Just before he ascended into heaven, Jesus gave his Church these marching orders: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). This perennial call of the Church can be summed up in one word: evangelize. Jesus’ call to evangelize is a mission given to his entire Church and not simply to a select group.
When most of us think about evangelization–sharing, spreading, and at times defending the faith–we probably do not see it as a mission that applies to each one of us. And yet, Jesus entrusted his own personal mission, the salvation of the world, to the entire Church. Baptism incorporates us into the Church, into intimate union with Jesus, and therefore into this mission to evangelize. Like the laborers in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, Jesus’ words also apply to us: “Why do you stand here idle all day?” (Matthew 20:6).
One very common objection to the call to evangelize is to say that evangelization is not my job; it is for the specialists, the priests and religious, the missionaries in foreign lands, and for the professional church workers. However, each member of the parish is called to evangelize. In speaking specifically about the mission of the non-specialists, St. John Paul II said, “Thus with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, the baptized share in the same mission of Jesus as the Christ, the Savior-Messiah” (Christefidelis Laici 13). This call is based on our union with Jesus, rooted in Baptism, strengthened by confirmation, and fueled by each reception of the Eucharist. Rather than being for a select group of specialists, it is a calling specifically for the laymen.
The terms “laity” and “laymen” refer to all the members of the Church, united to Jesus and his mission, who are not in Holy Orders–bishops, priests, and deacons–or in religious life (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 897). During the Second Vatican Council, the Church gave clear articulation to the mission of the laity: “But the laity are made to share in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ; they have therefore, in the Church and in the world, their own assignment in the mission of the whole People of God. (Decree on the Lay Apostolate 2). Every last member of the Church, even children (see Decree on the Lay Apostolate 12), has an assignment from Jesus to evangelize. We cannot simply stand idle all day.
Another common objection to the laity’s call to evangelize comes down to method and tactics. We do not want to be an annoying street preacher or a door-to-door peddler of Christianity or a pushy person always asking others if they have been saved. If each one of us is called to evangelize, how in the world are we supposed to do that?
The Second Vatican Council goes on to describe what the laity’s mission to evangelize looks like. “In the concrete, their apostolate is exercised when they work for the evangelization and sanctification of men; it is exercised too when they endeavor to have the Gospel spirit permeate and improve the temporal order, going about it in a way that bears witness to Christ and helps forward the salvation of men. The characteristic of the lay state being a life led in the midst of the world and of secular affairs, laymen are called by God to make of their apostolate, through the vigor of their Christian spirit, a leaven in the world” (Decree on the Lay Apostolate no. 2). Evangelization by the laity most frequently looks like making the ordinary functions of life in the world holy, set apart for the Lord, by undertaking them with a specifically Christian spirit. It is the ordinary example of a good and honest effort at school and at work and offering those efforts to the Lord, of the ebbs and flows of family life and serving the Lord in those closest to us, of a life lived a bit differently from those around us that seeks to peak their interest in One who makes our lives different as we pray for the Lord to reach them through us. St. John Paul II puts it simply: “Therefore, to respond to their vocation, the lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to join themselves to God, fulfill his will, serve other people and lead them to communion with God in Christ” (Christefidelis Laici 17).
Who is responsible for the Church’s mission to evangelize? Every member of the parish has a part to play, and the average Catholic is on the front lines of the Church’s interaction with the wider world. As full members of the Church, branches united to the vine (see John 15:4-5), the laity are tasked with nothing other than the salvation of humanity and the renewal of the whole temporal order (see Christefidelis Laici 15). We are like leaven, often unseen and overlooked, yet greatly impacting, changing, and elevating the entire world that we inhabit.
