Lumen Gentium: Chapter 4 Commentary

Read Lumen Gentium

Study Questions:

1. Describe in detail the vocation of the laity.
   
2. What is the relationship between the laity and the clergy?
3. What is the relationship between the laity and those in the religious life?
4. How do the laity participate in Christ's priestly mission?
5. How do the laity participate in Christ's prophetic mission?
6. How do the laity participate in Christ's kingly mission?

I am convinced that the greatest vocational crisis that the Church in America faces today is not the priest shortage. Rather, the vocational crisis we are facing is a crisis of the laity. A symptom of this crisis is that most people refer to the term "vocation" by asking who has a vocation and who does not, meaning who is called to the priesthood or religious life and who is not. The truth is that we all have a vocation. We should not be asking whether or not we have a vocation. If we are baptized, and especially if we are confirmed, our question should be "what is my vocation?"

Another symptom of our vocational crisis is the fact that Catholics divorce at the same rate as secular society. How many people ask whether or not they are called to be married? Most engaged couples see marriage as their right. Worse yet, our culture still tends to think there is something wrong with people who do not marry. They must have something wrong with them. Engaged couples rarely consider what they are called to when they receive the sacrament of matrimony. What does their marital embrace reflect? It is, after all, a sacramental sign. What is their duty toward accepting and nurturing children? What is their vocation to love each other? What graces do they receive to help them fulfill these callings? Do engaged couples consider these questions? Very few. The crisis is therefore not a crisis of numbers, as it seems to be for the priesthood, but of direction, knowledge, and desire to carry out the lay vocation.

The Second Vatican Council addressed this problem in the fourth chapter of Lumen Gentium as well as in a document called Apostolicam Actuositatem (Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity). The Council called for a renewed awareness of the role of the laity in the Church. Unfortunately, as often happens in human history, the response to these corrections were overreactions that failed to correct the underlying issues, and therefore perpetuated the problems instead of solving them.

The problem that Vatican II was trying to address was the problem of clericalism. Clericalism is the belief that holiness can only be attained by the ordained and religious, or by the few laity who adopt the role and lifestyle of religious life. The daily lives of the laity was considered an obstacle to holiness. Priests and religious were unquestioned authorities, even when they taught error or canonized their personal beliefs and preferences. Laity were rarely considered capable of theological knowledge or expertise.

Reformers after Vatican II opened the doors for lay involvement in the Church, as Vatican II asked. However, they did so in a way that perpetuated the problem of clericalism. For example, many parishes experimented with lay expression in the Mass. They expanded the role of lay Eucharistic ministers and lectors. They invited lay people to give the "homily" and to choose the readings, even replacing texts from sacred scripture with secular poetry and writings. They pressed for lay leadership in the parishes and in the dioceses. The term "ministry" was used widely to include almost anything that lay people did to serve the Church or to serve other people. Ministry was a term that was till then reserved for the servant-leadership role of the ordained. Now it became any activity of somebody with an even slightly Christian-bent attitude of niceness.

The problem with all of this is not that it empowered the laity, as if somehow the Church has decreed that the laity should not be empowered, but in over-reacting to clericalism, the reforms have actually removed the role of the laity. The underlying message in all of the "empowerments" listed in the above paragraph is that the only role of value in the Church is to the role of the ordained. If the laity want to be "empowered" they must be empowered to preach, to perform the sacraments, to lead the Church. In order words, the only way that lay people can be empowered is by participation in ordained ministry. This is exactly the attitude of clericalism, except from the other side of the coin.

The Second Vatican Council makes it clear that the laity have a unique vocation. I heard a great synopsis of this unique vocation on Relevant Radio the other day: "The role of the ordained is to sanctify the laity, and the role of the laity is to sanctify the world." Those of us called to marriage and to dedicated single life are called to enter into the workplace, the schools, the marketplace, and the public square and bring the Gospel of Christ. We are called to share in the life of Christ by spreading His love to those with whom we work, shop, and interact with in our daily lives. We are called to make our lives into a living offering to Christ, who will in turn offer it all to the Father in His eternal act of love. We are called to be priests, prophets, and kings in the world in order to bring the world to the Priest, Prophet and King. We are called to give life meaning - eternal meaning - by infusing the secular world with the love of God, by participating in God's life within the context of the secular world.

This is no undignified task. In fact, this is the great adventure of faith, the very work of the Church. Vatican II got it right, but so many of the reformers got it wrong. It's time for the laity to reclaim their vocation.