Apostolate

In essence the term “apostolate” refers to the mission of the Church to carry on the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. He sent his Apostles (the word “apostle” comes from the Greek word meaning “to be sent”) into the whole world to “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” (Mt 28:19-20). Consequently, the whole Church, the “pillar and bulwark of the truth” (1 Tm 3:15), “built upon the foundation of the apostles” (Eph 2:20), “is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St. Peter and the other Apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin: and in that she is ‘sent out’ into the whole world” (CCC 863). 

The source of the apostolate is thus Christ himself, who was sent by the Father to redeem all men and, indeed, the whole of creation and to send his Spirit to sanctify all men, to make them “new” creatures (cf. Vatican Council II, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, Apostolicam Actuositatem, 3-4; CCC 864). The apostolate is rooted in the vocation of all Christians to holiness and to participation in the redemptive work of Christ. It flows from their identity, freely given to them and accepted by them through Baptism (cf. Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 31; Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Splendor of Truth, Veritatis Splendor, 66, and apostolic exhortation The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People, Christifideles Laici, 10) as members of the divine family, children of God, and brothers and sisters of Christ who share in his threefold office as prophet, priest, and king (cf. Lumen Gentium, 31) and who are called to participate “in the salvific mission of the Church” (Lumen Gentium, 33). It is nourished by the sacraments, in particular the Eucharist, and the liturgy (Lumen Gentium, 33, 35; Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, 10; Apostolicam Actuositatem, 3, 4, 10). 

“The apostolate of the Church . . . and of each of her members, aims primarily at announcing to the world by word and action the message of Christ and communicating to it the grace of Christ” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 6). “The work of Christ’s redemption” – and carrying on that work is precisely what apostolate means – “concerns essentially the salvation of men; it takes in also, however, the renewal of the whole temporal order. The mission of the Church, therefore, is not only to bring men the message and grace of Christ but also to permeate and improve the whole range of the temporal”(Apostolicam Actuositatem, 5). In short, the goal of the apostolate is the evangelization and sanctification of all men and the renewal of all things in Christ the Redeemer. 

“The Church,” the Fathers of Vatican Council II remind us, “was founded to spread the kingdom of Christ over all the earth for the glory of God the Father, to make all men partakers in redemption and salvation, and through them to establish the right relationship of the entire world to Christ. Every activity of the Mystical Body with this in view goes by the name of the ‘apostolate’; the Church exercises it through all its members, though in different ways” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 2; emphasis added). First, we shall consider the way in which the hierarchy, that is, the College of Bishops, the successors of the Apostles, exercises apostolate under the headship and leadership of the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter, the prince of the Apostles. Then we shall consider the apostolate of priests, of religious, and of the lay faithful. 

The Apostolate of the Hierarchy • The Church, which is the People of God, is by God’s will hierarchically structured: “In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase its numbers without cease, Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good of the whole body” (Lumen Gentium, 18). Jesus himself chose his Apostles, whom he constituted in the form of a college, at the head of which he placed Peter. Since the divine mission entrusted by Christ to the Apostles was to last until the end of time (cf. Mt 28:20; Lumen Gentium, 20), the Apostles in turn handed over to their successors, the bishops, “with priests and deacons as helpers,” “the charge of the community, presiding in God’s stead over the flock of which they are the shepherds in that they are teachers of doctrine, ministers of sacred worship, and holders of office in government” (Lumen Gentium, 20). The College of Bishops under the headship of the Roman Pontiff – for this body has no authority at all unless united with him (cf. Lumen Gentium, 22) – constitutes the hierarchy of the Church and exercises its apostolate by teaching doctrine, ministering the sacraments, and governing the faithful. 

The hierarchy exercises its apostolate, first of all, through its Magisterium, or teaching office, a more-than-human authority invested in the College of Bishops to carry on the mission of the Apostles to proclaim the truths of salvation in Christ’s name (cf. Lumen Gentium, 20; Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 10). Christ chose the Apostles to receive God’s saving Revelation; but this Revelation was not meant for them alone but for all men and women of every age, to whom Jesus sent them to teach his redeeming truth (cf. Mt 23:20). The apostolic preaching, through which the Revelation given by Jesus was communicated to the apostolic Church, was “to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. Hence, the Apostles, in handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to maintain the traditions which they had learned either by word of mouth or by letter (cf. 2 Thes 2:15); and they warn the faithful to fight hard for the faith that had been handed on to them once and for all (cf. Jude 3). What was handed on by the Apostles comprises everything that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith. In this way the Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes” (Dei Verbum, 8; emphasis added). 

Consequently, the College of Bishops under the headship of the Pope, the supreme teacher in the Church, primarily exercises the apostolate entrusted to it within the Church by teaching the saving truths of Revelation and the way to shape one’s whole life in accord with these truths: “The bishops have by divine institution taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise as whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them despises Christ and him who sent Christ (cf. Lk 10:16)” (Lumen Gentium, 20). 

