The vital union of lay people with the Lord enables them to discover the true meaning of their work and to see him in all temporal affairs

Union with Jesus Christ as the basis of the laity's spiritual life was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis at the General Audience of Wednesday, 1 December. Through this union with Christ lay people can discover the true meaning of their temporal activities and discern more clearly the plan of God in their lives. Thus everyday things, both good and evil, joyful and sorrowful, are seen in the right light. The Pope's address was the 80th in the series on the mystery of the Church and was given in Italian.

1. The specific role of lay people in the Church requires them to have a deep spiritual life. To help them to achieve this and to live it, theological and pastoral works have been published on spirituality for lay people, based on the assumption that every baptized person is called to holiness. The way this call is put into practice varies according to the different specific vocations, living and working conditions, abilities and inclinations, personal preferences for this or that spiritual and apostolic director, or for a specific founder of an order or religious institute, just as has happened and still happens in all the groups comprising the Church at prayer and at work, on her pilgrimage to heaven. The Second Vatican Council itself outlined a specific lay spirituality, in the context of a doctrine of life valid for everyone in the Church. 

2. All Christian spirituality must be based on what Jesus said about the need for a vital union with him: "Remain in me ... whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit" (Jn 15:5). The distinction between the two aspects of the union to which the text refers is significant: Christ's presence in us, which we should welcome, recognize, and increasingly desire, happy if we are sometimes able to experience it with particular intensity; and our presence in Christ, which we are invited to achieve through our faith and love. 

This union with Christ is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who instils it in the soul. The soul accepts it and complies, both in contemplation of the divine mysteries and in the apostolate, which seeks to communicate its light in both personal and social action (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theol., II-II, q. 45, a. 4). Lay people are called to this experience of communion just like any other member of the People of God. The Council recalled this, pointing out that: "While meeting their human obligations in the ordinary conditions of life, they do not separate their union with Christ from their ordinary life" (Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 4). 

Lay people find energy and inspiration in prayer

3. Since it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, union with Christ must be asked for in prayer. Doubtless, when work is performed according to God's will, something pleasing to the Lord is being done, and this is a form of prayer. Thus even the simplest actions become an offering that gives praise to God and is pleasing to him. But it is equally true that this is not enough: specific moments must be expressly devoted to prayer, following the example of Jesus, who even in the midst of the most intense messianic activity withdrew to pray (Lk 5:16). 

This is true for everyone, and thus, for lay people too. These "pauses" for prayer can take many different forms, but in each case the principle is that prayer is indispensable for everyone, in both personal life and the apostolate. It is only through an intense life of prayer that lay people can find inspiration, energy, the courage to face difficulties and obstacles, balance, and a capacity for initiative, endurance and recovery. 

4. The prayer life of every member of the faithful, therefore the laity included, must involve participation in the liturgy, recourse to the sacrament of Reconciliation and above all to the celebration of the Eucharist, where sacramental communion with Christ is the source of that kind of mutual immanence between the soul and Christ which he himself proclaimed: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him" (Jn 6:56). The Eucharistic banquet guarantees the spiritual nourishment that makes it possible to produce abundant fruit. The Christifideles laici are also called and invited to an intense Eucharistic life. Sacramental participation in Sunday Mass should be the source of both their spiritual life and their apostolate. Blessed are they who, in addition to Sunday Mass and Communion, feel attracted and encouraged to receive Communion more frequently, as many saints recommended, especially in recent times with the ever greater development of the apostolate of the laity. 

With faith one sees Christ in all things

5. The Council wishes to remind lay people that union with Christ can and must involve all the aspects of their earthly life: "Family cares should not be foreign to their spirituality, nor any other temporal interest and, according to what the Apostle dictated: 'Whatever you do in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him' (Col 3:17)" (Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 4). All human activity takes on a deeper meaning in Christ. Here a broad and clear perspective on the value of earthly realities unfolds. Theology has stressed the positive nature of everything that exists and acts by virtue of its participation in the being, truth, beauty and goodness of God, the "Creator and Lord of heaven and earth", that is, of the whole universe and every small or great reality that is part of the universe. This was one of the fundamental theses of St Thomas' vision of the cosmos (Summa theol. I, q. 6, a. 4; q. 16, a. 6; q. 18, a. 4; q. 103, aa. 5-6; q. 105, a. 5, etc.). He based it on the Book of Genesis and many other biblical texts; it is widely confirmed by science with the marvellous results of research on microcosms and macrocosms: everything has its own being, everything moves according to its own capacity for movement, but everything also declares its own limits, its dependence, its immanent finality. 

Sharing in the cross leads to joy

6. A spirituality based on this authentic view of things, open to the infinite and eternal God who is sought, loved and served throughout life, is discovered and recognized like a light that clarifies the events of the world and history. Faith establishes and perfects this spirit of truth and wisdom and makes it possible to see Christ's presence in all things, even in the so-called "temporal" things, which faith and hope reveal in their relationship with God, in whom we "live, move and have our being" (Acts 17:28; cf. Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 4). With faith, it is possible to discern the fulfilment of the divine plan of saving love, and in the development of one's own life the Father's constant solicitude revealed by Jesus: the interventions of Providence in response to human requests and needs (cf. Mt 6:25-34). In the lay state, this view of faith puts everyday things in the right light, in good and evil, in joy and sorrow, in work and rest, in reflection and action. 

7. If faith provides a fresh outlook, hope also gives new energy to involvement in temporal affairs (cf. Apostolicam actuositatem, n. 4). Thus lay people can attest to the fact that spirituality and the apostolate do not paralyse commitment to perfection in the realm of temporal things; at the same time they demonstrate the surpassing greatness of the goals to which they aspire and the hope that animates them, which they desire to communicate to others. This is a hope that is not devoid of trouble and sorrow but can disappoint no one, because it is based on the paschal mystery, the mystery of Christ's cross and resurrection. Lay people know and witness to the fact that sharing in the sacrifice of the cross leads to sharing the joy proclaimed by Christ in glory. Thus in the very glance at external and temporal goods gleams the inner certainty of whoever sees them and deals with them, while respecting their proper purpose, as the means and the way to the perfection of eternal life. All this happens by virtue of the charity which the Holy Spirit pours out in the soul (cf. Rom 5:5), to enable it to participate in God's life already on earth.