Laity

The Second Vatican Council, so inspired by the Holy Spirit, came out clearly on the role of the laity in the Church

The laity (all the faithful except in Holy Orders and who belong to a religious state approved by the Church) by virtue of their Baptism are incorporated into Christ and integrated into the People of God and are made sharers in the particular way in the priestly, prophetic and kingly office of Christ, and have their own part to play in the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world (CCC).

The sharing (mentioned in the first paragraph) of the lay faithful has its own manner of realization and function, which according to the council is properly and particularly theirs, a stamp of their secular character.

This secular character of the lay faithful is not clarified only in a sociological sense but most especially in a theological sense… where they participate in the work of creation and sanctify themselves in marriage or the celibate life, in the family, in the profession and in the various activities of society. The lay faithful “live in the world… in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life” (p30, ChristifidelisLaici)
This vocation of the lay faithful is their God-given way of seeking the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing to God’s will… to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are clearly associated that these always be effected grow according to Christ… (CCC 898)

Lay faithful as front liners of the Church life must express initiative to discover and permeate social, political and economic realities with the demands of Christian doctrine and life. (CCC 899) This is a tall order on how we live our daily lives.

Whit Christ as the anointing principle of human society, lay faithful are not only belongings to the Church but of being the Church and with the leadership of the Pope and the Bishops, they are the Church. (Christifidelis Laici)

With these exhortations from the CCC and ChristifidelisLaici the lay faithful must believe that they work for their sanctification when they continue Christ’s redemptive work in this secular world to save humanity especially through the renewal of the whole temporal order.(Christifidelis Laici)