|
From "The Spiritual Mission of the Laity," by Jacques Maritain, Communio, 1965, pp. 194-196:
1. I do not intend to speak here of the temporal mission of laymen in civil society, or concerning the establishment by them of that "politique chretienne" to which I have alluded so frequently in the past. The capital importance of this temporal mission is evident. But these particular remarks are concerned with an entirely different matter: the spiritual mission of the laity in the Church. As a matter of fact, I much prefer the term "spiritual mission" to "apostolate." For the expression "apostolate of the laity," however exact it may be, has something ambiguous about it, and runs the risk of being understood uniquely as the participation of the laity in the mission proper to the hierarchy, or in the apostolate of the clergy. I sometimes ask myself if during the last thirty years, under the pressure of circumstances and practical needs, this question of the role of the laity in the life of the Mystical Body has not been developed in too empirical a manner and from too partial a point of view, without having been sufficiently thought through for itself and in all its fullness. It may be true that I am somewhat misinformed. I have not read Father Congar's book on the theology of the laity. However I have listened to many discussions on the subject of the laity, and I come away from all these discussions with the impression that what we need is a study of the whole question, in all its ramifications, in which consideration is given not only to that form of witnessing and that spiritual mission (apostolic mission) which are peculiar to laymen, but also to those modalities peculiar to their interior life, to their spiritual trials, to their prayer (liturgical as well as private), and to their progress toward union with God and the perfection of charity, which is evidently what must come before all else, since progress toward perfection is prescribed for all: estote perfecti... But let us get back to the subject. It seems to me (to return to what I suggested above) that any consideration of the role of the laity has taken as its point of departure something that is good and necessary, but which concerns only one single section of the laity; I mean Catholic Action and similar organizations, in such a way that, without ever realizing it clearly, we have never been able to escape from the perspective of a participation in the apostolate proper to the clergy, a perspective which has been broadened more and more, (as if it were ultimately capable of encompassing the laity in its entirety) all the while retaining from the same specific perspective, and continuing to see everything from the same original point of view. In the end there is a tendency to take for granted that, if the laity does have a spiritual mission and an apostolate, it could be nothing else but a participation in that mission and that apostolate proper to the clergy: all of which would end up in the formation, without its being specifically intended, of a "clerical" conception of the mission of the laity in the Church. This is how I explain to myself the enormous, and almost exclusive, importance attached today (and I do not think it will be long before disillusionment sets in) to questions of organization, while at the same time many profound needs of the Christian soul remain unsatisfied. It must not be forgotten, on the other hand, that the primordial role of the priest is not to organize laymen, but to bring them the Word of God. It must not be forgotten that it is never the group that creates a spirit.
2. Let it be clearly understood that Catholic Action and analogous groups organized by the clergy are absolutely necessary and fill an urgent need at the present time. I too insist on this necessity. But what I would insist on equally is that this involves only one part, one segment, of the Christian laity, and a certain particular mission which is the responsibility of this segment considered specifically as auxiliary to the clergy. The segment of the laity in question is directed to those activities which border on the domain of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and arise, inasmuch as they share a condition common to all laymen, from the fact that these activities imply aparticipation in the apostolate peculiar to the hierarchy, and a mandate received from the hierarchy. It follows that it would be impossible, from this perspective, to conceive of the laity as a whole and of the spiritual mission that it has in the Church according to the condition common to all laymen. In other words a distinction must be made, among laymen, between that work immanent to the Mystical Body carried on by certain laymen inasmuch as they have been given a mission or amandate by the clergy,--and that work immanent to the Mystical Body carried on by those who without having received from the clergy a mission or a mandate for some special activity constitute basically the great multitude of the "faithful people of God." Without doubt there exist in this immense multitude vast portions who are unfaithful to their calling, and more or less, sometimes completely, deChristianized. But there exists also living portions who are truly faithful, among whom the notion of a Christian laity is authentically realized, a great people animated by the faith and engaged in activities vital to the Mystical Body, people who are completely polarized by grace and charity. The Christian laity as such,--independently of any participation, in certain given cadres, in the apostolate proper to the hierarchy,--has a witness to render and a spiritual mission in the Church. And those who share the common condition of the laity receive this mission, not from a special call or a special mandate from the hierarchy; they receive it from their baptism and their confirmation, in other words from the very fact that they are members of Christ. |
