65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 10 The time when I was the missionary while my mother was only a committed Christian belonging to a missionary association praying for the missionaries and supporting them materially, is over. This, however, has serious consequences: Indeed, so intimately are the parts linked and interrelated in this body (cf. Eph. 4:16) that the member who fails to make his proper contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither to the Church nor to himself. The Council takes seriously the words of Jesus in Jn 15:2: “Every branch of mine that bears no fruit he takes away” and “the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.” Jn 15:6. What John says here is not much different from Matthew 25:46. For me, this teaching was a breath of fresh air. Those mass baptisms – up to 500 in one ceremony – of people caring only for their souls that smacked of ritualism found here a serious question mark. Catechumens had to prepare themselves to an active life, to the apostolate to which they were called by Christ. Christ conferred on the apostles and their successors the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in His name and power. But also the laity shares in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ and therefore have their own role to play in the mission of the whole People of God in the Church and in the world. Since it is proper to the layman’s state in life for him to spend his days in the midst of the world and of secular transactions, he is called by God to burn with the spirit of Christ and to exercise his apostolate in the world as a kind of leaven. (AA 2) It was not I nor the bishops who invited the one or the other as co-worker in our mission. It was Christ himself. The laity derives the right and duty with respect to the apostolate from their union with Christ their Head. Incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body through baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord himself. (AA 3) The Holy Spirit does not make his calling depend on an academic degree. Unfortunately, when the document on the laity appeared, the Hierarchy made a condition for that ministry to attend an academic preparation given in English. Instead of the bishop imposing his hands on the catechists who had dedicated with success their whole life to the service of the community recognising them as the “backbones of our missionary work in PNG” he gave in to the Rules from Rome, burdening the ‘David’s with the armours of Saul. For sure, even academic updating is necessary, but that should not mean that we should not recognize those catechists without whom our missionary work - and not only in PNG - in establishing the Church in the world would not have been possible. The lay people have the right not just permission to exercise their apostolate in the community. It is their birth right. That right, however, creates a duty, a responsibility. For the exercise of this apostolate, the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the People of God through the ministry and the sacraments gives to the faithful special gifts as well (cf. 1 Cor. 12:7), “allotting to everyone according as he will” (1 Cot’ 12:11). Thus may the individual, “according to the gift that each has received, administer it to one another” and become “good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10), and build up thereby the whole body in charity (cf. Eph, 4:16). From the reception of these charisms or gifts, including those which are less dramatic, there arise for each believer the right and duty to use them in the Church and in the world for the good of mankind and for the up building of the Church. In so doing, believers need to enjoy the freedom of the Holy Spirit who “breathes where he wills” (Jn. 3:8). (AA 3) (My underlining) Christ conferred on the apostles and their successors the duty of teaching, sanctifying, and ruling in His name and power. But also the laity shares in the priestly, prophetic, and royal office of Christ and therefore have their own role to play in the mission of the whole People of God in the Church and in the world.
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