Mystery - The Lay Faithful

[BarbTherese]

Christifideles Laici  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_30121988_christifideles-laici_en.html

 

JOHN PAUL II
ON THE VOCATION AND THE MISSION
OF THE LAY FAITHFUL
IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD

 

 

 

 

• 14). "The term 'lay faithful'" -we read in the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium-" is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state sanctioned by the Church

 

 

• But among the lay faithful this one baptismal dignity takes on a manner of life which sets a person apart, without, however, bringing about a separation from the ministerial priesthood or from men and women religious. The Second Vatican Council has described this manner of life as the "secular character": "The secular character is properly and particularly that of the lay faithful"(29).

 

• To understand properly the lay faithful's position in the Church in a complete, adequate and specific manner it is necesary to come to a deeper theological understanding of their secular character in light of God's plan of salvation and in the context of the mystery of the Church.
• Pope Paul VI said the Church "has an authentic secular dimension, inherent to her inner nature and mission, which is deeply rooted in the mystery of the Word Incarnate, and which is realized in different forms through her members"(30).

 

 

I’m reading again Christifideles Laici and trying to get my head around who actually ARE laity.  According to Christifideles Laici (as quoted above) and the CCC it is all the baptized except those in the priesthood and religious life per se. 

 

• Does this mean that other than religious life per se (that is, Church sanctioned religious families of nuns, sisters, brothers and/or priests), those in a consecrated state are actually consecrated persons in the lay state? 

 

I have put this into Transmundane as I am hoping that debate will be lacking and I will get a straight and to the point easily understandable response.   And please remember in responding that you need to adopt a response that is “Catholicism for Dummies” (ie. me, BarbaraTherese).  A straight non-complex answer (if there is one indeed!) it would be absolutely helpful :)  as I strive to get my head around this very long (for me) and vitally important document i.e. Christifideles Laici – and not only a document for those in the lay state in a read to date – whoever THE LAITY/LAY FAITHFUL in the lay state of life are in total.

 

I always thought that the states of life were the priesthood, consecrated state (in any and all forms) and the lay state.

 

 

Edited January 21, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[cappie]

Code of Canon Law: Can. 207 §1 By divine institution, among Christ's faithful there are in the Church sacred ministers, who in law are also called clerics - the others are called lay people.

 

§2 Drawn from both groups are those of Christ's faithful who, professing the evangelical counsels through vows or other sacred bonds recognised and approved by the Church, are consecrated to God in their own special way and promote the salvific mission of the Church. Their state, although it does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the Church, does pertain to its life and holiness.

 

Fundamentally, there are 2 categories of persons in the Church: clerics and lay people. Clerics are those who have been ordained as deacon,priest or Bishop. All others are lay people. This distinction, which is "by divine institution" is an essential element in the hierarchical structure of the Church.

 

In number 2 another category of persons within the Church is mentioned here.The 1917 Code referred to these as 'religious'. The current Code gives no label; it simply provides a description. The canon therefore refers to members of religious institutes, secular institutes, and societies of apostolic life as well as men and women who live a consecrated life in the Church in some other approved form. The text of the canon inspired by Vatican II document Lumen Gentium 43-44, makes it clear that this category of persons is not to be added to the basic cleric-lay distinction. Though not of divine institution, it does however belong to the life and holiness of the Church, and as such it has distinct juridical status (cannons 662-672). As a category of persons, it is made up of clerics and lay; thus, "in itself, the state of consecrated life is neither clerical nor lay" (canon 588 no1)

[BarbTherese]

MMmm Then I am incorrect that once a person makes canonical vows they are no longer in the lay state of life?  Rather they belong to a special category jn the lay state and that is the consecrated state state of life?  This latter makes  sense since there are only two states of life in The Church i.e. clerical and lay.

 

Lumen Gentium (43 and 44) SEEMS to state that only those under canonical vows to the evengelical counsels are included in the distinguishing "religious" state of life which is still the lay state?  Thus we have two states in The Church, clerical or lay, while those in a canonically consecrated vowed state (all three evangelical counsels or not) remain in the lay state in a special category, i.e. the consecrated state in the lay state.

 

Those who have made canonical vows to the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience) remain in the lay state in a special category in consecrated life i.e. the religious state.

 

I am afraid it is all about as clear as mud to me if the above is incorrect.

