Salt, Light and Leaven: Lay People in the Renewal of the Church, Auckland Eucharistic Convention, July 14, 2019

July 14, 20192 min read

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Eucharistic Convention in Auckland, New Zealand
“Take Courage: I Have Overcome the World”
Sacred Heart College, Glendowie
July 14, 2019

To listen to an audio recording of today’s conference, please click below:

The following was the outline of the talk:

Introduction on the power of lay people to live and transmit the faith (from Korea and Japan).
Lay people as Salt, Light and Leaven
- Salt
  - Preservative
  - Fire Starter
  - Give Flavor
- Light
  - Helps us to see
  - Warms us
- Leaven
  - A little raises the whole dough
Theology of lay involvement
- Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
- Parable of the Vine and the Branches
- Baptism introduces the lay faithful into Christ’s prophetic, priestly and kingly work
- The specifically secular character of the lay vocation and mission
- The essential vocation to holiness, the perfection of charity
Practical points
- Need for formation
- Need to avoid the temptations to separate faith from life and to dedicate oneself to inside-Church activities rather than going out to transform the world.
- Specific activities
  - Prophetic Munus
    - Evangelization
    - Catechesis
    - Catholic schools and universities
    - Evangelizing the Family
    - Evangelizing Medicine, scientific research, bioethics
    - Evangelizing economic fields
    - Evangelizing social and cultural fields
  - Priestly (Sanctifying) munus
    - Praying and teaching others to pray
    - Living a sacramental life and helping others to live it.
    - Offering up one’s work and hardships
    - The logike latreia, the only worship that makes sense.
  - Kingly (Shepherdly) munus
    - Entering the kingdom and helping others to enter
    - Personal self-mastery
    - Leading the family
    - Charity
    - Political arena
Conclusion
- Need to keep our salt saline, our light burning and our leaven in the dough of the world
- Christ is with us. There are huge challenges, but he tells us, “Take Courage. I have overcome the world.”
- He wouldn’t be calling the laity to be salt, light, and leaven unless he were planning to give them every grace necessary to live that vocation to the full.