once remarked that every modern discussion begins one step too late. In this case, we will never understand who are the laity by having recourse to a definition of the clergy. Instead, we must begin with the Church: only a proper understanding of the Church and her mission will enable us to answer who are the laity.
In his apostolic exhortation, Christifideles Laici, Pope John Paul II teaches that the Church "... has an authentic secular dimension, inherent in her inner nature and mission, which is deeply rooted in the mystery of the Word incarnate..." He goes on to explain that the Church "... is sent to continue the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which by its very nature concerns the salvation of humanity, and also involves the renewal of the temporal order" (Christifideles Laici, 15). We must think of the Church as secular, as renewing the temporal order. This is a constant theme of the Vatican Council II, but a new, even a revolutionary idea to most Catholics.
The church, according to Pope John Paul II, has a mission: to continue the work whereby Jesus Christ redeems the world. We recall our Lord's explanation to Nicodemus: ""For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” The mission of the Church is the mission of Christ, for the Church is the body of Christ. We might, therefore, paraphrase: “For God so loved the world that he gave his sons and daughters, so that everyone who believes in his Son might not perish, but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Church into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through her.”
How does Christ redeem the world? First, by assuming the world – taking the world to himself – in the mystery of the Incarnation, and then by making an offering of the world to the Father in his own person. By teaching that the Church has an authentic secular dimension, Pope John Paul implies that the Church is not merely sent into the world, as into a foreign land, but that, like Christ, the Church must take the world to herself, and make an offering of the world to the Father, through herself in her members, as does Christ.
The Church, which is the body of Christ, must, like Christ, assume the world, take the world to herself, and offer the world back to the Father. In other words, the Church must love the world. "God so loved the world..." How else do we assume the world, except by love? Love contemplates, cherishes, seeks out the beloved. Love delights in the very existence of the beloved. The sign and sacrament of such a love is marriage, in which the man and the woman make a claim upon the very life of each other, while offering, freely and without reservation, each to each, all that they have and all that they are. Marriage is, in this sense, an embodiment – a living-out in the world –of the Eucharist, in which Christ, freely and without reservation, cherishes us, seeks us out through offering himself to us, even as he offers himself and us to the Father.
To love and to offer the world in love is the work of the Church. It is also very particularly and uniquely the work of the laity, for the laity are the People of God, the body of Christ, the Church. The reason why it is so difficult to define the laity is that the mission of the laity is one with the mission of the Church to the world. Whereas the ministerial priesthood exists for the sake of the service of the People of God, the royal priesthood, into which we are all anointed at Baptism and Confirmation, is directly a participation in Christ's redemptive mission.
If our Church has become too clerical, and I believe it has, it is due to the fact that we have been forgetful of the Church in her mission. We have, since the Council, turned inward, and have focused far too much on building up the community of the Church. To build up the Church is a very good thing (it is, particularly, the first responsibility of the ordained), but not if, in doing so, we neglect the world that God so loved that he sent his only son. The dignity and proper office of the laity of the Church comes into view only when we emphasize the redemptive work of Christ. Putting it another way, two things must be realized to understand the work of the laity: first, that there is a world out there, and, second, that it is not the Church!
Our neglect of the world is manifested particularly in our language. Pope John Paul taught us that the church has an authentic secular dimension. When we hear the word "secular", what do we picture? The word means "worldly" or "of the world". But I fear that it conjures up for us something that is unlovely: the profane, and not the sacred.
We have forgotten, perhaps, that the very word "secular" was an invention of the Catholic Church, in order to talk about things that are sacred, not profane, but that are created for the sake of man and woman, and subject to their governance. There are things that belong directly to God, namely man and woman, whom he has created in his own image and likeness, and the worship of which they are capable. These are the things that are properly spiritual, and not secular. But all other things were created, not directly for God's sake, but for ours, and these are the secular things. What are these things? The creation itself, then human work and human society, and therefore: business and all of the professions, the economy, the political order, the sciences, the arts. These are the secular things, sacred because they are ordered to man and to woman.
