On clericalism: the vocation of the laity?
Over the past few years, I have heard from many sides that the root of the problem is clericalism and the hierarchy. I have also heard that the solution is to allow women and married men to be ordained. This has given me food for thought. I have begun to wonder if another underlying issue is being ignored and in doing so we are avoiding seeing or acknowledging the real root of the problem: our collective forgetting about the nature of the vocation we are all called to and what that could mean for all the members of the mystical body of Christ.
To illustrate an all too common narrative is useful: a young man or woman is seen to pray regularly, maybe even go to daily mass. She or he seems to be very interested in working for the church in some capacity, possibly as a volunteer or maybe even in a paid position. Everyone around that sees this asks them or assumes that this man or woman who prays intensely and helps out with 'x' prayer or formation group must be intending to become a priest, nun, or another type of consecrated person.
I find this inevitable assumption incredibly sad. At the root of it is the belief that a person, who will be what I call 'happily diocesan', and by this I mean to possibly get married and go to mass at their local parish, cannot and will not feel the need for regular prayer and formation. That, my friends, is to totally misunderstand what each person's relationship to God is and what we are all called to be and do simply because we have been, since the time of our baptism, members of the mystical body of Christ. I would take that one step further, even when we are not baptised since we have all been created by God and for God,
We would all do well to remember Thomas More: a lay married Catholic martyred under Henry VIII for remaining faithful to God and the Church. He had an intense prayer life, he was married, had children, and practised the law. He was your regular Joe until he wasn't. He represents what we are all called to live: a life centred on a relationship with God. AND quite scarily the fact that any of us can be martyred, ie, anyone of us can find ourselves in the position of defending God (their faith in Him) before His enemies and be martyred.
At the root of the discontent is not realising that in that universal call to enter into a relationship with God we find that call to serve HIM in whatever capacity He is calling us to. In Genesis, he calls all of us to three tasks: of being His image on this earth, of bringing forth new generations, and of governing His Creation. How are we to this? By imitating Him and He sent us the ideal person in the figure of Christ to better know how to do this. Christ is the ideal person we are all called to imitate. No matter what our 'life-changing' vocation may be we all have this universal vocation. St. Edith Stein rightly points out that the word vocation is not static but dynamic and reflects a movement towards God, a call to a deeper relationship with Him. In this light vocational discernment is much more than that one decision of which way a person is going to live out their baptismal promise but as St. Ignatius taught, discernment is a way of life, to daily see where God is calling you in all those moments that make up our lives.
And that 'authority' in the Church, 'decision-making' in the Church, is decision-making in order to govern His creation. The ability to govern His creation (Church and all the rest) can and should only come from a life deeply rooted in an intimate relationship with Him, creator of all.
While I understand the need to reform how decisions are made in the Church, I also think none of this can happen before a true soul-searching period in which we ask ourselves, at all levels of the Church, why it is that there is this prevailing assumption that if we ordain more sectors of the population we will solve these problems. Surely that is simply perpetuating the clericalism that is at the root of the problem. It is saying we need to spread authority but only to those ordained in some way, shape or form. Wouldn't it be far better to re-think how we understand the laity, to re-understand that we are all called to build His community here on earth? St Josemaria Escriva rightly reminded us that we are all called to sainthood and what this apparently abstract thinking means is that we are all called to enter into a relationship with God and to go out with the strength that relationship gives into the world to do that which He is calling us to do, whatever that may be.
Until we start thinking and taking as normal having a non-ordained married woman mother of 'x' children as someone available to serve the Church in one of its decision-making bodies or teaching at its institutions of higher education then we have not really dealt with the problem. Only then will we really have addressed clerical thinking (the source of clericalism) that feeds that notion that you have to be ordained or consecrated to both have authority, to live an intense life of prayer, and to have an interest in serving the Church. While it is true that family obligations limit the number of hours someone can dedicate to service of the community and to pray it does not diminish the desire for prayer and service nor does it change God's calling or the ability to respond to that calling. How different would the Church community be if we had a parent working in the councils at the Vatican? Their perspective is radically different from that of an ordained or consecrated person and they are very aware of the needs and difficulties of passing on the faith in this world. This might bring about a deeper, more faithful understanding of how God's Church might be called to be. In having a diversity of life realities represented in the councils we would be forced to pray through, think through, and change what is needed to build and maintain a Church community that is truly sustained by all of the members of the body of Christ. Yes, this might all sound idealistic and difficult to do but has God called us to stay at the level of the doable and feasible? Does He not call us to a radical transformation of this world? Does He not constantly ask us to trust Him especially when facing what seems humanly undoable?
Comments
Post a Comment