Concluding Remarks

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

Twenty Years after the Second Vatican Council, Blessed John Paul II, as a product of the 1987 Synod of Bishops on the Laity, came up with the Apostolic Exhortation on the “Vocation and Mission in the Church and in the World” (also known as Christifideles Laici). The Pope, following the interpretation of Gregory the Great (who said “Each person should take into account what he does and consider if he is laboring in the vineyard of the Lord”) likened the laity to the labourers in the vineyard mentioned in Matthew’s Gospel (MT. 20: 1-2). The vineyard is the whole world (cf. Mt. 13:38), which is to be transformed according to the plan of God in view of the final coming of the Kingdom of God (CL 1).

Why are you wasting the whole day doing nothing? (Mt. 20:6). The Pope pointed out that today is not acceptable for anyone to “remain idle”:

A new state of affairs today both in the Church and in social, economic, political and cultural life, calls with a particular urgency for the action of the lay faithful. If lack of commitment is always unacceptable, the present time renders it even more so. (CL 3)

You go and work in the vineyard (Mt. 20:7). What the Synod desired as its “most precious fruit” is the laity’s response to the invitation of Jesus, i.e., for them to “take an active, conscientious and responsible part in the mission of the Church” (CL 3). There is no room for idleness. And since there is the great demand for workers, the invitation for the laity continues: “You go into my vineyard too.”

The invitation by the Lord You go too: this call is a concern not only of Pastors, clergy, and men and women religious but also addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world (CL 2).

Huli man basta magaling ay maihahabol din!