The members of the hierarchy also exercise their apostolate through their office as ministers of sacred worship. Although all baptized persons share in the universal priesthood of Christ, “the Lord also appointed certain men as ministers, in order that they might be united in one body in which ‘all the members have not the same function’ (Rom 12:4). These men were to hold in the community of the faithful the sacred power of Order, that of offering sacrifice and forgiving sins, and were to exercise the priestly office publicly on behalf of men in the name of Christ. Thus Christ sent the apostles as he himself had been sent by the Father, and then through the apostles made their successors, the bishops, sharers in his consecration and mission” (Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2). 

Finally, the members of the hierarchy fulfill their apostolate by governing or shepherding the people entrusted to them. The Roman Pontiff, as successor of Peter, the “rock” on which Christ founded his Church (cf. Mt 16:18), whose duty it was to strengthen his brothers in the faith (cf. Mt 16:16ff.; Jn 21:15ff.; Lk 22:32), has supreme authority in the Church’s governance: He “has been granted by God supreme, full, immediate and universal power in the care of souls. As pastor of all the faithful his mission is to promote the common good of the universal Church and the particular good of all the churches” (Decree on the Bishops’ Pastoral Office in the Church, Christus Dominus, 1). 

But bishops have also “been designated by the Holy Spirit to take the place of the apostles as pastors of souls and, together with the Supreme Pontiff and subject to his authority, they are commissioned to perpetuate the work of Christ, the eternal Pastor” (Christus Dominus, 1). They thus “govern the particular churches assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations and example, but over and above that also by the authority and sacred power which indeed they exercise exclusively for the spiritual development of their flock in truth and holiness” (Lumen Gentium, 27). Although the Pope has primacy of jurisdiction over them, bishops “are not to be regarded as vicars of the Roman Pontiff; for they exercise the power which they possess in their own right and are called in the truest sense of the term prelates of the people whom they govern” (Lumen Gentium, 27). Zealous in promoting the sanctity of their clergy, their religious, and their laity “according to the vocation of each individual” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 15), bishops are charged with encouraging and coordinating all forms of the apostolate within their dioceses (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 17). 

The apostolate of the hierarchy, therefore, essentially consists in faithfully handing over to the whole People of God the saving truths of Revelation, that is, “everything that serves to make the People of God live their lives in holiness and increase their faith” (Dei Verbum, 8), in ministering the sacraments that nourish their new life in Christ, and in governing the Church.

The Apostolate of Priests • The threefold apostolic mission of the hierarchy – as the teachers, ministers, and shepherds of God’s people – “was handed over in a subordinate degree to priests so that they might be appointed in the Order of the priesthood and be co-workers of the episcopal Order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 2). 

The goal of the whole Church’s apostolate, as has been seen, is the evangelization and sanctification of the entire human family, communicating to it the grace of Christ. “The principal means of bringing this about is the ministry of the word and of the sacraments,” and this is “committed in a special way to the clergy” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 6). Since all priests share with the bishops the “one identical priesthood and ministry of Christ,” bishops “will regard them as their indispensable helpers and advisers in the ministry and in the task of teaching, sanctifying, and shepherding the People of God” (Presbyterorum Ordinis, 7). It is in this that the apostolate of the clergy principally consists. 

The Apostolate of Religious • Some of Christ’s faithful, from the very beginning of the Church, are called to consecrate themselves to the Lord in a special way by freely dedicating themselves to God through the profession and practice of the evangelical counsels of celibate chastity, poverty, and obedience. Such persons are called “religious” (cf. Decree on the Appropriate Renewal of the Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, 1). “Religious life, as a consecration of the whole person, manifests in the Church the marvelous marriage established by God as a sign of the world to come” (Canon 607.1). 

The apostolate of those called to the religious life is exercised on behalf of the entire Church. It is an apostolate that reminds us that we have not here a lasting city, for the religious way of life involves a separation of men and women from the world of secular affairs so that they can live, by anticipation, as it were, in the end time, offering themselves as a “sacrifice offered to God, so that their whole existence becomes a continuous worship of God in charity” (Canon 607.1). 

There is a marvelous diversity of religious life within the Church. But all religious, that is, persons professing the evangelical counsels, “are under an obligation, in accordance with the particular vocation of each, to work zealously and diligently for the building up and growth of the whole Mystical Body of Christ and for the good of the particular churches. It is their duty to promote these objectives primarily by means of prayer, works of penance, and by the example of their lives” (Christus Dominus, 33; cf. Perfectae Caritatis, 1, 3, 8). 

The Apostolate of the Lay Faithful • Pope, bishops, priests, and religious have, as has been seen, their special apostolate within the Church. But the lay faithful constitute the great majority of Christ’s people. It is absolutely essential to recognize that the apostolate of the lay faithful is in no way “delegated” to them by the hierarchy, the clergy, or the religious. Their apostolate, which is unique and utterly indispensable in the Church (cf. especially Lumen Gentium, 31), is given to them personally by Christ himself, whose living members they become through Baptism, when they are made new creatures; when they are divinized and made members of the divine family, brothers and sisters of Jesus who can, with him, call God their Father. 

The lay faithful are called to holiness and to participate fully in Christ’s redemptive work, which is the essential task of the apostolate. In their own way they “share in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ, and . . . carry on the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world” (Lumen Gentium, 33).

