La Salette and Laity

The two cowherds, witnesses to the Apparition of La Salette in France on Sept. 19, 1846

There is something special about the message of La Salette that dawns on the reader like a surprise. The hierarchy, the priesthood, the clergy in any form or capacity are never mentioned.

Maximin and Melanie were lay people. The Lady spoke of "my people" by which we presume she meant the entire world. She mentioned elderly women who were the only ones at Mass on Sundays; she spoke of Maximin's papa as well as of the farmer of Coin. She spoke of cart drivers and of "children under seven years of age" who "will be seized with trembling and die in the arms of those holding them."

Laity and Vatican II

The emergence of the lay person has been and continues to be one of the most important and the most visible characteristics of the post-conciliar Church. The phrase "the emerging layman" has been with us since the early sixties – even the sexist language (layman) smacks of that period. The notion is intimately connected with that of church: the Church is essentially composed of lay people.

Lay men and lay women now share in the Liturgy of the Word from the sanctuary. They serve as Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist and distribute the bread of the Eucharist; they serve on parish councils and on archdiocesan and diocesan committees and they teach in our seminaries. This is not token improvement. This is not paper-clip change. This is ongoing reconciliation.

We remember when the priest called his people "the populo." This may sound strange today but at the time it was said, such a remark was symptomatic: it took for granted a clear separation between Church and laity, or between clergy and laity. The communion rail was more than a symbolic object. It was a fence.

Laity in the Life of the Church

Benedict XVI blessed the crowd in St. Peter’s Square

The assimilation of the laity into the life of the Church will take years to run its course. This is probably just as well. The slow pace will solidify change, deepen it, and ward off tokenism. But reconciliation is very present, and we are all aware of the “process nature” of reconciliation. Wherever we have spoken of the laity above, we have understood both men and women. Women, religious sisters are speaking from the pulpit, teaching in seminaries, preaching and directing retreats and spiritual exercises. All of this was inconceivable before Vatican II.

We see here how the concept of reconciliation does not deal only with whatever is sinful and alienates people from God. It also deals with situations and conditions of social and cultural alienation and helps change them in order to bring people together to work and pray together. Reconciliation changes the Church, both local and universal into a gathering of gifts.

Another factor accounting for the emergence of lay people is the dearth of vocations to the priesthood. Lay people will of necessity be brought into the active, ministerial, liturgical and administrative life of the Church in ever greater numbers. These people will bring their professional competence as well as their spiritual gifts and the reconciliation will deepen and continue to enrich and sanctify the Church.

The Sermon on the Mount

Christ’s Sermon on the Mount

The strongest and most profound basis for the emergence of the lay person lies less in social factors than in the Gospel call to follow Christ. The pursuit of spiritual perfection is no longer (it never was) the exclusive domain of religious or priest but the privilege and duty of everyone. Clearly, Christ was addressing the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount of the gospel of Matthew. “When he saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying..." (Mt 5:1-2).

In the same Sermon Christ, addressing the same people, said: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father....For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?...So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:43-46,48).

The presence of the crowds makes it plain that the ideal of Christian perfection as described and commanded in the Gospel of Matthew belongs to everyone.

(taken from “The Face of the Reconciler” by Fr. Normand Theroux, M.S., page 52-53)