Through sin, St. Paul tells us, the creation –that is, the cosmos, the “ saecula”, all things subject to time, the totality of secular things – was subjected to futility. But he also tells us that it was subjected to futility in hope for "the whole creation awaits with eager longing , the revelation of the children of God." The whole creation is destined to be saved in and through the body of Christ, the People of God, the Church. Therefore we read in the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World (Lumen Gentium) that, to the laity, has been given the power – the power, that is, of Christ himself – to restore to creation its original integrity and purpose.
Such is the work of the laity, which is the work of the Church. The laity cannot be defined with reference to the clergy. Rather the lay person is an apostle of Jesus Christ, assigned to the apostolate by Christ himself, and anointed to carry out His redemptive mission in the world so that, through Christ, in whose person they act, the world may be saved. The lay work is to inform the whole activity of the Church so that the Church never strays from her fundamental mission.
What is “ministry”?
Is this fundamental mission something that we would call "ministry"? This is the second word that, in my judgment, we have recently misunderstood (or, in a manner of speaking, mispronounced). Actually, in the history of the Church, the word "ministry" has been used, more properly, to designate service within the community of the Church. The one who brings the Eucharist to the sick is a minister of the Eucharist; the one who catechizes is a minister of the Word. But the one who announces the good news (the Gospel) to the world has been called, not a minister, but an apostle: one who is sent. The lay person in the Church is, in the first instance, an apostle, and his or her work has traditionally been called an apostolate. He or she may also be a minister to the community.
I think that we are not used to thinking of ourselves as apostles. When we think of the apostles we think of the Twelve, and of their successors, the Bishops. We are right in doing so. Our Lord entrusted to the Twelve and to their successors the care of the whole Church and its mission. But there is a further sense in which it is correct to use the word "apostle": whenever we speak of the mission of the Church as such we are designating the apostolate, the work of an apostle. This is certainly the way in which the documents of the Council make use of the word. In the Decree on the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem) we are told explicitly that lay women and men have been called and assigned to the apostolate by Christ himself. Every lay person is, in this sense, an apostle, for every member of the church has been baptized and confirmed into the mission of Christ.
This is of vital significance. The lay person in the Church is first an apostle to the world, because he or she is particularly and properly entrusted with the redemptive mission of Christ to the world. The lay person might be called "a secular apostle." The apostolic commission of the laity is from Christ himself; the Council instructs us that the lay person is appointed to the apostolate by Christ himself, and therefore not by the delegation of Bishop or priest. The lay person may also be a minister within the community, but in that case he or she has a delegated role, participating in the work of the Bishop, which is to teach, sanctify, and govern the Christian community itself.
What is “ecclesial”?
Now we must visit the third word that, I would suggest, we have possibly misunderstood (or mispronounced). The Greek word ekklesia means a gathering together: the ecclesia, or Church, is the People of God whom the Lord calls and gathers to himself. In this sense, what is ecclesial pertains to the Christian community itself, and we would distinguish the ecclesial from the secular: the Church belongs to God; the secular is ordered to the human person, to man and to woman. The apostolic work of the laity –or, indeed, any activity undertaken in the world – would not, in this sense, be regarded as ecclesial.
But here we confront a problem: how could it be that the central mission of the Church, which is to redeem the world, would not be regarded as ecclesial? This would be tantamount to saying that the Church is not ecclesial, for the very vocation of the Church as the body of Christ is to undertake His redemptive mission. In this light, the lay mission in the Church would seem to be preeminently ecclesial.
It would seem that the laity are not distinguished from the clergy in the sense that the clergy have an ecclesial Ministry and lay people do not. Rather, the proper distinction should be that there is a lay ecclesial apostolate, which pertains to all the baptized, and a lay ecclesial ministry, which certain laypersons hold by the delegation of the Bishop. What, then, is this lay ecclesial Ministry? And what distinguishes ecclesial ministry that is lay from the ecclesial ministry of the ordained?
Lay ecclesial Ministry
Is there a work in service to the Christian community that a layperson can undertake better than can the ordained? In my judgment, the answer is unequivocally yes. Lay ecclesial ministry is not undertaken simply because of the shortage of clergy, and it is tragic that we have had so little appreciation for the laity that we would justify their contribution on that basis. Rather, the laity have a role in the church that is particularly and properly their own, a role that is reflected in the manner of their service to the Christian community, which is to say, in the manner of their ecclesial ministry. Flatly stated: the laity have a competence that the clergy do not. What is that competence?
