Monday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

It is he whom we proclaim,
admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
For this I labor and struggle,
in accord with the exercise of his power working within me.

In his book A Secular Age, Charles Taylor describes the 500-year transformation of our religion from variety toward homogeneity. When the Emperor Constantine decreed that the Roman Empire should be Christian and hundreds of thousands of people entered the church, few of them had any idea what the new religion meant. In fact it meant little or nothing to them because they continued to petition the gods they’d known for centuries.

Some Christians, however, were led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to become hermits, monks and nuns. Taylor refers to them as the elite. They chose to practice the Evangelical Councils especially with the vows of obedience, chastity and poverty.

The Protestant Reformation attempted to change all that, teaching that everyone is called to holiness. Everyone should abandon the old superstitious ways and study the bible daily as the monks and nuns do.  Everyone should tithe; everyone is a missionary. There should be no distinction in the Church of elites and laity.

They found ample evidence for the universal call to holiness in the scriptures, and especially in today’s reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians: admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.

The Reform has wrought many changes in our religion both beneficial and harmful. One of the great losses was the call to celibacy among the vast majority of Protestants. Although some 19^th century utopian societies (e.g., Indiana Shakers and Harmonists) attempted universal celibacy, the experiment collapsed upon itself. They did not have a large, supportive church to provide young vocations to this peculiar way of life.

More importantly, the universal call to holiness recognizes the equality of all human beings. The American experiment began by recognizing the inalienable right of all men to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness among literate English landowners. Since then it has reached beyond their wildest dreams to include every adult citizen. Taylor also finds our incessant talk about rights grounded in that egalitarian call, although the new secular gospel honors the universal call to freedom rather than holiness.

Recognizing the Protestant challenge, the Second Vatican Council reflected on the Universal Call to Holiness with its Document, Lumen Gentium:

Thus it is evident to everyone, that all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity; by this holiness as such a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society. In order that the faithful may reach this perfection, they must use their strength accordingly as they have received it, as a gift from Christ. They must follow in His footsteps and conform themselves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. They must devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their neighbor. In this way, the holiness of the People of God will grow into an abundant harvest of good, as is admirably shown by the life of so many saints in Church history.
41. The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one….

The Catechism of the Catholic Church also addresses it specifically in its reading of the creedal statement, “I believe in the holy catholic church.”  The section about the lay vocation is far too dense for this blog entry but I will point out the Catechism emphasizes “THE LAY FAITHFUL” by placing the section ahead of “THE CONSECRATED LIFE.” There can be no monks, nuns, brothers and sisters without the support of holy, married husband and wives, fathers and mothers.