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TiggerS
Guest
Excellent article, Safia, and from a reliable Catholic source in the main:
(single)] means simple, unique. But it also means “unmarried.” Single men and women are called by God to serve the Church, the bride of Christ, to whom they are wedded from the moment they are baptized. Single vocation, therefore, means a unique call.
The Church needs lay Catholics who can dedicate themselves to their work and the spread of the Gospel while working in the world. Single laymen and laywomen have greater flexibility and time to do a variety of tasks and to help other families. Those who are called to live the single, celibate life should be encouraged and given moral support by the representatives of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, since every one is called to holiness. “What the soul is in the body, let Christians be in the world.” (Lumen Gentium, p. 396.)
The Apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici confirms that the unmarried state of lay life is a courageous response of vocational action and a magnificent opportunity for apostolic expenditure, especially in the times, conditions, and circumstances of the post-modern era. The single lay person carries out his or her apostolate by virtue of his or her special vocational status, growing in intimate union with the Divine Spouse, Our Lord. God the Father placed before them the temporal means of His own sanctification: human labor. Human labor serves men and women as both a natural and supernatural means to sustain and maintain themselves, contributing to God’s plan of salvation. “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” (1 Peter 4:10).
The Church is suffering from a lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life although there are some signs of hope in places. The Church also suffers from a lack of ordinary everyday lay people who are willing to consecrate themselves to The Gospel and discipleship of Jesus as committed and faithful Catholics, and are aware of a call to do so. Unless such a vocation and call including to the single chaste celibate state and for the sake of The Gospel/Kingdom gains some recognition as it is doing so today, the state will not be recognized and the awareness of the call, as a true call and vocation from God.
We need also lay people who in no way are separated from the general community by overt recognition as Catholics by dress or overt lifestyle to take The Gospel into the ordinary everyday community, including places of employment and also places of entertainment. What is lacking is formation on how to go about it.
There is a mentality that can abound even that such totally committed discipleship belongs only in the priesthood and religious life and that the laity have only the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday, Confession once yearly and to support The Church and the missions financially. Catholicism and the discipleship of our Baptismal vocation is much more than that, but it needs to be stressed to the laity and formation available on the vocation of the laity.
Of interest for the purposes of this thread only, the majority do recognize the single chaste celibate state as a potential call and vocation from God and very heartening. This is not to in any way take away one iota from the importance and holiness of the vocation and call to either the priesthood or religious life, rather laity have an obligation to understand these vocations and their importance and the supernatural gift of chaste celibacy and to be able to share their understanding wherever needed.
In the Doctrine of The Mystical Body, the gift to one is a gift to all, the Whole Body of Christ, just as the failings of one is a failing in the Whole Body of Christ. We need to shift our understanding from total individual-ness, of self alone, to a grasp and internalization of The Doctrine of The Mystical Body.