In attempting to answer this question, many – far too many – would think immediately, and possibly exclusively, in terms of administration or finance. I do not wish to commit the folly of denying that this is very often the case. I am the president of a graduate school of philosophy and theology, and my first act as president was to ensure that I have competent administrative help. Otherwise, in very short order, our faculty and students would discover themselves meeting in tents. However, lay competence far exceeds the realm of administration or of finance.
In order to understand the unique contribution of lay ecclesial ministers, let us revisit, for a moment, the redemptive mission that characterizes the lay apostolate. The laity have been entrusted particularly with the healing and sanctification of the world. They are to evangelize, not only persons, but also human society and culture. To the laity has been entrusted the very fabric of social life in all of its expressions. How do they undertake such a work?
According to Vatican Council II, the laity, like the Church, are not of the world, but dwell in the world for the sake of the world. Life in the world makes up the very fabric of their existence. Therefore, they are, in the wonderful image of the Council, to heal and transform human society from within, as a leaven. This they accomplish by love.
In the Church's understanding, what is ordinary is always of greater dignity and significance than what is extraordinary. Therefore, the Bishop is said to exercise ordinary authority in the Church. This means that he always exercises authority in the Church. Similarly, a priest is an ordinary minister of the Eucharist; by ordination he is empowered to confect and administer the Eucharist anywhere in the Church. An extraordinary minister of the Eucharist is one who exercises his or her ministry only for a specified time and in a particular place, and by specific delegation.
GK Chesterton points out that, in fact, ordinary things are always of greater dignity and significance than are extraordinary things. So, to use his example, it is a wonderful thing that the sun rises once. It is a far more wonderful thing that the sun continues to rise, day after day. Or, it is a wonderful thing that a man and woman meet and quickly fall in love. It is a much more wonderful thing that they would meet every day for the rest of their lives, and continue to love each other. The Christian faith is a celebration of the ordinary!
But this is what the love of Christ, embodied in the mission of the laity, brings to the world: the celebration, the love, and the sanctification of ordinary things such as the ordinary love of a young couple; the ordinary events of birth and death that mark the cycle of human life; the ordinary responsibility to discern one's vocation and work; the ordinary manifestation of human creativity in the arts and sciences; the ordinary pursuits of the political community; the ordinary responsibilities of family life and of friendship. These ordinary things are the most wonderful and significant achievements of creation, and if the Gospel is not addressed to humanity in the midst of its ordinary endeavors, then the Gospel is not pronounced at all. The Gospel is nothing other than the good news of Jesus Christ addressed to the world that he loves.
To fulfill this mission, lay apostles require a double fidelity and a double competence: they must be faithful to Christ as he presents himself to his people in the Church; they must be faithful to the men and women and also to the culture and society to which they are sent; they must have a knowledge of their faith and that competence of the disciple; they must have genuine competence in secular affairs. An ecclesial minister who is a layperson brings that faithfulness and that competence to the service of the Christian community.
The layperson is first and foremost an apostle of Jesus Christ to the world, and retains that dignity and that identity as an ecclesial minister. Therefore there are modes of service to the Christian community that the layperson can undertake more effectively than could the ordained. I would like to suggest only a few:
- Inculturating and actualizing the Gospel: in every age it is necessary that the Gospel be made accessible to men and women as they engage in their ordinary pursuits. The presentation of the Gospel within time, and in a way that is appropriate to the various human occupations is called "actualizing" the Gospel. This is a work that cannot be undertaken without reference to the laity. (For example, only one who is a parent, friend or mentor to a teenager will likely be able to actualize the Gospel, enabling the teen to come to know Christ.) In every place it is necessary that the Gospel be understood by women and men; therefore it must be translated into the different cultures of the world. Again, this is a work that cannot be accomplished without the laity.
- The apostolic mission of the laity to the world requires a formation, that is, an integration of education in the faith, secular work, study, relationships, and prayer directed toward the mission to which Christ has called them. Lay women and men must be involved in the formation of the young and of other adults. This is, largely, a work that is yet to be accomplished in the Church. While we have offered a catechesis to the laity (a preparation to enter into the sacraments and the worship of the Church) we have not yet offered a formation whereby the laity are enabled to integrate their faith with the ordinary pursuits that characterize secular life.
