October 30, 2024

By Father William Muench
NCC columnist

The last few weeks, I have been rereading and restudying the documents of the Second Vatican Council. I especially enjoy focusing on the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). Let me remind you, this document describes the Catholic Church as the People of God, then there is a chapter on the Hierarchy of the Church – the pope and the bishops. However, today, I would like to concentrate with you on the chapter on the laity of our Church.

One of the aims of the Council fathers was a call for our Catholic Church to make the laity more involved – participating more in the life of the Church. The chapter on the laity begin in this way: “Therefore, even when occupied by temporal affairs, the laity can and must, do valuable work for evangelization of the world.”

Now, at this very time, during these weeks of October, at the Vatican, there is a general synod of the Church. This is a special gathering of some bishops, some priests, some religious sisters, and many lay men and women, meeting with Pope Francis. One of the concerns of this synod is to discuss how the clergy and the laity of the Church can continue to work together to bring to the People of God in the various parishes of the world in finding the holiness in union with our God. We should be praying for this synod; we hope that new opportunities will arise bringing love and peace to our Church.

I remember well the transformation that took place when the Vatican Council brought the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to form a certain newness to the ordinary life of the Church. The Council introduced new opportunities for the participation of the laity to the Church’s efforts to bring Jesus and his message to the Catholic people of this world.

I often tell the story of how certain lay people tell me how they refuse to be a preachy person with others. My response to them is usually, “good! We have far too many preachers these days.” “What we do not have is enough people who know how to live well – being a loving person like our Savior, Jesus.”

The Second Vatican Council wrote this in the chapter on the laity – “By their secular activity, the laity help one another achieve greater holiness of life, so that the world may be filled with the spirit of Christ and may more effectively attain its destiny in justice, in love and in peace.”

I know that you are aware of the many terrific ways the Council made the laity more involved in our Catholic liturgy. Lay men and women act as lectors at Holy Mass, reading the Sacred Scriptures. Lay men and women are involved in an Offertory procession bringing the chalice, the wine and water, to the altar for the Eucharistic celebration. Lay men and women now act as Eucharistic ministers at Mass, joining the priests and deacons in distributing Holy Communion to the people. Lay men and women now allowed to bring the Blessed Eucharist to the homes of the sick and dying. Many were surprised by these changes, but they have added so much to the life of each parish celebration.

These are such wonderful challenges – calling the laity to be more involved in participating in the Mass and the life of the Catholic Church. As you are aware, there are so many other parish activities in which the laity is now involved, like the religious education programs for children and for adults.

One more thing to mention here: In many places because of the lack of enough priests, a lay person is assigned to act as the pastor of a place, after adequate training. A visiting priest comes to celebrate the sacraments.