Giuseppe Lazzati, an Italian lay professor of the History of the Church and founder of one of the first Secular Institutes, once wrote: “I read the Gospel, but I don't find any political norms. The only thing I find clearly established is the distinction between faith and politics, the one that says, ‘Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.’”

He spent his life explaining that lay Christians, like the clergy and the religious, are rooted in the gospel, but they are the ones called by God to be engaged in the things of the world, in politics, in business, in public administration, because through that they realize their being disciples of Jesus or their sanctification. Vatican II expressed it in the dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium N.31 on the Church:

“The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs in such a way that they may come into being and then continually grow according to Christ to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer.”

It is understood that the Church should encourage the lay to contribute with their skills and talents to promulgate laws and rules in the secular world according to the values and teaching of the Gospel. This is their big contribution to building up the Kingdom of God.

We cannot forget that this Sunday is World Mission Sunday. What is the meaning of this celebration? The theme proposed this year is: “Hearts on fire, feet of the move.” It is an occasion to share our blessings with people less fortunate than us, but first of all, it is the occasion to remind us that no one in the Church can call himself/herself out from sharing the Good News to others, especially those who do not know Christ and those who are the favorite of God: the poor, the sick, those abandoned and left behind, those who are marginalized and are passing through very painful experiences: wars, conflicts, divisions, etc. Even though we are weak and in pain, we are sent to set off and to share the experience of God’s love.

Happy Mission Sunday!!