- The laity have a role in the development of doctrine. They are, in the words of the Council, to "... accustom themselves to working in the parish in union with their priests, bringing to the church community their own and the world's problems as well as questions concerning human salvation, all of which they should examine and resolve by deliberating in common." In this way, the Church is able, through the work of the laity, to respond to the real concerns of society and to fulfill its mission to the world.
- Lay men and women are best able to assist our young people in the discernment of their personal vocations, the unique contribution that each has been given to make for the sake of Christ's mission to the world and for building up the Church.
- The ministry of like to like: family ministry, service to the different professions and occupations are most often best undertaken by peers.
- To teach and elucidate the social teaching of the Church is preeminently a work that is appropriate to lay ecclesial ministers. The social teaching is nothing other than the application of the doctrine of the Church to the broader concerns of human society and culture. It is urgent that the social teaching, in its integrity, be placed at the disposal of lay apostles.
Common to all of these ministries is the fact that the layperson never ceases to be an apostle to the world. Lay ecclesial ministry is ministry within the Christian community and for the sake of the Christian community that is attentive, always, to the mission of the Church to the world. It prevents an overly clerical presentation of the Church.
The ministry of the ordained is to place at the disposal of the royal priesthood the worship, tradition, and governance of the Church. The ministerial priest must make the tradition available to the laity; he must present Christ in Word and Sacrament for the sanctification of Christ's own people; he must organize the community around its mission and acknowledge the gifts given by the Holy Spirit to the community for the sake of that mission, while calling the community to be one with the whole Church. The priest must look always to the Church in her tradition and in her worship, and only afterward to the world. His first concern must be to build up the Church.
The layperson, on the other hand, must first look to the world. He or she must see the world through the eyes of Christ who was sent by the Father to redeem the world. Certainly, the lay ecclesial minister has the task of building up the Church, but not in the manner of the ordained: the lay minister can never for one moment forget that the Church is called beyond herself for the sake of the redemptive mission of Christ.
One, final suggestion concerning the competence of lay ecclesial ministry might be to address impediments to the Church's mission. There are many: there is a wrong notion of the Church which would exclude the secular mission, seeing the Church, instead, as a flight from the world; there is a wrong notion of authority in the Church, according to which the laity are regarded as merely passive recipients of the Church's ministry; there is a tendency to separate faith from the rest of life in this culture, a tendency which Pope John Paul II called the greatest evil of this age; there is a tendency to regard all faith as a matter of mere esoteric opinion; there is the inclination of our culture to regard every claim to the truth to be of equal value. Errors such as these prevent access to Christ; lay ecclesial ministers, precisely because they are lay, can have greater practical opportunity to address them than do the clergy.
Lay ecclesial ministry, rooted in the lay apostolate, is a unique contribution to the life of the Church. It consists, as ministry, in service to the People of God and, as such, is a role in the Church that is subject to the delegation of the Bishop. At the same time, the lay minister approaches the Church from an essentially different perspective from that of the ordained. The lay minister never ceases to be, in the first instance, a lay apostle directed, by Christ himself, to the mission of the Church to the world. The unique contribution of that ministry rests upon a vision and competence proper to the lay apostolate, and not proper to the ordained. It is a ministry that the Church will continue to require even should there be a surfeit of candidates for ordination.
Much has been accomplished in the Church since the Council. The greatest accomplishment of the Council has, however, yet to be fully implemented in the Church: that is, the complete realization of the lay contribution to the life of the Church. I would like to conclude by begging your patience for those of us who serve the Church as members of the hierarchy. The permanent validity of your contribution to the Church as lay ecclesial ministers has yet to be fully acknowledged; just compensation for your work, stability in office, full recognition of your competence have yet to be achieved. We live in hope. And, perhaps, we might be encouraged by the observation that the Church, now more than 2000 years old, does not move as quickly as she used to. Above all, be assured in your own hearts of the urgency of what you have been given by Christ for the sake of the Church and for the sake of his mission.
(other articles by Fr. Michael)
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