Who is ‘we’? A theologian would rightly take it to be referring to the non-baptised because all the baptised are part of the Church. However, in this article, I intend the ‘we’ as referring to the baptised laity who, according to the old definition, are those who are not in holy orders or religious.
This is true but it does not tell who the laity are and, consequently, is a non-definition.
Besides, the pre-Vatican II Church image, as a hierarchically structured pyramid with the laity at the very bottom, lent itself to the idea that the Church consists of priests and religious, while the laity were outside of it. No wonder that some mischievous person described the laity as those who “pray, obey, and pay”.
Vatican II, through the Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, redefined the image of the Church as the People of God in pilgrimage and, by ‘people’, intending all the baptised. One’s state in the Church – priest, religious or laity – is important but baptism comes first because it makes one a fully-fledged member of the Church.
Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens suggested splitting up Chapter 3, ‘The People of God and the Laity’, of the preparatory document into two parts, placing the first part ‘The People of God’ before Chapter 2, ‘Hierarchical Structure of the Church’ and dedicating a whole chapter to the second part, ‘The Laity’. This created a distinction between the People of God, that is, all the baptised, and the laity, who had a particular mission as fully fledged members of the Church and a responsibility to continue Christ’s own mission.
In this chapter, Lumen Gentium describes the mission of the laity: “The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God.” The laity are called to fulfil Christ’s mission through their being inserted in the world, much like Jesus Christ was inserted in the world.
This definition distinguishes the mission of the laity from that of those in holy orders, whose particular vocation “is ordained to the sacred ministry”, and that of religious, whose vocation is “to give testimony that the world can be transfigured and offered to God”.
So, we have one Church, which includes all the baptised but, within this one Church, different states with different vocations. The Holy Spirit guides and inspires each member of the Church independently of their state within the Church.
Although Vatican II ended almost 60 years ago, many laity in the Church have not caught up on this idea and persist in associating the Church with the clergy. As a consequence, they remain passive and consider themselves to be exclusively on the receiving end.
The importance of this Synod cannot be stressed enough- Fr Alfred Micallef
Unfortunately, some clerics adapt easily to this role assigned to them. They feel entitled, and entitlement makes them feel they have rights and privileges deriving from their role. This is the basis of clericalism. Pope Francis insists that this attitude hurts the Church and is a hurdle to synodality.
Pope Francis is perfectly in tune with Lumen Gentium in doing his best to inculcate into the minds of the laity that they are the Church too.
His including them as members of the Synod is perfectly in line with the definition of the Church given by the Vatican Council. The Church needs to listen also to what the laity hear the Holy Spirit telling them.
It does not follow that all they – or any other member of the Synod – hear would have the Holy Spirit as its author. For this reason, the pope insists that the Synod needs to be an exercise in discernment.
Discernment is not debate or taking a vote. Discernment is possible only if those taking part have inner freedom, that is, they are not attached to some particular idea that they would try to promote and to see adopted. Their main interest needs to be humbly finding the will of God.
This is not an easy task at all. Reaching such internal freedom requires a lot of prayer because we all tend to stick to and promote our ideas. The greatest contribution to the Synod will surely come not from the rank or state of the members but from their holiness.
The importance of this Synod cannot be stressed enough. Pope Francis wants to involve the whole Church in finding the best way to bring the world to Christ in our day and time.
Fr Alfred Micallef is a member of the Society of Jesus.