“Ganito Noon; Paano Ngayon?” The Dignity and Mission of the Laity

Part 6

•The nature of lay mission

The laity carries out their responsibility in a manner entirely appropriate to them. They function as non-office bearers. They evangelize by the witness of their lives (LG 12). It is primarily within the secular context that they achieve their own sanctification (AA 7).

In the task of directing the world toward its salvation in Christ, the laity involves themselves directly in the conduct of secular affairs. This secular quality is proper and special to laymen (LG 31). This is so because the laity exists in that intersection of the Church and the world, in that dimension of reality that has yet to be brought under the Kingdom’s dominion. In this case< they bring the Church to the world and the world to the church.

On the one hand, the laity permeates the secular with the spirit of Christ. By virtue of their education and competence, they see to it that the temporal affairs are ordered according to the plan of god. By their efforts the world is sanctified (LG 31). On the other hand, they present to the church community the world’s longings and questions in order that these might be illumined by the Gospel. They consecrate the world to God (LG 34) through their endeavors on behalf of the kingdom.