A perfect synergy and collaboration for world evangelization.
The community of Kandi, Benin, West Africa, shares with us a reflection on the importance of collaboration between laity and clergy as witnesses of the Gospel message.
In this way, the face of the whole Church will change: Church of communion, Church of responsibility, Church of humanity, fraternal and synodal.
The laity in the Catholic Church are neither clergy nor members of a religious congregation.
The laity are the people of God, called to cooperate with priests and religious men and women through baptism and other sacraments, by the word and example of their Christian lives, as witnesses to the Gospel message.
Priests cannot do everything on their own; the laity are there to help them. But at the same time, there can be no laity without a priest to accompany them and say Mass for them. The two are complementary. They are called to work together, to dialogue for the salvation of humanity.
The laity play a leading role in the Church’s evangelizing mission because they are the most numerous in the Church and live their lives in the mission field. But it is not their vocation to try to take the place of the clergy or a priest or nun in their mission. They must respect and obey the clergy. All their efforts must be based on humility and total obedience. They must work in perfect cooperation with the priests and religious, even if they sometimes have gifts or charisms that rival those of the clergy (charisms of healing, singing, prophecy, words of knowledge and others). Indeed, some lay people, because of their charismatic graces, tend to influence or even impose themselves on the clergy. This behavior is not conducive to the glory of God. Still others, with the power of money, try to influence priests and clergy in collaboration and dialogue, which is not a credit to Mother Church.
On the part of the clergy, priests and religious must also respect the laity in their mission. In their collaboration with the laity, let there be a relationship of truth and mutual respect, not mistrust or sometimes domination. Let the clergy not try to stifle some gifts and charisms of the laity.
Let the clergy solicit the laity in the knowledge that they have the domestic Church to promote. Collaboration must in truth be a father-son dialogue for a synodal Church. Clergy must make themselves available for listening and accompanying. It is true that priests are very overburdened; the mission is indeed very abundant but the laborers are few, as Christ tells us (Luke 10:2). But we must make sure that the sheep, who are the laity, are not sometimes abandoned. In some parishes, collaboration and dialogue seem so difficult that the laity are forced to turn to the archbishop for arbitration. Such behavior on the part of the laity does not honor the Lord. But if a priest or religious behaves unwelcome, everything can be resolved in the parish through dialogue and prayer.
For the mission to be effective and bear lasting fruit, we need to listen to them and give them more responsibility in terms of contributing skills and concerns. Priests and religious do not live in the same state as the laity, so their presence must be strong in all areas of reflection for the life of the Church. Clergy and laity must work in perfect synergy, in perfect collaboration for the evangelization of the world.
In this way, the face of the whole Church will change: Church of communion, Church of responsibility, Church of humanity, fraternal and synodal.
Community of Kandi
