Several years ago, I was helping lead a training institute for RCIA teams. One of the participants was quite young compared to the rest of us who were mostly well past 40. I asked her how she wound up serving on her parish’s RCIA team. She told me that when she was in college, she had read the documents of the Second Vatican Council. She said that as she read, she discovered that she was called to holiness. And that changed her. In particular, the council said:

It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love, and by this holiness a more human manner of life is fostered also in earthly society….The forms and tasks of life are many but holiness is one…. Therefore all the faithful are invited and obliged to holiness and the perfection of their own state of life. (Lumen Gentium, 40, 41)

What is our role in the Church?

I was moved by what the young woman said, because I had the same experience about 30 years earlier. When I was growing up, the pre-Vatican II teaching about the role of the laity in the church was still prevalent. That teaching was that the role of the laity was to participate in and assist with the apostolic mission of the clergy. In other words, our job was to help the priests do their job. And then I discovered the writings of the council and learned all of us are called to the same holiness. The bishops at Vatican II said that all of the baptized have an apostolic mission:

The apostolate of the laity is a sharing in the salvific mission of the Church. Through Baptism and Confirmation all are appointed to this apostolate by the Lord himself. (Lumen Gentium, 33)

So our vocation is not an extension of or participation in the vocation of the clergy. Rather it is a distinct vocation given to us by Jesus. We have a job that is properly our own. And to do that job, we have to strive for holiness and perfection. It is not a pietistic holiness that is solely about perfecting our prayer lives and avoiding sin. It is a holiness that is for something.

What message is your RCIA sending?

Our job as members of the baptismal priesthood — our vocation — is to get outside the church and into the world. It is out in the world where we make Christ present. Our holiness is not a self-aggrandizing ego trip. It is a constant reflection of Jesus to those who most need to hear good news.

Some of our catechumens and candidates come to us because they want to be “inside.” They want to join the church, and perhaps they see the church as a refuge from the struggles they have had in their lives. We can provide that refuge for them for a while. But to truly enter the church means to go right back out again into the world.

That is what that young woman at our training institute understood by the call to holiness. And it is the message we have to make clear to all of our catechumens and candidates.

Your turn

What was the call you heard to live out your call to holiness? How are you calling others through your RCIA ministry now? Share your thoughts in the comments below.