UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF THE LAY APOSTOLATE

By Sir Fosuaba Banahene The urgent message that this Writer has sought to put across is that lay persons and lay societies as well as fraternities must summon fresh energy for tackling the problem of how to announce the Gospel anew in such a way that this world can receive it and make a change. This is a call to duty; not to say a task. In doing their bit, the laity should not see themselves as being in contention with the Clergy and should not also seek to push themselves forcefully into joint-decision-making roles with the Clergy – when it is time for it, the Holy Spirit will open the gates for it. Rather, they should see their role now as complementary. The important thing today is for the Church to work to remove the spurious mentality among some persons that God is superfluous and that matters of faith have become archaic and mythical and belong to a bygone civilisation. This mentality which arises from the so-called modern idea of progress must be tackled headlong and crushed so that all people can see that God really exists, that God matters to us, that God answers us and that without God human beings are nothing. This is not a fata morgana! The laity should reflect soberly and follow it up with action upon action. But before that the lay person must heed the call to “metanoia” (conversion). Without interior conversion which puts God in the first place, lay persons can scarcely do anything worthwhile. It should also be noted that evangelisation starts with a witness of life. Witnessing is a necessary corollary to the preaching of the Word. From scripture, we learn that faith without works is dead. Let every lay person see him or herself as the agent of change for the new life, and do away with the non-essentials that tend to make him or her appear to be a “professional Catholic”. The Church certainly has no room any longer for the “professional Catholic”. The elite lay Societies such as Catholic Doctors Association, Association of Catholic Lawyers, Noble Order of Knights and Ladies of Marshall, Order of Knights and Ladies Auxiliary of St. John International, Catholic Association of Media Practitioners, Catholic Nurses’ Association, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, Christian Mothers Association and others must take leadership in bringing a change to the role of the laity. Lay leaders should be seen to be leading their members to acquire a new breadth and depth of meaning of lay apostolate as well as the essence of the “New Evangelisation”. Indeed, a new face of lay apostolate is needed and for this, every lay person is called upon to put his or her shoulder to the wheel. The National Catholic Laity Council is the right forum to generate the ideas for implementation. Let elite lay persons not shun it. Let the lay faithful rise and shine in their apostolate! Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman’s advice quoted below may probably help the lay faithful to adopt a suitable posture: “God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission and I am determined to carry it out”. Lastly, let lay persons of the Church understand without any doubt, that the Church to which they belong is not someone else’s to which they have been invited. The lay person is an integral part of the Church. The 2nd Vatican Council emphasised this in the Decree on Mission Activity of the Church ( Ad Gentes) as follows: “the Church has not been really founded and is not yet fully alive, nor is it a perfect sign of Christ among mankind, unless there is a laity worthy of the name working along with the hierarchy. For the Gospel cannot be deeply grounded in the abilities, life and work of any people without the active presence of laymen……”2 This is the spirituality that should underpin the lay apostolate and lead them to a fruitful duty – a duty that God expects them to accomplish. If they do not do it, no-one will do it for them. They will either choose to follow the right path to save themselves or perish with it.