Current challenges of the lay vocation
Despite this universal vocation, many baptized people have not yet become fully aware of their belonging to the Church. Many consider themselves Catholic, but they do not experience the Church as a home that transforms their life and their environment. This generates situations where Christian values are seen as something “optional” or cultural, instead of being the foundation of their identity.
As a result:
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Professional, political, economic, scientific, artistic, and media life is not always guided by evangelical criteria.
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There exists an incoherence between the professed faith and real commitment in everyday life.
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The laity do not always receive adequate accompaniment from pastors, which makes it difficult to discover and mature their vocation.
Obstacles in lay formation and action
Some challenges come from attitudes within the Church:
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Persistence of a clerical mentality, which limits the initiative of the laity in evangelizing action.
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Preferential dedication of many laypeople to intra-ecclesial tasks, without projecting their faith toward society.
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Deficiencies in integral formation, which prevent an effective response to the current challenges of society.
These factors make necessary a profound rediscovery of the lay vocation. Being Christian is not only fulfilling religious practices: it is to have a vocation, and being a lay person means ordering the whole of social life from within, from the heart of current reality, with the light of the Gospel.