Cardinal's Column 9/12/04

Participation in the Church: an array of servants

Participation in the Church is based on baptism, when God gives us new life in Christ, and on faith, when God gives us the grace to see and assent to a vision of things beyond the purely visible. Those who share a common baptism and who profess the same faith participate in the one Church.

Having talked about participation in the governance of the Church two weeks ago, I would like to write in this column about participation in ministry. Christ came “as one who serves,” a phrase from the Gospels which served Cardinal Bernardin as his episcopal motto. Christ’s members, his disciples, are therefore also servants. Christians serve Christ and the world by proclaiming and living the Gospel, so that the world may come to the truth and to new life and hope. Christians serve Christ and the world by their work, their various callings and occupations and professions. Christians serve Christ, his Church and the world by raising families. Christians serve the world by charity and justice, by concern especially for those the world might easily overlook: the poor, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, those whose lives are threatened both before and after they are born. In the world, we are all servants, sometimes very useful to the Lord and sometimes less so.

In the Church, those who serve as shepherds or pastors are named from those who have received the sacrament of Holy Orders as bishops or priests. Their service is called episcopal or priestly ministry. In the past 40 years, the order of deacon, the third part of Holy Orders, has been fully restored in the Latin Church; the deacons’ participation in ministry has brought enormous vitality to parishes and other works. Each year, at the end of their four-year preparation, the deacons write to tell me what is in their hearts as they approach ordination. This year, a deacon candidate wrote: “God’s call to ministry has shaped my life in ways I never imagined during the past four years. From the hesitancy in doing hospital ministry through the joy of proclaiming God’s word and reflecting on it, in all the unsure, struggling and joyful times, I have seen God revealed in so many different ways. Through my daughter’s questioning why I do this, my friends’ excitement, and my wife’s support, God has allowed me to touch his face. And in doing so, my life has irrevocably changed. Like Elisha, I request a double portion of the Lord’s spirit to do what God calls me to do, to speak the words God wants me to say and to teach true, vibrant Catholic faith to God’s people. I ask the Lord for humility of heart, spirit and mind so that I always remember to act like a creature, not the Creator; to make submission to the movement of the Holy Spirit the foundation of life and to continually keep in mind that I do not know it all and never will.”

Since the restoration of the permanent diaconate after the Second Vatican Council, many other lay people, whose basic calling is secular, have come to participate more and more formally and explicitly in various forms of ministry in the Church. A few years back, almost every function or activity in a parish began to be called a ministry, even grass-cutting! While undoubtedly a Christian service, pleasing to the Lord and meritorious for eternal life, grass cutting is only by a very long stretch a ministry of the Church.

Some lay people have what theologians are now calling “a vocation within a vocation,” a calling to ecclesial ministry within their basic baptismal calling to be servants of the world. For many years, lay people have served the Church and her people as catechists, liturgists, directors of charities and good works, administrators, principals and teachers in Catholic schools. Some of these activities are full-time and some part-time, some are salaried positions and some are done by volunteers. While exercised always in cooperation with ordained priests, “the ministries, the offices and roles of the lay faithful find their foundation in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation and, for a good many of them, in the sacrament of matrimony.” (Christifideles laici, 23).

In the last four years, the Archdiocese has reshaped its way of formally preparing lay people for ecclesial lay ministry. The program presupposes a period of discernment with a priest to see if, in prayer, the Lord is truly calling someone to participate in the Church’s ministry. For those who will be pastoral associates or catechists, the academic preparation usually includes working toward a master’s degree or its equivalent in some theological discipline. The spiritual and personal formation, so necessary for those who will be responsible for others in the Church, is assured in a program called “Together in God’s Service,” under the direction of Mr. Graziano Marcheschi. At the end of the preparation period and, usually, after some supervised experience, the lay minister is certified by the office for lay ministry in the Archdiocese, headed by Ms. Keiren O’Kelly. Once certified, a lay person can be called by the bishop to ministry in the Church. The call by the bishop is the external ratification of the internal call of God’s grace. This call by the bishop establishes a ministry as formally ecclesial. It is followed by a commissioning, a being sent, usually to a parish whose pastor has already worked with or agreed to make use of a lay ecclesial minister’s abilities in ministering to other lay people in the parish.

Those lay men and women involved with ministry, whether formally instituted or in other fashions, build up the Church and enrich the lives of all of us. Ministry in the Catholic Church is far more diverse now, and it is difficult to imagine what the Church’s life would be without lay ministers. Participation in ministering to people is complemented by the many liturgical ministries that now enrich our worship of God, but these will be considered in another column on participation in worship.

St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower, whose feast is celebrated on Oct. 1, knew what is at the heart of all participation in the Church: love. She had a heart which desired to do everything for God. This cloistered Carmelite nun wanted to teach, to be an apostle, a priest, a martyr and, especially, to be a missionary from the dawn of creation until the end of time. She laughed at herself for such desires, for she fully accepted St. Paul’s reminder to the Christians at Corinth that God has determined different roles and offices in the Church. The Church is made up of many parts, and one part cannot say to another, “I have no need of you.” (see 1 Cor 12, 21). The abundance of God’s love filling her heart made her want to do everything possible to return that love. God made known to her how she could truly do everything if her vocation was to be love in the heart of the Church. “Love contains all vocations,” wrote St. Therese. “Love is everything. It is love alone that enables the Church’s members and ministers to act.”

May Christ’s love fill your lives as we continue together in the Church, the communion of love, which is Christ’s body. God bless you.