 

Being a distinctly and undisputed lay person and in secular life (by personal distinct choice in response to an invitation from The Lord) and thus have quite casually socialised with quite a few Catholics casually over a cuppa, I know that the complexity of Catholicism is sufficiently profound for the ordinary person to cause many indeed to fall back quite deliberately by choice to  Mass on Sunday, Confession once yearly (or 'the basics') as the sum total of all that is required of their Catholicism.  They live in two worlds, their Catholicism and the secular world and each world has nothing whatsoever to state to the other and this seems to them to be the only way they can reconcile and survive psychologically and spiritually - and physically! -  as Catholics. This is concerning to me and what The Church very often is up against with so much complexity afoot.  I have been called a "D and M" (deep and meaningful) and with considerable disdain even dismissal and because I am a very ordinary Catholic who thinks that Catholicism is much more than 'the basics'. The name calling doesn't worry me, the underlying attitude to their Faith does.  If the attitude is not secularism already, it is rapidly heading that way.

 

The challenge becomes to explain one's Catholicism and to explain and in simple straightforward terms one needs to understand in those terms.  If Catholicism can only be presented in complex terms and terminology, then it may be a loosing battle - not the whole war, but a major battle where very ordinary Catholics are concerned and often very ordinary Catholics who are finding surviving in financial terms difficult - i.e. surviving in the every day itself is extremely difficult.  I am acutely aware also, if they are not, that I have chosen my particular way of life. For them, a way of living in the day to day has been imposed by circumstances contrary to personal choice.

 

People do tend to be very honest with me simply because I am just a very ordinary lay person just as they are, with no 'impressive' status in The Church.  I am no 'theat' to them whatsoever.  If Catholicism is indeed The Church of The Poor, then it may be the poor that The Church is at risk of abandoning.

Edited January 21, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

Christifideles Laici : The Holy Spirit "anoints" the baptized, sealing each with an indelible character (cf. 2 Cor 1:21-22), and constituting each as a spiritual temple, that is, he fills this temple with the holy presence of God as a result of each person's being united and likened to Jesus Christ.

With this spiritual "unction", Christians can repeat in an individual way the words of Jesus: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" (Lk 4:18-19; cf. Is 61:1-2). Thus with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, the baptized share in the same mission of Jesus as the Christ, the Saviour-Messiah.

 

 

There are all kinds of poverty, not only the financial.  There is also spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, mental poverty.  Just as there are all kinds of blindness and oppression/imprisonment.

 

I live in South Australia and Australia probably is, I could confidently state, a secularized country in the main.  I can either throw up my hands in despair since it is a major problem and I am only one lowly remote person. I can withdraw. Or I can accept with a loving embrace the situation in which The Lord has placed me and do what I can where I can.  Success is always in The Lord's Hands and as those song lyrics run "success is not always success, and failure no failure at all".  I too must "go into the vineyard" (Christifideles Laici) though it is huge and my plot not too well at all.  The Church is missionary and thus we are missionaries sent to all kinds of places or where we find ourselves situated in time and space - and no accident of fate but of the Providence of God.

[BarbTherese]

 We all fall into a category of "poor" of some kind or other and of some degree or other.  We are all equally the poor of The Lord and it is out of our equals in poverty that we are consecrated (Baptism and Confirmation, public canonical consecrations) and sent (missionary) as disciples of Jesus and His Gospel.  We are Graced in every way as poor and it is on The Lord and His Grace alone we depend and lean in confident trust ("[9] And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me" 2 Cor Ch12)

We are consecrated canonically (or according to Canon Law of The Church)thus publicly and canonically consecrated in Baptism and Confirmation (Sacraments of Initiation) and we are thus Graced and sent as missionaries quite specifically to our own situation in time and space, no matter how small and remote, no matter how well or unwell, no matter how vast, profound and 'elevated'.  We are all sent as gifts, missionaries and servants to The Church and the world or the secular (each as his or her own personal call and vocation determines/dictates) for "no man is greater than His Master". 

 

John 13:  [13] You call me Master, and Lord; and you say well, for so I am. [14] If then I being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; you also ought to wash one another's feet. [15] For I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you do also.[16] Amen, amen I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord; neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him. [17] If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them

 

 

All as I see things at this point and always subject to sound and reliable correction.  It is the truth of matters I am seeking not reinforcement of my own concepts, although always absolutely welcome if reliable and sound affirmation.

If I am going to be able to explain, if needed, Baptism and Confirmation simply and clearly to both myself and fellow Catholics, I need to be able to understand it myself and in simple and clear terms and not by recommending a number of Papal Documents*** as reading matter - while in hope my concepts are in line with such documents, canon law etc.

_____

*** Many do not have a computer and if they do can be limited in time and sometimes understanding, even motivation, in order to read and grasp these Documents and also Canon Law.  We don't have Canon Lawyers for nothing as well as almost endless texts summarising Papal Documents.  What is needed is all that 'in a simple nutshell' at least as an accurate springboard for further discussion and to strive to live out my own Baptism and Confirmation.

 

[BarbTherese]

Psalm 31

 

[8] I will give thee understanding, and I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go: I will fix my eyes upon thee. [9] Do not become like the horse and the mule, who have no understanding. With bit and bridle bind fast their jaws, who come not near unto thee