Finding Jesus - in the Laity

Wednesday December 29, 2021

Fifth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord

If the laity think the clergy are supposed to be better Catholics than themselves, it gives the laity an excuse for brushing off Vatican II’s clear teaching:

Every Catholic must therefore aim at Christian perfection, and all... play their part so that the Church... may daily be more purified and renewed. (See Decree on Ecumenism No 4).

We may think clerics are “more obliged” to be good Catholics because people look to them for good example. Don’t parents and teachers have this same obligation? Is it less sacred to “form Christ” in a child at home or in school than in a parish? Does it require any less union with Jesus?

In the account of Christ’s Presentation in the Temple, Luke 2:22-40, everyone mentioned is a lay person: Simeon, Anna, Mary and Joseph. Both Simeon and Anna were “messengers” speaking prophetic words for which their lives of prayer and reflection on God’s word had prepared them. In the same way, each of us, whatever our state of life or circumstances, must play our part so that the Church “may daily be more purified and renewed.” We need to speak up and speak out, and fill our minds and hearts with God’s word so that when we do our words will be his.

We committed ourselves to this at Baptism, when we “presented our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,” that we might never “be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds’” through prayer and reflection on God’s word. This was “so that we might discern what is the will of God: what is good, acceptable and perfect.” (See Romans 12:1-2.)

Daily Practice: Pray the WIT prayer every day this week.

WIT Prayer: Lord Jesus, I give you my body. Live this day with me. Live this day in me. Live this day through me. Let me think with your thoughts, speak with your words, and act as your body on earth.