46. PROMOTERS OF LAY EVANGELIZATION

Father, I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.

(The confreres) should also devote themselves to motivating and suitably preparing lay people for the pastoral ministries necessary in a Christian community.

Saint Vincent de Paul accomplished his apostolic labors largely through collaboration with the laity. These men and women provided extraordinary support for the promotion of the saint's charitable works. Vincent spent much time and effort in the preparation of the laity to carry on works of justice and charity. John Paul II, impressed with the many lay charitable movements inspired by Saint Vincent, wrote:

The vocation of this gentle initiator of social and charitable action continues to inspire his sons and daughters --- men and women who give life to his spirit, young people who find in him the key to meaningful life and who, in a radical way, dedicate themselves to the task of evangelization.

1. ALL THE LAITY PARTICIPATE IN THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH

The confraternities of men and women, who received their rules or inspiration from Saint Vincent, show our founder's great interest in promoting and preparing the laity to take their rightful place in society and the church. These organizations reveal Vincent's trust in the diverse spiritual and apostolic gifts of the laity. Vincent, as a man of the Church, was ahead of his times. We can easily imagine him today, putting into practice the following statement of Vatican II:

The apostolate of the laity is a sharing in the salvific mission of the Church. Through Baptism and Confirmation, all are appointed to this apostolate by the Lord himself. Moreover, by the sacraments, and especially by the Eucharist, that love of God and neighbor which is the soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished.

2. VINCENT'S EVANGELIZING ACTIVITY

The Church affirms and encourages our collaboration with the laity. As Vincentians we work with the laity and share with them our own preferential option for the poor:

The laity, who by their calling live in the midst of the world and see to various temporal tasks, must, by this very fact, engage in a special type of evangelization. Their direct and principal role is not to found or develop the ecclesial community (that is the function of the bishops) but to actuate all the Christian and evangelical potentialities which are hidden but already present and operative in the world. Their proper field of evangelization is the extremely broad and complex political, social and economic order. It extends to culture, the sciences and arts, international relations and communications. It also includes other spheres which are especially open to evangelization: for example, love, the family, the education of children and adolescents, the professions and human suffering.

3. BUILDERS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The proclamation of the kingdom of God as an absolute reality, before which all else is secondary, demands the commitment of the laity. Without their cooperation it becomes impossible to announce the Good News to all:

The more numerous the lay people who are imbued with the evangelistic spirit, accept responsibility in these areas and show themselves genuinely dedicated, and the more competent they are to foster development in these areas and conscious that they must activate all the Christian potentialities therein (only too often left undeveloped and unused), the more these areas will serve the building up of God's kingdom and the winning of salvation in Jesus Christ. This will not mean any loss or diminution of effectiveness at the human level but rather, in many instances, the acquisition of a new and higher dimension.

***** Am I involved in preparing the laity for their ministry?

***** Do I animate the laity in their apostolic work?

***** Do I attempt to uncover and encourage the hidden talents of the laity?

PRAYER:

Lord Jesus, you said: "The harvest is great but the laborers are few." Give to your Church lay men and women committed to the work of evangelization. This complements the work of the clergy, and thus your kingdom of peace and justice will be established throughout the world. We ask this in your name Lord Jesus, who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.