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3.1. Sứ mệnh của cá nhân
97. Chính trong mối liên hệ với người khác và nhờ theo dõi những
dấu chỉ thời đại
nên những ai nhậy cảm trước nhu cầu thiếu thốn của anh chị em
trong thế giới đều
thấy mình được thúc giục. Do việc tiếp xúc với người khác, họ
nhận thức được lời
kêu gọi dành cho riêng họ để họ sẽ theo Chúa đặc biệt như thế
nào.
98. Lời mời gọi hãy theo Chúa (ơn gọi) sẽ mang một hình thức cụ
thể khi người ta
đáp trả. Lời mời gọi đầu tiên sẽ dần dần đưa họ vào những sinh
hoạt đặc biệt. Nhưng
để những sinh hoạt này trở thành sứ mệnh, thì trước hết cộng
đồng cần phải nhận lấy
lời gọi, giúp họ nhận định lời gọi và cuối cùng sai mỗi người
lên đường sứ mệnh (86).
Có lẽ trong ý nghĩa này, đúng hơn chúng ta nên nói đó là cá nhân
dấn thân vào sứ
mệnh của Giáo Hội.
99. Ðối với mỗi thành phần CLC, hoàn cảnh khác nhau về cuộc
sống: gia đình,
chính trị, nghề nghiệp, cộng đoàn, giáo hội địa phương, sẽ là
những môi trường chính
để hành động (87).
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3.1. Individual mission
97. In relationship with others, and attentive to the signs of
the times, those who are so disposed are moved to open their
hearts to the needs of the men and women of their world. From
this contact with reality arise the personal calls that lead to
specific ways of following the Lord.
98. The invitation to follow Him (vocation) will become concrete
in the way we personally respond to these calls. The initial
vocation to follow Jesus will unfold in specific activities.
But, for these activities to become mission, it is necessary
that the community assume the call, help to discern and,
finally, send each one on mission. (86) In this sense perhaps, it
would be more correct to speak of personal involvement in the
Church's mission.
99. For each CLC member, the different contexts of their life as
laity: family, politics, profession, community, local Church,
are the main fields of action. (87) |
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(86) All prophetic missions follow this process. First God breaks
unexpectedly into the life and heart of the one whom He wants to
send to serve His people (vocation). Then, from the commitment
of the heart and the needs of the people, the prophet will find
his/her mission, and carry it out with specific gestures and
words.
(87) Quoting John Paul II in his Apostolic Exhortation
Christifideles Laici (Dec. 30, 1988) we point out some fields of
action:
"An essential service which the Church can do for the whole
human family is to rediscover and make others rediscover the
inviolable dignity of every human person.... If, indeed,
everyone has the mission and responsibility of acknowledging the
personal dignity of every human being and of defending the right
to life, some lay people have special responsibility: such as
parents, teachers, health-workers and the many who hold economic
and political power." (ChL 37 and 38)
"The lay faithful's duty to society primarily begins in marriage
and in the family. This duty can only be fulfilled adequately if
we are convinced of the unique and irreplaceable value that the
family has in the development of society and the Church
herself." (ChL 40)
"A charity that loves and serves the person is never able to be
separated from justice. Each in its own way demands the full,
effective acknowledgment of the rights of the individual, to
which society is ordered in all its structures and
institutions"...
... "In order to achieve their task directed to the Christian
animation of the temporal order, in the sense of serving persons
and society, the lay faithful are never to relinquish their
participation in 'public life', that is, in the many different
economic, social, legislative, administrative and cultural
areas, which are intended to promote organically and
institutionally the common good... every person has a right and
duty to participate in public life, albeit in a diversity and
complementarity of forms, levels, tasks and responsibilities.
Charges of careerism, idolatry of power, egoism and corruption
that are oftentimes directed at persons in government,
parliaments, the ruling classes, or political parties, as well
as the common opinion that participating in politics is an
absolute moral danger, does not in the least justify either
scepticism or an absence on the part of Christians in public
life"...
... "Furthermore, public life on behalf of the person and
society finds its continuous line of action in the defence and
the promotion of justice, understood to be a 'virtue', an
understanding which requires education, as well as a moral 'force' that sustains the obligation to foster the rights and
duties of each and everyone, based on the personal dignity of
each human being." (ChL 42)
"In the context of the transformations taking place in the world
of economy and work which are a cause of concern, the lay
faithful have the responsibility of being in the forefront in
working out a solution to the very serious problems of growing
unemployment; to fight for the most opportune overcoming of
numerous injustices that come from organizations of work which
lack a proper goal; to make the workplace become a community of
persons respected in their uniqueness and in their right to
participation; to develop new solidarity among those that
participate in a common work; to raise up new forms of
entrepreneurship and to look again at systems of commerce,
finance and exchange of technology." (ChL 43)
"Above all, each member of the lay faithful should always be
fully aware of being a member of the Church yet entrusted with a
unique task which cannot be done by another and which is to be
fulfilled for the good of all. From this perspective, the
Council's insistence on the absolute necessity of an apostolate
exercised by the individual takes on its full meaning: The
apostolate exercised by the individual - which flows abundantly
from a truly Christian life (Jn 4:14) - is the origin and
condition of the whole lay apostolate, even in its organized
expression, and admits no substitute. Regardless of
circumstance, all lay persons (including those who have no
opportunity or possibility for collaboration in associations)
are called to this type of apostolate and obliged to engage in
it. Such an apostolate is useful at all times and places, but in
certain circumstances it is the only one available and feasible
(Vat II, Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, Ap .Act. 16)."
(ChL 28) |
