In the ‘year of the laity’, the lay face of God

Abstract

In view of the Year of the Laity, celebrated in Brazil during this year, this article sets out to offer some insights with the aim of overcoming both clericalism and the radical, asymmetric division between the clergy and the laity in the Church. The point of departure is the evangelicity of laicity, which finds its highest authority in the person of the very incarnate Word, Jesus of Nazareth. Accordingly, I suggest a lay-liberating spirituality, lived out and practiced within an essentially lay Church. By demonstrating that both clericalism and the dichotomy between the laity and the clergy, far from being rooted in the Gospel, are a result of historical developments, I evince the need for a more radical
return (conversion) to the ‘spirit of the Gospel’, which consists in the practice of justice. By way of conclusion I affirm that the more the Church unanimously (the laity and the clergy) shifts the focus of her mission onto the promotion of justice and peace, the closer will she be of the Spirit of Jesus and the more prophetic-liberating will be her testimony.