The laity exercise their apostolate both within the Church and in the world. Within the Church they properly carry out their apostolate in parishes, dioceses, and on the interdiocesan, national, and international levels (cf. Apostolicam Actuositatem, 10; Christus Dominus, 30) by engaging in catechetical instruction, liturgical worship (e.g., as lectors), and by involvement in the pastoral structure of the Church (e.g., as canonists), and so forth. However, the exercise by the lay faithful of their apostolate in ecclesial tasks must never lead to their clericalization. Pope John Paul II has forcefully made this point: “The various ministries, offices and roles that the lay faithful can legitimately fulfill in the liturgy, in the transmission of the faith, and in the pastoral structure of the Church, ought to be exercised in conformity to their specific lay vocation, which is different from that of the sacred ministry” (Christifideles Laici, 23). 

But above all, as he insisted, in continuity with the teaching of Vatican Council II and Pope Paul VI (cf. apostolic exhortation On Evangelization in the Modern World, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 70), the proper place for the lay faithful to exercise their apostolate is in the world (cf. Christifideles Laici, 7, 10, 14, 17, 23). The key text here is found in Vatican Council II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium: “Their secular character is proper and peculiar to the laity. . . . By reason of their special vocation, it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal, affairs and directing them according to God’s will. They live in the world, that is, they are engaged in each and every work and business of the earth and in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life which, as it were, constitute their very existence. There they are called by God that, being led by the spirit to the Gospel, they may contribute to the sanctification of the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular duties. Thus, especially by the witness of their life, resplendent in faith, hope, and charity, they must manifest Christ to others. It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are so closely associated that these may be effected and grow according to Christ and may be to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer” (31). 

Precisely because laypeople work out their existence in the world, “the ‘world’ thus becomes the place and means for the lay faithful to fulfill their Christian vocation” (Christifideles Laici, 15; emphasis in original). The whole vocation of the lay faithful to holiness “implies that life according to the Spirit expresses itself in a particular way in their involvement in temporal affairs and in their participation in earthly activities (Christifideles Laici, 17; emphasis in original). It is through the lay faithful that Christ and his Church are made present in the world (cf. Christifideles Laici, 7). Consequently, their vocation to sanctify themselves and to sanctify the world “ought to be called an essential and inseparable element of the new life of Baptism. . . . [and be recognized as] intimately connected to mission and to the responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful in the Church” (Christifideles Laici, 17; emphasis in original). 

The lay faithful must realize that their apostolate is not a part-time job, as it were, unrelated to what they do in their daily lives. Carrying out their responsibilities as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, laborers, teachers, professionals of all sorts, etc., is an integral component of their apostolate. The Fathers of Vatican II insist: “It is a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come, we are entitled to shirk our earthly responsibilities; this is to forget that by our faith we are bound all the more to fulfill these responsibilities according to the vocation of each one (emphasis added; cf. 2 Thes 3:6-13; Eph 4:28). But it is no less mistaken to think that we may immerse ourselves in earthly activities as if these latter were utterly foreign to religion, and religion were nothing more than the fulfillment of acts of worship and the observance of a few moral obligations. One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of their daily lives. . . . Let there, then, be no such pernicious opposition between professional and social activity on the one hand and religious life on the other. . . . Let Christians . . . be proud of the opportunity to carry out their earthly activity in such a way as to integrate human, domestic, professional, scientific and technical enterprises with religious values, under whose supreme direction all things are ordered to the glory of God” (Gaudium et Spes, 43). 

The fields of exercising the apostolate proper to the lay faithful are immense. Of particular importance is the apostolate exercised with the family, which is in truth a “domestic church” (cf. Lumen Gentium, 11; Apostolicam Actuositatem, 11; Pope John Paul II, apostolic exhortation on The Christian Family in the Modern World, Familiaris Consortio, 49-64). Today, moreover, when we are threatened by a “culture of death” (Pope John Paul II, encyclical The Gospel of Life, Evangelium Vitae, 7-24, [1995]), it is primarily the responsibility of the lay faithful, in exercising their apostolate, to build a “civilization of love” (cf. Pope John Paul II, Letter to Families), to make the home a “sanctuary of life” (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 92-94), and to proclaim to the world the inviolable dignity of the human person made in God’s image and likeness and summoned, in Christ, to a life of holiness and communion with the Divine Persons (cf. Evangelium Vitae, Ch. 4). 

The apostolate of the lay faithful, who have the common vocation of all Christians to holiness and who, like all Christians, have each their own special vocation and indispensable role to play in carrying out Christ’s redemptive work, demands of them that they seek to integrate all they do into their baptismal commitment to make up in their own lives what is lacking in Christ’s (cf. Col 1:24). Their apostolate requires them to cleave to Christ and to shape their lives in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount, the “magna charta” of the Christian life (cf. Veritatis Splendor, 15), to live in communion with Christ every moment of every day (cf. Veritatis Splendor, 16), efficaciously mediating his redemptive love to the world in which they live their daily lives.

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Revised: Sunday March 04, 2007 09:55:18 PM
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